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The standard F-16A always had an impressive warload radius concerning the modest size of the airframe. However, the F-16XL extends this capability to the point of having 124% greater radius of action with the same warlord or up to 45% greater radius of action with twice the weapon load. F-16XL is 80% common with standard current-production F-16As. Primary differences are the new 121% larger cranked-arrow composite wing and two plugs stretching the fuselage by 142 cm
General Dynamics Soars Ahead
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Rightly or wrongly, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was turned down by the RAAF in favour of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. Nevertheless, the F-16 remains one of the most remarkable combat aircraft of the century, and its modular construction and FBW (fly-by-wire) controls have made it an excellent basis for a whole series of radical developments, leading to fighters that bear little resemblance to the original F-16A and which could well be in operation far into the next century. The following report summarises the current status of the Fighting Falcon programme and discusses the many variants of the F-16 on which General Dynamics is now working.
The F-16 may have been merely the runner-up in Australia, but there are already ten countries where it came out ahead of the field. General Dynamics’ production programme (including 216 F-16s assembled by Fokker in the Netherlands and 174 by SABCA/SONACA in Belgium) is now based on 1985 aircraft for the US, 116 for Belgium, 58 for Denmark, 144 for the Netherlands, 72 for Norway, 75 for Israel, 80 for Egypt, 36 for Korea, 40 for Pakistan, and 24 for Venezuela, giving a total of 2630 aircraft, with potential for further orders taking this number to the region of 3700. Small wonder that GD refers to this as the largest multinational military manufacturing programme in history!
To put the programme in perspective in terms of timescale, the first YF-16 prototype (serial 72-01567) made its official first flight on 2 February 1974, having made an unscheduled hop a few days earlier, on January 20. The second prototype (-01568) flew on 4 May 1974. The fly-off against the Northrop YF-17 took place late that year, and on 13 January 1975 the YF-16 was announced to be the winner of the USAF Air Combat Fighter contest, with production planned for at least 650 aircraft. On 7 June that year the four nations of the EPG (European Participating Group) approved the choice and announced plans to buy 348 F-16s. Six pre-production single-seat F-16As (serials 75-0745 to -0750) and two F-16B trainers (-0751, -0752) were built, the first of the batch having its maiden flight on 8 December 1976. The first flight of a GD-built production F-16A (78-0001) took place on 7 August 1978, the aircraft being handed over to the USAF for evaluation ten days later.
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