F-16 U.S. Air Force Flight Test Centre. Edwards AFB - loadout

[logical]

I've got the Eduard Top Falcons kit in the stash at home. I really like the white and red of the aircraft in the title. Would it have been fully laden with armament or loaded like the display aircraft?

Plus would it be kept clean or still be filthy like the majority of in service planes?

Here's the one I'm talking about

[LeVi Tophatter]

Nice. These 'Lab Rats' tended to be much cleaner than the grotty grey ones, most of the time they look almost pristine (from a short distance).

Hardly ever seen these jets carry weapons apart from AIM-9's of the wingtips and fuel tanks. I'm sure these particular jets were primarily used to train 'advanced' and or test pilots.

Here she is in slightly different markings around the early 1990's. Here she is again, Where's Wally style.

[Boman]

The famous Clown scheme Check www.F-16.net for lots of references

[logical]

Thanks both. The other reason behind the red and white is colour matching the decals on the aggressor schemes

[Old Viper Tester]

I used to fly and fly with the "Bozo" fleet at Edwards in the late '80s and early '90s. I've got a bunch of slides I need to get around to scanning. Anyway...

More often than not, these aircraft only flew with a centerline tank. If they were being used as radar targets they would usually carry wing tanks and a variation of the ALQ-188 on the centerline. The most you might see if the jet was being used for weapons proficiency would be two or three tanks and a practice Mk-84 on each outer wing pylon - usually a faded blue bomb body and green tail kit.

Most of the time the wing-tip launchers were empty, but sometimes practice or inert AIM-9M rounds would be carried if there were other stores under the wings.

And, yes, the aircraft were usually very clean.

Sven

Old Viper Tester

[logical]

Hi Sven. Thanks very much for that info. When you mentioned about the faded blue bomb body and green tail kit I take it you mean the tail of the bomb. Would I need to put any Stencils on them? How many would it carry?

Looking forward to seeing some of these slides too.

[Boman]

It would have been carried on the mid-wing pylon, also known as station 3/7 depending on what side of the Aircraft you refer to.

This station can carry a max of 1xMk84 2000lbs or 3xMk81 250lbs / Mk82 500lbs / Mk83 1000lbs bombs - or derivates of these.

[logical]

Thanks Bowman. Now to find an Alq-188. :-D

[Giorgio N]

Thanks Bowman. Now to find an Alq-188. :-D

Wolfpack has this pod in resin

[scotthldr]

I remember seeing one of these a/c at the Edwards AFB Open House in 1996, from what I can remember it carried 2 x Mk20 Rockeyes on a triple launch rail on Sta 3/7. It was more than likely a theoretical loadout for the show but looked great all the same.

[logical]

Thanks Scott. I've got a few options now anyway 😀

[Mike V]

Actually, those Orange and White (Not red) F-16s were mostly used primarily as Flight Test chase jets, though a few were converted to High AOA jets. The Orange and White High AOA F-16s have the extended "High AOA" Test pitot (w/4 AOA vanes) and weight plates on the aft CHAFF/Flare Banks, but were NOT spin chute capable. TPS (Test Pilot School) also flew them on a regular basis as well. We no longer paint the chase/support F-16s Orange and White BTW.

There's no such nomenclature as "Loadout". That would be "Stores Configuration". The Orange and White F-16s were not part of the Flight Test F-16 Squadron and nor were they modified to the degree of the Flight Test jets either. Back in the day of the Orange and White Chase F-16s, they were a separate unit from the F-16 Consolidated Flight Test.

The Orange and White F-16s rarely had much more than external tanks (centerline or a pair of wingtanks), ARDS Pod, and a CATM AIM-9. Other stores configurations would include ALQ-188 pod, ALQ-167 (More recently), or AIM-120 camera Pods, though rarely, as the camera pods were typically installed on actual Flight Test F-16s.

Interesting to read the decal note saying that 688 was flown by Brig.Gen Richard Engle, as he rarely flew and when he did, it was rarely 688. Like all USAF modern fighters; air crew(s) assigned to a jet by name often fly what ever "FMC" jet is configured for the mission of the day. The pilot assigned to me jet maybe flew it once a month. It would be more frequent though for Chase F-16s and even more sore for a front line F-16 though. Also, they jet is the Crew Chief's jet, not the Pilot's.

I built 1172 back in 99: 48th Hasegawa F-16B, Black Box cockpit, and TwoBobs decals:

Mike V

Edited April 25, 2015 by Mike V

[Old Viper Tester]

Some scans of Kodachrome slides:

78-0007 over the east end of the main ramp at Edwards. On the ramp are T-38s, F-16s and F-15s. A Test Pilot School NA-37B is taxiing out. Compare the amount of stenciling here to 81-0688 touching down below.

81-0688 - relating to Mike's comment above, my record shows that Col Engel was my pilot during this mission, but as 6510 Test Wing commander, I think it was his Fini Flight.

81-0688 formation landing

78-0054 note grey mid-wing pylon

78-0085 on approach

78-0099 with grey centerline pylon and white tank

78-0085 underside check

Edited April 25, 2015 by Old Viper Tester

[logical]

Thanks Mike and Sven. That's a lot of information to digest.

What would be the best Orange to use?

[Mike V]

International Orange FS 12197. Model master is a dead on match.

Nice shots, Kieth, do you have any photos of 1172, 1047, 96, or 80?

Edited April 25, 2015 by Mike V

[Old Viper Tester]

Scanned a few more:

I only have 78-0080 before going Bozo, only the AFFTC markings replacing the Luke tail code and tail band

79-0409

80-0633

82-1047

83-1172, transferred to the support fleet, but yet to be repainted in 1991

In 1991, a number of these jets wore names on the innside of the nose gear door

Names I observed, all in the same format:

78-0007 – Rebel

78-0080 – Problem Child

78-0085 - Firebird

78-0088 – Crazy Eight (previously "Miss Piggy" in 1990)

79-0409 – Rocky

Sven

Old Viper Tester

Edited April 30, 2015 by Old Viper Tester

[dancho]

Small world. Here's 81-0688 at Loring AFB, Maine in late '85 or early '86. The aircraft was being used to test the then-experimental LANTIRN system. I was the crew chief.

[logical]

Thank Mike :-D I can only find enamels though. Do they do acrylic?

[Mike V]

Not that I know of but you can easily mix and match Tamiya gloss orange and red as I did for another Chase F-16 I did later on. I matched them to a swab of MM enamel, but you can also use a FS Chip/fan deck.

Good stuff Sven! 1172 was repainted orange and white in 92, according to the Paint stencil on the right aft strake side. By the time of the Chase and Flight Test F-16 merger in 96, all the single seat Orange and Whites were transferred out; most to DM. Only the 2 seaters remained and were moved up to the Flight test ramp. What a cluster that was! We split again in 98 and by 99 the Chase unit (renamed called Shadow unit) started using the embargoed Pakistani Block 15 F-16s. The Pakistani jets were to go back to the government of Pakistan (though not all as the NAVY still has half of them as aggressors) so they were being transferred out to Fort worth to be MLU converted. 2 of them stayed on here for Flight Test with the Lockheed crew and wore the Orange and white colors up until around 2013.

Small world indeed Dancho. We still had the LANTIRN logo (same as the patch in your pic) on the fire doors leading into the 1630 hangar at Falcon; up until we forced out last December. There were 2 more jets involved with LANTIRN, though the tail numbers escape me at the moment.

Mike V

Edited April 30, 2015 by Mike V

[Old Viper Tester]

The F-16 ramp, circa 1988 (USAF photo)

The three LANTIRN CTF jets were:

80-0635

81-0688, I think these marking were on an old Microscale sheet (72-277?)

81-0816 (before the LANTIRN CTF emblem was applied to the tail)

LANTIRN Nav pod on ’635 with three tank ”kills” in 1989

A little better view of the LANTIRN emblem

Interesting ”kill” markings on ’635 in 1989

Down at the 6512th Test Squadron, we had a variation of the LANTIRN CTF emblem posted in one of the briefing rooms. Same shape and color scheme. Same words. But instead of the tank and lightning bolt it had a red F-16 ricocheting between mountain sides in reference to the phrase ”Havoc in the Dark”. Someone removed it before I got a picture of it and left for the UK in 1985.

Sven

Old Viper Tester

Edited April 30, 2015 by Old Viper Tester

[Alan P]

LOVIN this thread! Keep it up, guys

Al

[LeVi Tophatter]

Super thread, some excellent reference material.

Thanks for your willingness to share this gold dust amigos.

[logical]

Ditto what Al and Lee have said. Really appreciate the pictures and the information.

[Mike V]

Here's 83-1172 during our 97 Air Show. BTW, this is the same Air Show that Hasegawa used for it's Box Top Edwards F-16B release in 98-99. The photos are grainy as I only had a cheap 35 mm camera at the time and it was late in the day. Note that the "US AIR FORCE: lettering is dark blue, not black, despite how it looks in the photo.

[LeVi Tophatter]

'Shake, Rattle and Roll!!'...

This was also the only option in the Hasegawa 1/72 kit, shame the decal film was so thick with the red/orange bleeding into it...

Off topic a bit but I'm sure I've seen a GE engine 'Test Pilot School' F-16C with blue bands over the white/orange colours, looked a little bit like the prototype scheme. Very nice from memory.