F-16 around the world

Rappel du premier message :

l'AS a des AIM-120C

Le pere du F-16 est decedé

son parcours avec la fameuse "Fighter Mafia" et comment est venue l´idee du F-16

Citation :

F-16's developer, Harry J. Hillaker, dies at 89
February 10, 2009 (by Bob Cox) - It was a chance meeting in a bar with a loudmouthed Air Force fighter pilot that set Harry J. Hillaker on a path that led to the design of the F-16 fighter jet, arguably the best military airplane of the jet age.



Mr. Hillaker, an aeronautical engineer at General Dynamics for 44 years and known to many as the "Father of the F-16," died Sunday at his home in Fort Worth. He was 89.

As a senior engineer at General Dynamics' Fort Worth aircraft plant in the 1960s, Mr. Hillaker led a design team that worked, secretively at first, with a small group of Pentagon insurgents to turn a collection of ideas, theories and concepts into what would become the F-16.

Their success is evident in that four decades later, the plant, now part of Lockheed Martin, is still producing F-16s. More than 4,400 have been built and delivered worldwide. At the peak of production in the 1980s, close to 25,000 people were working on the program.

"Harry's legacy is an incredible aircraft that has become the mainstay of 25 nations and continues to be in demand today after 30 years of production," said Ralph Heath, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. "The early F-16 versions paved the way for tens of thousands of jobs, over $100 billion in sales and customer relationships that are the cornerstone for Lockheed Martin's transition to the future with our new aircraft programs."

Any success has numerous fathers, and the F-16 is no different. But people close to the F-16 program say Mr. Hillaker's engineering expertise, open-mindedness and loyalty to a concept originally known simply as the "lightweight fighter" were critical.

"Without Harry, I don't think anything close to the F-16 would have come to fruition," said Jay Miller, an Arlington aviation historian.

Mr. Hillaker, born in Flint, Mich., and educated at the University of Michigan, went to work for Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego in 1941. A year later, he was sent to the company's Fort Worth plant. With Consolidated, which became General Dynamics, Mr. Hillaker worked on most of the company's major projects, including the B-36, B-58 and F-111 bombers built in Fort Worth.

One night in 1962 at the Eglin Air Force Base officers club, Mr. Hillaker was introduced to Maj. John Boyd, an abrasive and cocky but highly intelligent fighter pilot. Informed that Mr. Hillaker had worked on the F-111, then under development, Boyd launched into an expletive-laden tirade about what a poorly designed, underperforming aircraft it was fated to be.

According to numerous reports of that meeting, Mr. Hillaker quickly realized that Boyd knew far more about airplane design and performance than most pilots and invited him to sit. Soon, the two men were exchanging ideas and formulas on cocktail napkins.

In the years that followed, Boyd, assigned to the Pentagon, argued the cause for a lightweight, highly maneuverable and affordable fighter plane, the polar opposite of the F-111. He gained a few adherents, notably fellow fighter pilot Col. Everest Riccioni and a civilian Pentagon official named Pierre Sprey.

The Fighter Mafia, as the three became known, concocted a scheme to covertly begin work on just such a plane. Covert, because top Air Force brass were largely opposed to the concept and were spending billions to develop the new F-15 jet.

In 1969, Riccioni wrote a vaguely titled budget request and received $149,000 for performance and design studies. General Dynamics and Northrop were selected to work on competing design concepts.

Mr. Hillaker, who since getting to know Boyd had quietly guided some internal lightweight fighter design work, was General Dynamics' point man for the program. On numerous occasions over the next two years, he secretly flew to Washington and met with Boyd, Sprey and a few others to hash out theories and share data and design concepts.

"We used to stay up all night arguing about performance and trade-offs," Sprey said. "He gave us a lot of insights both into design and General Dynamics internal politics. He was committed to doing it right."

Mr. Hillaker, Sprey said, meshed well with the mercurial Boyd and "was very open-minded. Among designers in the aircraft business, that was very rare."

The lightweight fighter incorporated a number of advanced technologies, in particular fly-by-wire controls, all aimed at making it the most agile and lethal aircraft and capable of winning one-on-one dogfights against the best Soviet-bloc aircraft of the day.

Top civilian Pentagon officials, at the urging of Boyd and Sprey, eventually gave their blessing to the program, and contracts were let for each team to design and build prototypes. A fly-off, under stringent conditions demanded by the Fighter Mafia, was held in 1974.

General Dynamics' YF-16 was a clear-cut winner over Northrop's YF-17. Sprey says Mr. Hillaker and his team were due a large share of the credit.

"I can practically run down the things that wouldn't have been in the airplane if it wasn't for Harry," Sprey said.

Mr. Hillaker went to hold several positions with General Dynamics and to further develop the F-16. He retired in 1985 but remained active with numerous aerospace organizations and advisory groups.

http://www.f-16.net/news_article3269.html


Adieu Harry

A dieu et merci de son invention.

Dutch F-16 Fighter Planes: Ready For Scrapheap or Not?

http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/airforce/Dutch_F-16_Fighter_Planes_Ready_For_Scrapheap_or_Not100017091.php

on peut imaginer un sénariot comme dans les année 80
ou l'on a acquie des F-5 neuf puis des F-5 agressor d'occaze
et donc a la suite de l'acquisition de F-16 neuf on puissent acquérir des F-16 N agressor

non les plus nouveaux N sont des block30,autre moteur autre hardware..

il me semble bien que les agressors ne valaient pas les block 52 !

Citation :

Block 30/32 was the first block of F-16s affected by the Alternative Fighter Engine project under which aircraft were fitted with the traditional Pratt & Whitney engines or, for the first time, the General Electric F110-GE-100. From this point on, blocks ending in "0" (e.g., Block 30) are powered by GE, and blocks ending in "2" (e.g., Block 32) are fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines. The first Block 30 F-16 entered service in 1987. Major differences include the carriage of the AGM-45 Shrike, AGM-88 HARM, and the AIM-120 missiles. From Block 30D, aircraft were fitted with larger engine air intakes (called a Modular Common Inlet Duct) for the increased-thrust GE engine. A total of 733 Block 30/32 aircraft were produced and delivered to six countries.

Citation :

# F-16C/D Block 30 et 32 : capacité d'utiliser des missiles AGM-45 Shrike et AGM-88 HARM. Sa baie moteur (utilisée sur les versions suivantes) permet de monter soit le General Electric F110-GE-100 (versions dont le chiffre des unités est 0) soit le Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 (versions dont le chiffre des unités est 2).
# F-16N (N pour Navy, désignation officielle mais non-réglementaire, l'appareil aurait dû s'appeler F-16E ou F-16G) : version monoplace du Block 30 destinée à l'US Navy pour l'entraînement au combat

Non les agressors n'en sont pas doté seul l'USAF ou l'ANG en sont doté du blk-50/52.

Les appareils agressor sont des blk15 a 30/32..

Meme les blk-40/42 j'ai des doutes.

Merci pour les images j'aime bien leur cammo.

USAF block52 F-16

4 missiles et 8 bombes, veulent dire quoi?

des kills!(trophés)
ce sont 4 HARM,7 CBU et 1 Mav
durant la campagne du kosovo

bonjour,

Est il possible pour les les blk 50 52 de recevoir un AESA ?

Merci

oui prochainement sur les marchés F-16,y´a 2 produits de Raytheon et N.Grumman,qui sont en tests finals pour qualification,2009 tout sera pret

est ce que sa sera possible pour le maroc d'aquérir l'AESA pour ses F-16 ?

Les F-16 AESA seront ils plus performant que les SU 30 MKA ?

non le maroc ne peut avoir que le premier APG-66

il va croir que c'est vrai (apg 66)

excusé moi de ne pas etre aussi bien renseigné que vous ...

Si je suis ici c aussi pour apprendre

avec plaisir, tu es le bienvenu.
sache qu'un radar AESA n'est pas une arme stratégique, donc cette question du genre ''est ce que le maroc peut l'acquérir'' c'est un peu dénigrer l'armée marocaine. c'est juste une question de temps car on vient tout juste de commencer un vaste chantier de remise à niveau de l'armée

pas de quoi s´excuser,je croyais seulement que les gens lisent aussi ce qu´on ecrivaient y´a pas aussi longtemps,on parlait de ca y´a 2/3 mois

bansheequader a écrit:

est ce que sa sera possible pour le maroc d'aquérir l'AESA pour ses F-16 ?

Les F-16 AESA seront ils plus performant que les SU 30 MKA ?

bref,

-l´AESA est accessible pour le maroc aussi,dernierement l´US a donné son OK pour l´export d´AESA.

-le F-16 n´a rien a envier au MKI/A avec ou sans AESA,le APG-68-9 n´etant pas un radar faible,et voyant bien loin,avec des missiles BVR,et un Sniper qui voit tres loin aussi,des L16 et JHMCS

merci à tout les deux

le 52+ a de la gueule, belles photos interceptor.

Raptor a écrit:

le 52+ a de la gueule, belles photos interceptor.

Tu l'as dis Raptor, le block 52+ a design terrible !