Mystery F-16:  Solved!

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/14/2015 at 16:48 • Filed to: planelopnik

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Well, not a mystery to me. Who can guess what’s going on with this Falcon? You could click the link, but that would be cheating. (Photos via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

Answer : This F-16 was used to test the air intake shape for the Lockheed F-35 Lightning II JSF. According to Lockheed:

F-16 modified with diverterless supersonic inlet, or DSI, developed for the Joint Strike Fighter — now the F-35 Lightning II — program. At high aircraft speeds through supersonic, the bump in the inlet works with the forward-swept inlet cowl to redirect unwanted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! away from the inlet, essentially doing the job of heavier, more complex, and more costly diverters used by current fighters. The flight test program consisted of twelve flights flown in nine days in December 1996.

The whole business is explained !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

H/T to Viggen for getting the answer.

iSureWilll > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 16:53

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I cheated so I won’t say but... I like it’s belly mouth.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 16:53

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Stealth mod testing? Almost looks like the intake for the X-32, but that was Boeing.

RallyWrench > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 16:53

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The intake definitely isn’t original, what’s the deal?

Viggen > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 16:55

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Reduced RCS divertless air intake testing for the F-35 program utilizing an F-16C Block 30.

ttyymmnn > Viggen 10/14/2015 at 16:59

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Impressive. Unless you cheated. But I don’t believe you did.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 10/14/2015 at 16:59

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Nope. Go ahead and click the link. Or, read Viggen’s reply. He nailed it.

ttyymmnn > RallyWrench 10/14/2015 at 17:00

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Go ahead and click the link. Or read Viggen’s reply. He nailed it.

Viggen > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 17:00

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Only thing I cheated for was the Block because the tail number wasn’t completely visible.

Although I think it is kinda cheap I answered so quickly. Gonna keep myself from playing because it’s not fair to the non aviation peoples.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 17:01

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I did, very interesting.

facw > ttyymmnn 10/14/2015 at 22:42

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Weird testbed aircraft!

Please observe the 757 Catfish:

A 757 with a fighter nose and weird wing-hat thing used for testing F-22 sensor systems.

ttyymmnn > facw 10/14/2015 at 23:16

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