The US Air Force is rapidly scaling up its plans to automate some of its fleet, and the US Air Force secretary says he's planning to fly in one of the autonomously piloted F-16s this spring.
On Thursday the Venezuelan Air Force reported that one of its F-16 fighters shot down an aircraft declared hostile after it violated national airspace.
Danish Minister of Defense, Troels Lund Poulsen, arrived in Argentina on March 26 to seal the agreement for the purchase of 24 to 28 F-16MLU fighter jets, decommissioned by the Danish Air Force (RDAF), putting an end to the exaggeratedly long search for a supersonic multi-role fighter for the Argentine Air Force (FAA).
- Netherlands to provide Ukraine with €150 million of F-16 ammunition
- Greek F-16C Block 52+ crashes into sea, pilot rescued
- Ohio ANG F-16 experiences 'in-flight emergency' during landing at 180th FW
- Kunsan AB Airmen, allies complete Cobra Gold 24
- First 3 of 16 F-16 Block 70s arrived in Bahrain
- F-16 Block 70 jets set off on historic ferry flight to Bahrain
- Lockheed Martin delivers first two F-16 Block 70 aircraft for Slovakia
F-16 fleet - Apr 18, 2024 | |
Fleet overview:
scrapped: 204
write-off: 620
preserved: 162
stored: 587
instructional: 121
on order: 127
active: 2854
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Changes '23/'24:
Fleet adds: 20
Fleet drop: 59
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See detailed fleet reports |
RSAF accepts first F-16 from the Direct Commercial Sale order.
I fly jets, I am shit hot.
Landed with failed leading edge flap
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USAF #78044
F-16A Block 5
In Lt. Col. Pat "Gums" McAdoo's words:
"I was the first Viper pilot to successfully land the thing with a failed leading edge flap. Was early spring/late winter 1982. Maybe 20 March, tail number 044, as that log entry shows 0.3 hours and a precision approach. Weather was not ll that keen. Have the HUD video in VHS format." "Maintenance troops had failed to insert a 'keeper' bolt that is supposed to keep the flap drive tubes from slipping apart. It's like a cotter key on a bolt. The flap drive motor has a spline gear on it and the drive tube has gear teeth that match up. So the drive tube gradually slipped out from the motor spline gear. When I rotated, the drive tube slid all the way out and the leading edge flap went up until the wing upper surface stopped it. Maybe 50-60 degrees. Another troop had his fail a few months later and the flap went to 90 degrees because he was going a lot faster when the drive tube failed. So I was at 160 knots and holding full left stick. Post-flight data revealed that I had about one pound of control authority for banking left. So I was holding 15-16 pounds of left stick the whole time. " "I stayed at 170-180 knots, as I could still maintain control and wasn't gonna play Chuck Yeager more than I had to. Nevertheless, I was the first troop to fly the thing in that configuration, so everything was new territory. Bunted over to get opposite flap 2 degrees up and locked the flaps( LEF's go up when bunting over, or when weight is on wheels). I now had both LEF's up, and it seemed to help with the roll authority. Additionally, that other flap wasn't gonna be moving all over the place, and this kept things a little more predictable. " "Came around on the ILS and landed in one helluva crab. The drag was so great that I almost landed short when I pulled off the power. As I was coming in a lot hotter than normal, I thought I would land long. heh heh, sucker dropped like a rock and I was able to make a mid-field turn off." Exact date of this mishap is not known, but did happen in 1982. |
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Callsign "Colt"
6,000 Hrs 2008-05-02 |
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5,000 Hrs 2021-09-21 |
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4,000 Hrs 2023-11-21 |
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3,000 Hrs 2023-07-26 |
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2,000 Hrs 2023-09-27 |
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1,000 Hrs 2023-08-24 |
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More F-16 Pilots profiles |
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