F-16 FSW

[elmayerle]

Hey !!! Very nice .... reminds me on a very old project from AVPRO for the "Future carrier borne aircraft" (FCBA) programe!

Deino 

Hmmm, F-16XL base with F-22/23 parts?

       for sure!

More YF-23 I'd reckon; though the outboard wing panels would need some scratchbuilding to do right.

[Tophe]

the Russian version in Cyrillic alphabet:

Uh , maybe I should have explained, if I am the only one here speaking Russian... Below are the words of a cow-boy pilot, shouting to his swept-wing pegasus: "Ee-Ya! FSW!"  

[Deino]

Here's another - earlier - concept proposed for the F-16FSW !

Deino    

[noxioux]

Well, production has been delayed, but hopefully for not more than a couple of days.  I had to remove the wings I was building using the old wings and some other (uspecified, top secret, stupid) materials.  I am replacing the old wings with a set that is completely scratchbuilt, which really is much, much easier.

The problem with using the old wings was that once I had them on, and braced up, the sheer amount of sanding and putty was just getting out of hand.  So I gave up on the old wings.  

I removed the old wings, cut a slot in the fuselage for a very high-tech internal wing support (popsicle stick), which will slot into the new scratchbuilt wings.  The new wings are made up of 3 simple layers of styrene, cut to shape and laminated together.  I should've done it this way to begin with.  It only took me an hour or two to do most of the construction.  And the filling and sanding will be minimal this time around.  When it's done the wings will be much closer to a realistic cord and overall shape.

Evan's suggestion of doing the CCV's intake-mounted canards seems to be the best way to go there.  Putting the canards on the fuselage itself will either seriously limit the pilot's field of view, or occlude the gunport, neither of which would be acceptable.  I'll probably place them a little differently than the canards on the CCV--a little higher up on the intake.

Of course, I could omit the gunport, and replace it with two GSh-23 gunpods on the centerline. . .

I will post pics of the wing construction tonight as soon as I get home with the camera.

[Tophe]

Putting the canards on the fuselage itself will seriously limit the pilot's field of view, or occlude the gunport, neither of which would be acceptable.

A British pilot would accept, I think... No?

PS. Deino's one is very nice too...

[elmayerle]

To fit a functional canard on the F-16, other than on the inlet and absent a major rediesgn such as Deino shows, you're going to have to block the pilot's view much more than the Eurofighter's canards do.

[noxioux]

Even on the Eurofighter, the canards are a bit too intrusive on the pilot's view.

What I'm thinking is that the main advantage of a forward swept wing is maneuverability at transonic speeds.  So the main role of an aircraft with the FSW would be air superiority, and a bit of close air support.  Reduced visibility would seriously affect both types of missions.

Check this page out.  The pics aren't great, but it's good for comparison:

mucho canardi


What's interesting is why the canards were dropped on the later variants of the CCV project.  Can anyone elaborate on that one?  Evan?

[elmayerle]

Even on the Eurofighter, the canards are a bit too intrusive on the pilot's view.

What I'm thinking is that the main advantage of a forward swept wing is maneuverability at transonic speeds.  So the main role of an aircraft with the FSW would be air superiority, and a bit of close air support.  Reduced visibility would seriously affect both types of missions.

Check this page out.  The pics aren't great, but it's good for comparison:

mucho canardi


What's interesting is why the canards were dropped on the later variants of the CCV project.  Can anyone elaborate on that one?  Evan?

The canards were used for certain air-to-air aspects of the AFTI (Advanced Fighter Technology Integration) program using one of the FSD F-16's to replace the YF-16.  Later versions of this study were concentrated on upgrades for CAS and the canards were removed for those.  That one aircraft has served as the testbed for a host of different technology demonstrations.

[noxioux]

Thanks for the info!

Here's the pics of the revised wing construction.  First, there's the hyper-advanced cultured organic material used for internal support:



Then the 3-part styrene wing blanks:



Then, just for laughs, the slot that the wing support will slide into:



The styrene flexes a little more than I'd like, but this is a huge improvement over the other wings.  I could even drop the flaps on these, which would've been a super-freaking headache otherwise.

[elmayerle]

Ah, clearly a use of low-tech composites to keep costs down.  I'm certain your accountants will praise you.      

[Captain Canada]

sweet !

It's funny how much the 16 looks like a Mig 29 when you do that to it's wings !

Cheers !

 

[noxioux]

Although I posted a nearly finished photo on the teeny contest, this model really didn't get finished until late Saturday afternoon, after I had a chance to put the decals on and do a little touch up here and there.  This is the finished product.  Hopefully this will be showing up on ARC here in a little bit as well.







Thanks for the early feedback and suggestions, they helped a great deal.

[The Rat]

Must be one helluva thrust on that little bugger nox, it's cracked the windshield on your car!  

And it's a beauty plane.      

[Jschmus]

Maybe it's just an optical illusion created by the shapes involved, but in some of the pics you've posted, it looks like the wingtips are canted inward, so that the missiles on the wingtips aren't pointing straight ahead.

(My candidate for longest run-on sentence there!)

I suppose it doesn't really matter, but it looks a little weird.

[Gary]

Just so long as the pilot can't shoot him or herself down, it's all good!!!  

My jumpens that looks really nice. I love the two tone sands colours as well. Almost like you'd be permenantly stationing F-16 in some sunny desert location...

HEY!!! :dum:  :dum:  :dum:  :dum: