Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

A while ago I read somewhere that all of the newer F-16's have larger air intakes. I just wanted to confirm if this is also the case with the block 52+ F-16's.

Also, would all Polish f-16Cs have the same size air intakes? I was having a look at some of the pictures of their new block 52+ fleet, and noticed that some had different sized ones. Not only that, but each jet looks slightly different to me for some reason. Do they all have the same intakes and airframes or is it just me?

F-16.net Sponsor

The block 52 has the "small mouth" or original inlet. Block 52's are powered by P&W F100 engines that do not need the "big mouth" inlet. All Polish F-16's have the "small mouth" inlet because they are PW powered, if they were powered by the GE engine they would be Block 50's not 52's.
And yes they all have the same airframes. All your single seater F-16C's are the same and all your dual seater F-16D's are the same too.

Thanks alot

So this F-16 would have one of the bigger GE air intakes, right?

I thought that block 52's would be more advanced than block 50's. Does anyone know exactly how the two variants differ?

After the block 25, all USAF blocks that end with "0" (30,40,50) are GE powered and all those with "2" (32,42,52) are PW powered. The 42 was a pig, but the 32 and 52 are virtually identical performance-wise with their GE counterpart. Other than the differences associated with the engine, the aircraft are identical (52=50, etc...)

xenon333 wrote:

I thought that block 52's would be more advanced than block 50's. Does anyone know exactly how the two variants differ?

Search under versions or the forum, it has been discussed here over and over and over.

Roscoe wrote:

After the block 25, all USAF blocks that end with "0" (30,40,50) are GE powered and all those with "2" (32,42,52) are PW powered. The 42 was a pig, but the 32 and 52 are virtually identical performance-wise with their GE counterpart. Other than the differences associated with the engine, the aircraft are identical (52=50, etc...)

Looking at the photo of the Omani block 50, the air intake doesn't really look like it's been enlarged. I guess the difference is too small to be noticed.

Xenon,

Check this out - there are some differences!!

Source - Jake Melampy´s book "The Modern Viper Guide".

Greetings,

Henrik.

That's just what I was looking for. Thanks!

Just to clarify, the bottom one is the "big mouth" intake, right?

xenon333 wrote:

Just to clarify, the bottom one is the "big mouth" intake, right?

Yes I forgot to say. You are rignt.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

LOL yep. Jake Melampy needs a pat on the back. Every time the "big mouth vs. small mouth" topic comes up, the picture from that book makes it crystal clear. It is a great book BTW, I ordered mine after seeing it discussed here.

By the way, have the shapes of both intakes remained exactly the same throughout the first few blocks all the way to the 52nd? They haven't gone through any minor or major changes, have they?

No changes. All Pratts are small-mouths. All GEs after 86-0261 are big mouths.

Yes, but have the inlets themselves changed over time? For example, if I took a small mouth from a blk 15 and compared it to a small mouth from blk 52, would their shapes match up perfectly?

Yes, perfectly. Cool

Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

Size of the air intakes