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

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Configuration 772 Alternate ADF based on Convair San Diego canard delta work

Right / front to rear / left : Configuration 201C was perhaps smaller, YJ101 powered?. Confiiguration 401F-16 was almost the final YF-17. Configuration 401F-5 lost the rear chines for the tailplanes, then we see the rear of the 401A - the initial 401 versions were shorter and kind of dumpy.

This is Configuration 785, part of the 780 series of baseline conventional designs, and then what looks like the actual final YF-16 layout from the LERX shape.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Don't forget to check out this related topic - https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...aircraft-study-–-avenging-falcons-avffx.18608 for the original "Final Technical Report on a Study to Validate the Integration of Advanced Energy Maneuverability Theory with Tradeoff Analysis".

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

So, what has become clear is these are all Configuration numbers, not Model numbers.

Also the designs go in the sequence:

AVVFX - ADF - LWF

Known configurations I have drawings or model photos of are:

• 200 Series
  • 201C
  • 205C
• 400 Series
  • 401A
  • 401B (AVVX, ADF)
  • 401C (ADF)
  • 401F
    • 401F-0
    • 401F-2
    • 401F-3
    • 401F-4
    • 401F-5
      • 401F-5A
    • 401F-10
      • 401F-10A
    • 401F-16
      • 401F-16E
  • 401FS
  • 401FS-1
  • 403 (AFVVX)
  • 404 (this may actually be an FX Configuration 404)
• 500 Series
  • 501 (AFVVX)
  • 503 (LWF)
• 770 series
  • 770 (Alternate ADF)
  • 772 (Alternate ADF)
• 780 series
  • 780 (Alternate ADF)
  • 785 (Alternate ADF)
  • 786

 

[raptor82]

Two more photos of Config.772 ：

https://twitter.com/x/status/1804150882411442259

View: https://x.com/historiansim/status/1804150882411442259?s=46&t=5THFve96Abhx7VANdlTzrg

 

[BlackBat242]

Updated shrunk canard-F-106.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

One of the engineers who created this configuration (Ken Hinman) was on the F-106 team, so... yes

 

[Pioneer]

I also see a lot of Model 200 in the design.

Regards
Pioneer

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

It's prececessor, "Alternate ADF" Configuration 770, is essentially the same as "Model 200".

Convair San Diego really liked their canard deltas.

 

[NUSNA_Moebius]

Config 501A is most of the way there to the AIDC Ching-Kuo. Pretty uncanny but not surprising given GD was contracted to assist AIDC.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The inital twin tailed 401F design showed severe problems with directional stability at moderate to high AOA. It turned out that forebody flow separations and their resulting vortices were interacting with the vertical tails. Where the blunt forebody design had attempted to delay vortex formation, NASA Langley aerodynamicists suggested instead to try sharpening the strake leading edge to increase vortex strength, to dominate and stabilise the flow at high AOA. Over a three month period delta strakes were tested on 785 and its twin tailed 786 variant, while small canards, ogive and gothic strakes (and combinations thereof) were all tested out on the F401F series.The stability problems were basically resolved by the end of this period, though the detail strake design continued to be refined.

The 401F configuration went through many iterations. F-0, F-1, F-2, F-3, and F-4 were all basically twin tailed and tested different strakes, wing shapes and minor refinements.

I am really liking the lines of the 401F-4...

Slightly better version of the 786 pic. Completely wrongly labelled as Model 404, and contrasted to Model 205C supposedly as the actual F-16 design, which is wrong (but marks the second appearance of "205C" as a designation).

Source:

Robert C Stern, Warbirds Illustrated 017 America's Fighters of the 1980s, Arms & Armour Press.

And this one.