ADF to LWF: Evolution of the General Dynamics F-16

Wow, the clean-ups look great! Thanks! I'm a big F-16 fan and have been collecting material on this bird since it was rolled out (I was in high school, a looong time ago). I fell in love with the YF-16 and thought it was the hottest looking plane around. I do have a nice F-16XL Cunningham drawing with the plane in r/w/b markings and a slightly different tail which I'll try to post this weekend.
Mark- I want to thank you for all your posts. I've been lurking around here for awhile and have been amazed by items you have posted. I have been especially pleased with the matieral on the naval version of the F-16, I tried to obtain this stuff from LTV years ago and they never responded (maybe it was a sore spot?).
 
Hi- Wanted to share an intersting model with you. I found this on Ebay with a low Buy It Now price and grabbed it. It appears to be an in-house model of a close to final configuration for the F-16. It is a solid, pretty heavy little model. In the second photo I have it next to a Precise YF-16 for comparison. You can see it is a little smaller than the Precise -16 and is mounted differently. The markings also look like those found on early drawings for the model 401. Besides no wingtip missile rails, the engine exhaust is also a little different different.
 

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RAP said:
It appears to be an in-house model of a close to final configuration for the F-16.

You can see it is a little smaller than the Precise -16 and is mounted differently.
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Very interesting find!! And very observant on your behalf RAP!!
I would be very interesting to see if the combined knowledge of our colleagues can confirm your analogy!
After all, if this is the case, I'm sure the likes of John Boyd, Pierre Sprey and Everest Riccioni would have been happier to have seen s slightly smaller and lighter F-16 to that of the F-16, which in itself grew in size and weight (and complexity) from that of the original YF-16A!!

Regards
Pioneer
 
I had not thought about that. I thought if it was a GD model than perhaps they made it in a different scale. I think a lot of in-house models were made in different scales, i.e. 1/60 vs. 1/72, 1/40 vs. 1/48. I'm not sure why. Maybe someone with more knowledge of these can provide insight, Circle-5? Attached are 2 shots of my F-16 model collection. Its a combo of mfg. models and commerical models. Anyone out there with a unique F-16 model, please post a shot. (Don't know if this is the proper place for this so please move it its not, thanks).
 

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They're *both* absolutely fascinating! The canard delta because its high LE sweep angle and uncropped tips are unmistakably reminiscent of famous predecessors from the era when the company was still known as Convair: sort of a F-106/F-16 missing evolutionary link! Meanwhile, the twin tail design is stunningly close to the Su-27 (and also the single-engine S-54/55/56) - I've always held that in purely technical terms (as opposed to military role) the F-16 resembles the Flanker most out of its Western contemporaries, rather than the F-14 or F-15.
 
Yeah, I immediately thought of the Convair model 200 series when I first saw it. I was wondering if it was an actual design, or a reference design just to use to compare it with their baseline LWF design. Whatever the reasoning, it's a cool looking design.
 
"Alternate ADF study" makes me think this was a deliberate evaluation of the Convair-200-style canard delta layout to make sure it wasn't better than the tailed layout.
 
RAP said:
Here are a couple of drawings of the 401 twin tail design. I apologize for the quality, the drawings were large and folded. I have a couple of other drawings that I'll post a little later.
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For some reason I really like this design. The wing planform reminds me of the space shuttle's delta shape.
 
www.codeonemagazine.com

Aircraft Design Studies | Code One Magazine

Recently released preliminary design drawings from the deepest files in the Lockheed Martin archives are exposed in this exclusive online collection.
www.codeonemagazine.com

Twin-Engine Lightweight Fighter
Configuration 503 was part of the design studies that led to the YF-16. Drawing dated 20 January 1972.
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Uses two F-16 style pitot intakes with, presumably, twin GE J101 engines. Large drawing on CodeOne website.
 

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Do you have another part of this drawing?


index.php
 
what part?


We have some variations in the ADF collection (yet to be posted). Stay tuned.


I also have a collection of photos of desk models from the LFW design studies... somewhere.



--C1
 
Another variation from Feb 1971 - 404F.


Source: CodeOne Facebook page
 

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RAP said:
Hi- Wanted to share an intersting model with you. I found this on Ebay with a low Buy It Now price and grabbed it. It appears to be an in-house model of a close to final configuration for the F-16. It is a solid, pretty heavy little model. In the second photo I have it next to a Precise YF-16 for comparison. You can see it is a little smaller than the Precise -16 and is mounted differently. The markings also look like those found on early drawings for the model 401. Besides no wingtip missile rails, the engine exhaust is also a little different different.
Click to expand...


Tailplane trailing edge is straight as well, not swept forward and the LERX is straight edged.


If its not just inaccurate, it seems closest to Model 401F-10A
 
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When I first saw that delta canard F-16 I thought it was related to the GD Model 200 but when I looked at it closer I realized it was more F-16 that 200 and even looks kinda like the Lavi. I think I've read somewhere here in SPF that an early Lavi design was a modified F-16, does this delta canard have anything to do with Lavi?
 
From CodeOneMagazine Facebook site.
 

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CodeOneMagazine - YF-16 Evolution B) ;D


The F-16, as finally completed in prototype form, was a synthesis of advanced state-of-the-art technologies that had been explored for years, but until the advent of the new General Dynamics airplane, had never been blended together in a single airframe.

These charts are from Harry Hillaker's F-16 presentation he often gave after his retirement.
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I won't download all picture charts and attach them to this topic. It would just blow up this topic.
Maybe a Mod could attach all picture charts in one compressed file (.zip / .rar) to this topic.
 

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30MB PDF (61 pages) HERE.


Don't forget to visit CodeOne website


www.codeonemagazine.com

<title>YF-16 Evolution | Code One Magazine</title>

The F-16, as finally completed in prototype form, was a synthesis of advanced state-of-the-art technologies that had been explored for years, but until the advent of the new General Dynamics airplane, had never been blended together in a single airframe.
www.codeonemagazine.com


And say thanks in comments on the site or via Facebook etc.
 
And now some discussions provoked by this document. Interesting pics of early concepts:
 

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785, 772, 503 designs were alternate "Red Team" studies to test against the 401 design.


785: same weight, lower performance.


772: less subsonic performance, equal supersonic performance, heavier, more complex.


503: same performance but heavier
 

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PaulMM, unfortunately I can't download your pdf-file. It stops at 6.2/ 29.5 MB. :(

Edit: Just downloaded it with my tablet. :)
 
Great find, thank you!
 
Is it just me or does the 772 design look a bit like the J-10…or is that the J-10 looks a bit like the 772? ;)
 
So that twin engine single seat swing wing we've seen over at APR for a long time is just a swing wing version of the ADF. Very cool.
 
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