Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

Forum Veteran Joined: Nov 07, 2003 - 09:12 PM Posts: 901

Habu, looking at the the picture from DACO, it looks like the bulb holder or some O ring is giving the redish look. Furthermore, it is on the starboard side.

cheers, Smile

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We are getting so much trivia here I am expecting a post on the high-G beverage cup holder. Cool

Pumpkin wrote:

Habu, looking at the the picture from DACO, it looks like the bulb holder or some O ring is giving the redish look. Furthermore, it is on the starboard side.

cheers, Smile

But the light does glow red, to be sure....if equipped as such. And it's on both starboard and port sides.

elp, I think the HGBCH is only in the back pit of the USAF family models... (no export birds) Razz

That's right ...we can't trust our friends to drink coffee at high G's Cool

PS We also called them "Pan Am" lights

Habu wrote:

I know which lights you speak of, but in every pic I've seen save the one above, these lights are red nav lights, and sit flush with the top of the fuselage. The DACO book shows this to great effect. Even inflight pics I've taken myself show thse as red nav lights. Nowhere else have I see these described as flood lights.

Could you post one of those pics you speak of. I have never seen a viper with a red logo light.

Dude, I started this thread months ago, I don't even know where to start looking. So it might be a while.

Oh, but I do remember taking a pic of the T-Birds last year, and they most certainly have the red lights.

Habu wrote:

Oh, but I do remember taking a pic of the T-Birds last year, and they most certainly have the red lights.

Could you post that? I looked on the net and I don't see a after dusk picture of the T-Birds to show they have anything other than white.

Hard to see in the pic, but if you look closely, you can see a pinkish hue coming from the lights.

I did find this link. From the angle and lighting it looks like the lens is clear, so unless the bulb is treated to be a special color the lights are white.

The issue was solved long ago, and we came to conclusion it depends on the aircraft. It seems most are white now, but there are some reds out there still and were red at one time. All depends on the a/c.

For US F-16s they will all be modified to be green in compliance with the CCIP program. So that all cockpits have NVIS. As far as the T-Birds having red white or green, as far as I know they are white, unless T-Birds have gone through CCIP upgrade. In regards to other nations, I don't know the regulations for aircraft lighting, so I don't know if they could or do have red logo lights, though if someone came accross a picture of one that did have them I would love to see it.

Habu wrote:

Yeah, I think tis pretty much settles it. Looks like they can either be red or white, just dpends on wht they're set up for. I wasn't saying anyone was wrong...I know they've been there since day one, I just wanted to know how they looked, and if and why they were white instead of red, etc... It seems as though the finish of the light is flush no matter what color is used.
So Don, just like you said, putting a flush clear cover over it will suffice.
And just to cap it off....the pics from the DACO book....

Clarification for you here. The red/pink tint you see in the pic posted here is the chartarisic of the glass. The lens is clear but at an angle the lens can appear to have a reddish rainbow look. Can appear to be blue green or red. However when the light is turned on it is either white or green.

Sorry, but I don't believe that...completely. You know as well as I do there's no absolutes here. It's aircraft dependent. I appreciate your interest, and you're not wrong about them making all the lights the same colornow, on most operational F-16s. I know what I saw, the T-Bird light did in fact light up red. Plus there are 24 other countries that fly the F-16, and not all of them are NVIS capable, and thus have no need to change their lights.

Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

The Viper has airline style logo lights now? What the?