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Showing results for tags '6516TS'.
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F-16Cs 83-1143 and 88-0445, 6516th Test Squadron, 6510th Test Wing, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB. Ready to taxi out for a radar test mission. '445 is the test jet and carries a centerline pod containing high-speed radar data recording equipment - the orange stripe indicates the pod carried unique test equipment. While '143 was a test jet in its own right, on this mission it is being used as a radar target for '445. General Dynamics crews and maintenance personnel were part of the F-16 Combined Test Force at Edwards (part of the "Combined" unit monicker) - and they still are today as Lockheed Martin Fort Worth. The F-16 test fleet was split between General Dynamics and USAF maintenance teams, '143 and'445 were GD maintained jets at this time. The pilots are USAF assigned to the 6516th Test Squadron. The Israeli jet (301, USAF s/n 86-1598) in the background was testing the Peace Marble II (Block 30) configuration for that Foreign Military Sales program. Cockpit checks. GD crew chief on the intercom. Engine start. Chocks away. '445 crew chief signaling brakes/hold. '143 crew chief signaling begin taxi. Brakes checked and out of the parking spot. The crew chief has done the check for leaks and gives the thumbs up. Thanks for looking, Sven
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F-16Cs 83-1143 and 88-0445, 6516th Test Squadron, 6510th Test Wing, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB. Ready to taxi out for a radar test mission. '445 is the test jet and carries a centerline pod containing high-speed radar data recording equipment - the orange stripe indicates the pod carried unique test equipment. While '143 was a test jet in its own right, on this mission it is being used as a radar target for '445. General Dynamics crews and maintenance personnel were part of the F-16 Combined Test Force at Edwards (part of the "Combined" unit monicker) - and they still are today as Lockheed Martin Fort Worth. The F-16 test fleet was split between General Dynamics and USAF maintenance teams, '143 and'445 were GD maintained jets at this time. The pilots are USAF assigned to the 6516th Test Squadron. The Israeli jet (301, USAF s/n 86-1598) in the background was testing the Peace Marble II configuration for that Foreign Military Sales program. Cockpit checks. GD crew chief on the intercom. Engine start. Chocks away. '445 crew chief signaling brakes/hold. '143 crew chief signaling begin taxi. Brakes checked and out of the parking spot. The crew chief has done the check for leaks and gives the thumbs up. Thanks for looking, Sven
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F-16B 80-0635 of the 6516th Test Squadron, F-16 Combined Test Force, 6510th Test Wing, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, August 1990. At this time, '635 was the dedicated test platform for a laser pod, "Coronet Prince". Coronet Prince carried a laser capable of disabling optical trackers as part of the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) mission. The pod's sensor head would swivel and rotate with a low-power laser, searching for reflections, an indication of a lens or reflecting surface aimed at the aircraft. If the ground position of the reflection remained constant as the jet flew along, it was an indication that the lens/reflector was tracking the jet - or it was a spherical reflector. Having determined that it was being tracked, the pod operator would select high-power and the laser would fire pulses at the target location. During test flights, Coronet Prince successfully "burned" a tracking vidicon tube. We watched the video image as each pulse burned out portions of the receptor array until the entire screen went blank. The program was cancelled when funding ran out - it took longer than expected to get the aircraft integration and pod to operate as intended. Not surprisingly, the Coronet Prince laser was not eye-safe, thus the test program safety program and risk mitigations were considerable. We had to clear the target range of any potential reflectors and all personnel in the target area wore doubled-up laser goggles even though they were inside a trailer with the deployable sensor array. Note the pylon was restricted to use on '635 only as '635 was the only aircraft with the necessary modifications to interface with the Coronet Prince pod. Thanks for looking Sven Lesson learned: Never joke to the Safety Review Board about blinding endangered Desert Tortoises!!
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F-16D 83-1176 of the F-16 Combined Test Force, 6516th Test Squadron, 6510th Test Wing, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB. August 1989. Name on the canopy is MAJ C THUESON. February 1990 December 1992 with AGM-65 Maverick missile training round. "My" jet... I think I only crewed her once or twice. John "Starman" Armor was the squadron Deputy for Operations and I was the Deputy for Engineering. The orange gear in the ammo drum bay is part of the MARS magnetic tape recording system for the aircraft instrumentation - all replaced with digital solid-state recorders 15-20 years ago. Thanks for looking and Happy New Year, Sven
