Northrop MRF-16

When I saw this thread on Northrop post ATF concepts I was thrilled to see that Northrop applied that cool arrow wing design of theirs to an F-16. I was so excited I decided to do some profile art again. Since it was an interim MRF design I designated it the MRF-16. It looked to me like their drawing, which is just a basic outline, uses a 2D nozzle, similar to that on the ND-102. I chose to make mine more like an F-22's F-119 nozzle because I thought it looked better.

I'm not completely satisfied with it, but it's OK. I still have to model the crew for the in-flight versions and I plan on making other markings for it eventually. I was sort of going for an anime' look with it, something like you would see in Newtype, but still profile art.

I used ANG markings, because I was using it strictly as an air defense interceptor. I also have my next project on tap and will try a different style with it, but it will be some time before I get to it. I hope you guys enjoy them. FYI, Pseudo-Sonic is my "art" name that I copyright my artwork under.

Note: The images are smaller than I expected since I forgot about the image size limitations. I'll split them up in the future so I can post larger versions next time.

Full Size


Full Size

Erm... you can post any size image you like if its your own work

Paul.

I tried, but the forum shrunk them down. I know I can post a link to the larger versions, but I should cut them down for better viewing on the internet anyway. I sized them for printing, in terms of how they're arranged now. By splitting them up into a more horizontal format, they'll be better for viewing online.

I don't think they would be able to remove the vertical tail, because I just have it with a standard 2D thrust vectoring nozzle (pitch only). However, if they fitted it with an axisymmetric 3D nozzle, my guess is they probably could do that to lower the RCS. However, since this was just an interim update of the F-16, if their goal was to lower RCS that much, I'd be willing to bet they would just go with a clean sheet design optimized from the start to be tailless.

Go with the reduced vertical tail originally proposed fo the F-16XL, a fixed fairing similar to the portion of the vertical tail below the rudder and an all-moving vertical tail using a standard F-16 horizontal.