Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

Last edited by tmofarrvl on Nov 23, 2008 - 05:51 PM; edited 1 time in total

I came across these images on the web. Supposedly it's an F-16 mockup at Hefei, China.
http://bbsimages.military.china.com/101 ... 901695.jpg
http://bbsimages.military.china.com/101 ... 081154.jpg
http://bbsimages.military.china.com/101 ... 132657.jpg
http://bbsimages.military.china.com/101 ... 252975.jpg

The images just don't add up in my own mind, however. There are some features of the aiplane that look authentic, and some that are clearly wrong - almost as if this was a salvaged airframe that was reassembled from a combination of F-16 components and substituted hardware. The fuel tanks, for example, appear to be from an East Bloc design, not USAF. Even the radar radome is clearly non-standard. I've see some really nice mockups in my time. If they just wanted a model for visual reference they could have done a lot better than this.

Has anyone else heard anything along these lines? I was curious if something on this might have been published before.

Attached below is a link to the original website where I stumbled across the photos, in case anyone wants to read the discussion.
http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/showthread.php?t=4245

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Its China. They are renown for their copying and reproduction of equipment. You are right about the quality, but overall, it is actually a very good mockup and would fool 95% of the folks that see it.

Just too add something else, from the front view, the canopy doesn't look just right. On other F-16s it seems more "bubble-y" as in it starts to curve back inward. Does that make sense? It'd be easier if I posted pictures I guess...

Nothing about this F-16 is authentic. The "HUD" and ejection seat are clearly wrong...side mount air data probe is wrong...panel lines on the nose are wrong...lightning diverters on the nose radome are wrong...no nosewheel steering feedback pot on the nose gear...static sense ports wrong...gun port wrong...tanks, pylons, wrong...I could go on and on, but I know that the readers of this forum will agree and probably add some of their own input.

It was rumored many years ago that two RoCAF pilots took a two-seater to China (they are supposedly very well off now) and that Taiwan covered it up as a crash with no recovery of the aircraft or crew. I do not believe this, especially after seeing this mockup. They should have been able to do better if they had the real thing to copy.

The whole thing looks like the Chinese concept of "good enough" taken to the extreme. I am guessing by the positioning of jacks and some kind of jacking cradle or support at FS 189 just behind the nose wheel well that it can't even support itself.

Best Regards,

The links don't seem to work anymore. Can anyone upload them as attachements?

the links didnt work yesterday - go to the site and see it there

The whole thing is way off - the air intake looks so wrong also.

Definitly not any model of F100 engine.

Last edited by Gamera on Nov 23, 2008 - 05:58 PM; edited 1 time in total

Zooming in the photo
http://bbsimages.military.china.com/101 ... 901695.jpg
at
http://r.club.china.com/jsp/pub/viewpic ... 901695.jpg
in the red banner, from left to right, the first ten letters are:
合肥绿森园林有限公司
He Fei Lu Sen Yuan Lin You Xian Gong Si

Literally: "He Fei Green Forest garden forest limited company".
He Fei is in An Hui Province.
Lu Sen is the company name.
Yuan Lin means "gardening".

These are followed by a left bracket, then six blurry letters, then a right bracket.
I tried Baidu, Google, and Yahoo!, but can't immediately find its snail-mail address or Website yet, except it's mentioned in a bulletin dated 2008.11.14 in the "An Hui forest industry news network"
http://www.ahly.gov.cn/main/model/newin ... nfoId=6589
as one of the companies in the "3. Awards of Merit (10 companies)" category.

IMO, it's probably an almost 1:1 mock-up.

I've updated the original links - hopefully they'll work now. I've also attached copies of the images for reference.

I still can't understand why they would go to the trouble of making some elements authentic - stenciling in the English-language rescue and warning labels and USAF ensignia for example - and then leave some of the other elements so obviously wrong.

Was this a mockup assembled by committee? It just doesn't add up.

http://bbs.cjdby.net/viewthread.php?tid ... amp;page=1
http://bbs.hefei.cc/viewthread.php?tid= ... amp;page=1

Two random threads, written in Chinese by Netters in Commie China, about this F-16 model.

I have a feeling they recovered a crashed F-16, and used the few parts they had to fabricate a model. Some of the pictures show the AAR door as just a panel. Interesting though. Cool toy to have in your backyard.

Very cheap and knock off. Looks like a fake Martin-Baker seat, the canopy looks wrong in general, intake doesnt look anything like a NSI or MCID(where is the inlet strut?) although the motor looks like it wants to be a F110 by the augmenter. The pitot static ports on the side of the nose are wrong. The MLG kinda look blk 40ish but the NLG strut looks too wide and that landing/taxilight is just all wrong. I guess they said forget a fusealge flood lamp and just put a static discharger there, all of which are huge BTW. Ive seen trave pods bigger than those wing tanks. Tons of antennas missing. Where are the wingtip and tail nav lights. I could go on all day, its almost fun. Kinda wish I was up close to it.

and also if it was real why does it need the stands to support the weight. and the speed brakes look funny too

Maybe this is a float in the Chinese Rose Bowl parade? During the parade they'll have some knockout Chinese goddess waving from the cockpit while wearing a bikini...

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 15, 2006 - 12:28 AM Posts: 756

I’m probably wrong: but this is my wild brainstorming type of guess.

I’m no expert. I think it’s a pretty good fake. I think it may be a composite, some components being real and others being mockups. The fuselage under the cockpit looks fairly convincing, however there are other areas such as the nose and much of the wing and fuselage area and tail that looks like it could be made out of cut sanded and painted Styrofoam block.

I think what some are calling a scratch by the cockpit may be actually remnants of tape; possibly from a tarp that was spread over the cockpit area to prevent water from leaking in. On the other side it looks like there might be remnants of the tarp or plastic. The pattern seems consistent with gray tape being used to spread a tarp over the cockpit.

Perhaps this is from a company that fabricates full-size decoys made out of Styrofoam; and perhaps as a gag they thought they would do a mock up of an F-16 with some spliced in real F-16 components.

This reminds me of that Soviet sub that was spotted in the construction yard that worried the US intelligence so much; until a strong wind came along and deflated, bent and moved the submarine. It turned out it was just a balloon decoy.

Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

Weird Photos - F-16 in China?