The F-16 Fighting Falcon: America’s ULTIMATE Multirole Fighter

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[Hathur]

It should be noted regarding every test combat of F16 vs F35 where the F16 won, it was only in tests where the F35 was forbidden from using it's Distributed Aperture System, which allows it to target and fire missiles at targets directly behind it, or anywhere else (it does NOT need to face it's target to fire a missile at it, making it's lack of maneuverability irrelevant). The F35 was never defeated by F16s when it was allowed to use the Distributed Aperture System. It was intentionally handicapped in those mock dogfights and not reprepresentative of how the aircraft would actually kill air targets in a real fight.

[Brody]

One side note about the comment regarding the dogfight between the F16 and F35. My understanding is that this was prior to the F35 being cleared to 9Gs and wasnt able to use its full capabiliy. Those restrictions have since been lifted but that story is often used to say the F35 cant turn. Pilots ive heard have said exactly the opposite

[OdyTypeR]

As a former lawn-dart avionics technician, I can confirm. The F-16 is, without-a-doubt, one of the planes of all time.

[Rob_FF]

Fighter Mafia....really? Are we going to continue to credit people who were NOT involved in this project?

[RetinaBurner]

To top it off, she's also a top tier work of engineering art.

[thomasvercauteren]

Thank you for this great look at this amazing aircraft. I recently had the honor to design a special tail for one of our Belgian Air Force F-16's. FA-95 reached it structural design limit of 8000hours, making it the first European Viper to reach this milestone thanks to the amazing work of the maintenance crews, keeping this plane flying since the 80's.
I spoke to the pilot after and he said 'She flies just like a brand new viper'. A true testament to this amazing jet.

[Estuardomendez]

the f35 in the early trials against the f16 was the 002 (literaly the second f35 ever produced) version it was still handicapped in g loading by computer limited controls, the f35 still scored a kill even though it was heavily limited. the limits were removed as the structure was analyzed under load in tests like the one quoted. nowadays f35 pilots who flew the f16 have said the f35 is more agile specialy when it comes to roll at high angles of attack

[GrandmaKeith]

Its pilots and crews often use the name "Viper" instead, because of a perceived resemblance to a viper snake as well as to the fictional Colonial Viper starfighter from the television program Battlestar Galactica, which aired at the time the F-16 entered service.

[ktvindicare]

F16 has always been my favorite ever since I was a kid. Beautiful looking aircraft.

[JohnAlbrecht-fbgr]

I was on a deployment in Korea in early 1990 when one of these things came ripping down the valley that we were advancing through. He was at maybe 300 ft. Next thing we heard was " tanks, halt in place. Your dead." That's one seriously bad ass plane. And way effective

[grene]

I was aircraft refueler at Edwards AFB in 1974. I fueled all the YF16's in test status at that time. It was recognized as an amazing aircraft by all us at that time.

[abarratt]

One of the big things the F16 has in its favour is its availability. With so much operational use over such a long time, they've had all the reliability issues they ever had worked out, and with so many in service the logistics chain for spares is good.

If an air force buys 50 F16s, it can keep most of those available. If it buys something else, it'd need to buy many more and a lot of spares up front to maintain the same level of availability.

So the F16's military effectiveness is very good. You can have your planes *and* fly them.

[wayneyadams]

Coming from a Navy family, my heart lies with the F-18, but the F-16 is a pretty good airplane, too. LOL

[nicholaspayne]

One thing you can’t deny. That f-16 is one sexy mechanical contrivance.

[spd]

"The woods are dark and deep and I have many promises to keep. Many miles to go, before I sleep." That should be the mission statement for all US made aircraft. C130, B 52, F 16, F 15, F 18, C 5, and the B 1B. Yeah, still flying.

[fredbyoutubing]

I thought the event with F-35s was testing it's capabilities without stealth or advanced targeting systems? The F-35 can shoot targets without pointing its nose and this feature wasn't used in the test. If an f-35 has to dogfight, things have gone horribly wrong for it.

[ianmorris]

Dollar for dollar, the best multi-role righter ever and likely will be for years to come, and a gem of a design aesthetically

[InterstellarTaco]

Nobody is saying its the best fighter. What the article is saying is its the ultimate MULTIROLE fighter. The combination of the relatively very low price, reliability, kinematics and arguably the best cockpit layout make this thing top notch.

Edit- No shit the F35 is better in many ways, hence why I said "relatively very low price". Not every country is America, and not every country can afford the F35.

[kdrapertrucker]

The F-14 was not underwelming, it was saddled with crappy bomber engines, and it was too big to safely operate from the smaller conventional powered carriers the zu.S. Navy was still operating at the time. The hornet was to replace A-7 and F-4 aircraft. The A-7 on all carriers and the F-4 on smaller carriers. The F-14 outperformed the F-15 in speed and could attack from far outside the F-15's sensor range.

[clayrush]

I was born at Carswell AFB back in 71 my father was a full bird Col 33 yrs USAF & I live on Plover Circle off Cahoba Dr in Ft Worth. If I haven't seen every single F-16 (including the F-16XL prototypes) I've heard them fly over. Since I was a kid, whatever the military has flown I've seen it. Even today you don't have a clue what it's like fishing from a boat at the end of the runway having an F-35 (name your variant) flying so low the jet blast pushes your boat several feet. Life is good in Ft Worth