Test Viper 80-0635

[Old Viper Tester]

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!!

[72modeler]

Keith,

 

Very interesting program and photos. This would make a really unusual modeling project, and I have saved your post, as I really don't have an F-16B that I really like, BTW, was -635 ever in the red/white scheme? That's my favorite F-16B scheme! As always, I thank you for sharing your collection with the rest of us! Hope you and yours are safe and well in the midst of all this madness.

Mike

[Old Viper Tester]

39 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

-635 ever in the red/white scheme?

When '635 was retired from test work, she went to the 6512th Test Squadron in the test support role and adopted the "Bozo" scheme.

 

September 1992

 

[Red Dot]

Another very interesting story Sven

 Thanks for all your posts and stay healthy

 

Andy

[72modeler]

On 4/2/2020 at 12:43 PM, Old Viper Tester said:

When '635 was retired from test work, she went to the 6512th Test Squadron in the test support role and adopted the "Bozo" scheme.

Yes, yes, oh my yes! That's the scheme! Thank you, Sven- you've made this modeler very, very happy! I can finally do this one, using my Hasegawa kit  that is in the Edwards AB limited boxing!

Mike