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I am really curiious about this one Smile

. I know that Su 27 F 18 Viggen and Raptor can do it .

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Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1152

Nope. F-16's flight control system limits the AoA to 25°. Or is it 29°? Either way, no massive pitch movements.

Better question:

Does an F-16 NEED to be able to do a cobra?

Answer: Nope.

Cheers

Some related threads:

<a href="f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-9923.html">Pugachev's Cobra</a>
<a href="f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-1151.html">SU-35 Cobra maneuver useful in combat - pilot's opinion?</a>
<a href="f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-6274.html">Let's talk... Dozer's F-22 Cobra movea>

Has the cobra maneuver been proven useful in actual combat? They did test high angle of attack trust vectoring (IIRC it was called HATV) on a VISTA aircraft and I have seen this particular F-16 doing the maneuver, but would it be necessary to do it during dogfight?

Elite 1K Joined: May 10, 2005 Posts: 1124 Status: Offline

In a "dogfight"? You'd get to do it....once.

It might seem somewhat useful in a turning fight, but never seen it performed on the horizontal, seen it always done vertical.

I don't think the F-16 could do the cobra even with the limiter off but, it is not because America lacks the technology. Back in the 12/16/1974 issue of AW&ST (page 40-46) an article entitled, "INFLIGHT FUELING HELPS SPEED YF-17 TEST SERIES", by Donald E. Fink. In it H. E. Chouteau, Northrop's chief test pilot stated, "We got up to 35 deg. at maximum power, and at that particular angle we did longitudinal pulses, lateral pulses and rudder pulses to see the reaction of the aircraft," he said. "Then we started flying to increased angles—35 deg., 40 deg., 60 deg.,—and then we did vertical recoveries from 90 deg. to determine what the best recovery procedures would be."
American technologist are more than capable "IF", they felt such a maneuver served some purpose other than air shows.

Adrian

Newbie Joined: Mar 24, 2008 Posts: 3 Status: Offline

I had to reply to the recent thread about the Cobra manueuver...I can verify the Viper can do a "Cobra", I was in the back seat. It was performed slightly different than the Pugechev's, I am sure due to some of the statements made by other members, bottom line, instead of the traditional verticle pullup with forward recovery to level flight that looks so dramatic from the ground, the manuever was terminated after recovering from the verticle with a yawing turn (slightly less than verticle plane-downward). The very experienced pilot displaying the manuever told me he had effectively used the modified maneuver in the past and the "modified" manuever allowed him to put the other guy where he wanted and still have energy.

That's not the "Cobra", that's the "Henway".

Time to Ed McMahon it...

"What's a Henway?"

Laughing

roughly 8 - 12 pounds?

*rimshot*

Ho! Laughing

By the way, that's an economy sized hen! Shocked

Enthusiast Joined: Dec 31, 2007 Posts: 58 Status: Offline

Thank You, folks! Maddog will be here all week, two shows a day. Tip your waitress and don't order the corned beef.

Elite 2K Joined: Jan 14, 2004 Posts: 2823 Status: Offline

I always liked the one from "Spies Like Us".

"What was that?"

"It was a dickfer."

"What's a dickfer?"

"To pee with."

I think the Cobra maneuver's usefulness in a dogfight was aptly described by a fighter pilot one time.

"Give me kinetic energy any day and I'll take his potential energy and shove it up his @$$!"

vegasdave901 wrote:

Thank You, folks! Maddog will be here all week, two shows a day. Tip your waitress and don't order the corned beef.

Try the Veal. Very Happy

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Can an F-16 do a Pugachev's Cobra ?