Falcon in the Sunset

Hey Folks!

Thanks for your continued support and readership...and we really appreciate it. The integration stated by JQ is still in the theory phase, and it isn't planned to happen in the near future yet. We will provide a definite update when we do get it going.

Today we're featuring another icon of 20th Century Air Combat, and that is none other than the F-16 Fighting Falcon! A veteran of many fronts, the Falcon continues on to roar in the skies of today.

The development of the F-16 is a pretty interesting one, having competition from aircraft that were to become the F-15 and the F/A 18. Initially the US chose to develop the FX aircraft for air superiority missions after Vietnam (the 'pre-F15), while a group of innovators pushed for a mixed budget airforce: have expensive and low cost fighters at the same time, to fulfill required roles at an economical cost.

Prototype competition then became the name of the day, as the Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program was hatched, which looked into making an airplane complementary to the FX. In the end, FX led to the F-15, while the LWF gave us the F-16, but the navy went for the F/A-18 (which lost to the F-16) instead of the navalized F-16.

It is interesting to know that these aircraft all have a shared history, and eventually became so successful that they are still actively deployed by many countries all over the world. USAF is already replacing them with the F-22 and F-35, while advanced versions are still being made for export to other countries...

Not many fighters can make a claim to longevity as much as the Fighting Falcon!