F16

About

The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (universally called "Viper" by its pilots) is the result of the U.S. Air Force's Lightweight Fighter program of the early 1970s, which sought to complement the heavy F-15 Eagle with a smaller, lighter, more agile dogfighter optimized for close-in air combat. General Dynamics' YF-16 won the competition over the Northrop YF-17 (which later evolved into the F/A-18 Hornet), and the YF-16 made its first flight on January 20, 1974 — accidentally, when chief test pilot Phil Oestricher had to lift the prototype into the air during a high-speed taxi test to recover from a control-system anomaly.

The F-16 introduced fly-by-wire flight controls to a production fighter for the first time — a digital flight-control system that allowed the airframe to be intentionally aerodynamically unstable in pitch, with the computer holding it in flyable equilibrium. The result was an aircraft with extraordinary agility, the ability to sustain 9g maneuvers, and a 30-degree reclined ejection seat that improved pilot g-tolerance. A single Pratt & Whitney F100 (or General Electric F110) turbofan and a clean blended-wing-body fuselage gave the Fighting Falcon its small radar cross-section and its distinctive bubble-canopy visual signature.

Production reached over 4,600 airframes across all variants, with F-16s serving in 25+ air forces worldwide. The F-16 has been the most-produced fixed-wing military aircraft of the post-Vietnam era.

The unmistakable F-16 silhouette — single intake under a smooth blended fuselage, bubble canopy, single tail — is one of the most-modeled modern fighter subjects in RC EDF scale flying.

In the simulator

A demanding single-engine fighter scale subject with the agile handling of a real F-16. Use it for jet pattern flying with the visual character of one of the most successful Western fighters in history. A natural sibling of the F16 Thunderbird display-team livery variant in this same pack.