The F-16 Fighting Falcon: A Fighter Aircraft Like No Other

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a 45-year-old aircraft that has been widely regarded as one of the most capable fighter jets ever built. Its sleek design and advanced features make it an ideal choice for air forces around the world, and its longevity is a testament to its enduring performance and reliability. In this article, we'll delve into the history of the F-16, explore its remarkable capabilities, and examine how it continues to play a vital role in modern air warfare.

The History of the F-16

The F-16 was first conceived in 1974 by General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) as a lightweight, multirole fighter aircraft designed to counter Soviet air threats. The project was codenamed "Falcon," and the resulting aircraft was powered by a General Electric F110 engine. The F-16 made its maiden flight on April 12, 1974, and it quickly became an integral part of the US Air Force's fleet.

The F-16's advanced design features include its bubble canopy, which provides unobstructed 360-degree views for the pilot. This feature is particularly useful during high-G maneuvers, as it allows the pilot to maintain situational awareness while minimizing the risk of injury or disorientation. The F-16 also boasts a highly maneuverable design, with a narrow fuselage and twin engines that enable it to perform tight turns and rapid ascents.

Advances in Technology

Over the years, advances in technology have continued to enhance the F-16's capabilities. One notable development is the installation of g-suits, which are designed to mitigate the effects of high-G forces on the pilot's body. These suits work by inflating air bladders in the legs and compressing them to limit the volume available for blood to pool, thereby reducing the risk of blood pressure surges and subsequent loss of consciousness.

The F-16 also features an advanced autopilot system that enables it to perform complex maneuvers with precision and accuracy. This system is particularly useful during prolonged air combat engagements or when conducting reconnaissance missions in contested airspace.

A Modern Fighter Aircraft

Despite being over 40 years old, the F-16 remains a formidable fighter aircraft, capable of outperforming most of its contemporaries in terms of speed, agility, and firepower. Its advanced avionics and sophisticated sensor systems enable it to detect and engage targets at long range, while its high-speed maneuverability allows it to evade or pursue enemy aircraft with ease.

The F-16's capabilities have been demonstrated time and again during its service history, from the 1970s to the present day. Its performance has been particularly notable in air-to-air combat scenarios, where its speed, agility, and firepower make it an ideal choice for dogfighting.

Ukrainian Air Force Operations

In recent years, the F-16 has played a vital role in supporting Ukraine's military operations against Russian forces. The aircraft's advanced capabilities have enabled it to provide critical air support to Ukrainian troops on the ground, targeting long-range anti-aircraft batteries and other high-value targets.

One notable example of the F-16's utility in this context is its involvement in a recent operation aimed at disrupting Russian naval operations off the coast of Crimea. The F-16 was used to carry out reconnaissance missions, identifying and targeting enemy sensors and command centers. Its presence on station allowed Ukrainian Su-24 fighter-bombers to conduct precision strikes against high-value targets, including a kilo-class submarine.

The F-16's role in this operation is just one example of its ongoing utility as a modern air warfare platform. With its advanced capabilities and reliability, the F-16 remains an essential component of Ukraine's military arsenal, providing critical support to ground forces as they strive for freedom from Russian occupation.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis video is brought to you by Nebula. Watchour bonus videos with F-16 test pilot DavidKern by signing up to Nebula for only 2.50a month.A fully loaded F-16 is a force to be reckonedwith. An air superiority machine that countriesthe world over use to patrol their skies.A low cost, lightweight, single engine fighter,specifically designed to out maneuver itsopponents while carrying state of the artmissiles that would, hopefully, mean it wouldnever have to.The F-16 was born out of the Vietnam war.Large, heavy, complex US fighters like theF-4 Phantom were the norm, but the F-4 founditself in pearl frequently, at a significantdisadvantage when taking on the smaller maneuverablesoviet-made MiGs of the Vietnamese Air Force,like the Mig 21.The Mig 21 was a small, single engined, lightweightaircraft with thin delta wings. The F-4 wasfast, flying up to Mach 2.2, traveled further,and carried more missiles, with a powerfulradar.But, its lack of maneuverability at low speed,poor pilot visibility and easy identificationdue to jet engines that billowed black smoketrails, made it vulnerable to sneak attacksfrom the soviet interceptor.MiG 21s frequently flew close to the ground,under radar, and ambushed incoming F-4s. Makinga single attacking run with their Atoll infraredguided missiles, and then, using their lowspeed maneuverability to out turn and escape.From August 1967 to February 1968, US lossesin Vietnam were staggering.Losing 18 aircraft while downing just 5.For a nation accustomed to absolute air superiority,something was off.The MIG 21s introduction in 1966 forced theUS to adapt. Its large, heavy fighter bombers,while useful, were at a disadvantage againstthese smaller, cheaper planes, and somethingneeded to be done.The Red Baron study, commissioned by the USMilitary, began to identify and address thetactical and technical issues causing theheavy losses that both the US Navy and AirForce were experiencing in the Vietnam war.And their findings led to the developmentof one of the world’s most ubiquitous fighterplanes. A plane designed with a new physicsbased doctrine at its core.Entering service in 1978 and standing thetest of time, it is now confirmed that theaircraft will be entering the battle for Ukraine’sfreedom, taking on the modern day counterpartsof the MiG.This is the Insane Engineering of the F-16.The F-16 was built from the ground up withthis classified 1966 paper as its guidinglight. A paper full of mathematical models,graphs, and equations, designed to answerone question.How to win a close quarters dog fight. Createdwith the help of military supercomputers,it defined a new concept. Energy Maneuverability.Created by Colonel John Boyd, an air forceveteran of the Vietnam war, and one of themembers of the so called fighter mafia, withthe help of a civilian mathematician ThomasChristie.These graphs were the basis for defining aplane's maneuverability through its full rangeof speeds. Mach number on the x-axis. Turnrate on the y.A theory underlined by the management of bothkinetic and potential energy, speed and altitude.In order to change direction a fighter aircraftmust trade energy from these reservoirs, anddoing it as efficiently as possible is thekey to out maneuvering an enemy. .This is the energy-maneuverability diagramfor the F-16. It’s a complicated graph toread without some basic understanding. Thisline is defined by the maximum lift of theaircraft.This is important because it determines themaximum turn rate at a particular speed inthis region. We need lift to turn.To begin a turn an aircraft will roll in thedirection of the turn. This splits the liftthe plane is generating into two components:a horizontal component that causes the planeto turn and a vertical component that keepsthe plane in the sky.A steeper bank angle will increase the horizontalcomponent and increase our rate of turn, whilestealing lift from the vertical component.This vertical component needs to equal theweight of the aircraft, or the plane willlose altitude. To compensate for that thepilot will need to increase lift by increasingthe angle of attack. This is where the maximumlift issue arises. More lift means more availableforce to turn.To determine the max turn rate for an F-16at mach 0.4 we simply draw a line straightup and across to our turn rate. 13 degreesper second. Now, this is where things getinteresting. This is the graph for an F-4E.At the same speed the F-4 can make a maximumturn of just 5 degrees per second.To determine a sustained turn we look to thisline labeled with a 0. Meaning no loss ofaltitude is required to make the turn. Wecan see the F-16s best sustained turn is 14.2degrees per second at 0.85 Mach at 7 g. TheF-4s best sustained turn is 10 degrees persecond at 0.85 Mach at 5 g.This is what that looks like in practice.It takes the F-16 25 seconds to complete afull 360 degree turn. While it takes the F-436 seconds. 11 seconds in the difference.The F-16 was a radical new way of thinkingabout fighter aircraft and thatdesign philosophy can be seen with how theengine inlet has been designed to deal withsupersonic flow. To learn more about the F-16,we spoke with F-16 test pilot David Wren.so the F 16 inlet is one of those things thattells you about the design philosophy of theaircraft because up until that point, thethought process was we wanted to go faster,we wanted to go higher, and nobody stoppedto ask why, because it turns out that nota lot of fights, not a lot of air combat washappening in that mach two plus range. Infact, very little of it was happening andit didn't have a huge amount of tactical application.And so as John Boyd and the rest of the teamwas looking at this lightweight fighter design,which became the F 16, they said, well, wheredo we think that the dog fights of the futureare really going to happen? And they said,well, it's probably going to be somewherein that 0.8 mach to 1.2 mock regime.That's really where we need to be in termsof optimizing the performance of the jet.And we see that here in terms of the specificexcess power chart where it's got this advantageright here in that range of 0.8 M to 1.2 mach.That's where the fat part of the chart sits.That's where your fat on energy, that's whereyou have that advantage. And so the F 16 propulsionsystem is not optimized to go over mach two,although it can, and I've flown the F 16 atMach two, you run out of gas pretty quick,but you can go that fast. But in that whatwe call transonic regime of 0.8 to 1.2 mach,you've got a different design problem thansome of the previous jets. And you can seethat in terms of the inlets. The inlets onthe F four have this extension that goes sortof along the cheeks of the aircraft forward,and then the actual inlet is inlets are setback, and what that's designed to do is attacha shockwave to the front of that inlet lipand then it goes backwards and expands alongthe body.And that shockwave is basically going to coverup the inlet that has some thermodynamic effectsin terms of pressure recovery for the fanface because you don't want supersonic airgetting all the way in to your turbine. Ifyou have supersonic airflow hitting the frontface of that jet engine, the jet engine'sgoing to disintegrate. It's designed to ingestsubsonic airflow. And so you have to attachthat shock wave at the front of the inlet.That's part of what slows down the airflowto eventually a normal shock inside the inlet.It expands a little bit and then it gets tothe front face of the compressor or the fanface of the compressor. Well, the F 16, andyou can see it right here, has what we calla peto inlet. It's basically a flat face airscoop. It is not that sort of overhang witha lip and then an inlet that's further backlike you see on the F four or the F 15 orthe F 14, the big 29, the s U 27, all of thosehave more of that inlet that's set up to putan oblique shockwave across the front of theinlet.Those are designed to go faster. The F 16has a little bit of that. If you look at iton a side view, you can see how it's got alittle bit of an overhang on the lip and thenose helps to attach a shockwave, but it'snot as efficient to go above Mach 1.2. Andthat's okay. Actually it can go that fast,it can go faster, but the engine is workinga little bit harder as it gets into this 1.4,1.5 mock range compared to something likean F four or an F 15. That's where they startto really stretch their legs and run.These design optimizations for optimizingmaneuverability at these speeds can be seenelsewhere too.It’s air intake placement underneath theaircraft, a stark difference to the side mountedtwin intakes of the F-4. And the thin elongatedwing that blends smoothly into the fuselagewith these wing extensions forward of themain wing. These are called leading edge strakes.This air intake ensured the F-16s engine wasnot starved of air during high angle of attackmaneuvers. With the forebody of the aircrafthelping to funnel and divert air directlyinto the air intake.However, this does come with some problemsthat needed to be engineered around.On take off and landing this air intake isjust 100 centimeters of the ground, this combinedwith the extremely thin wings make placementof the landing gear difficult.The forward landing gear could not be mountedahead of the air intake, as they would kickup debris into it, and they couldn’t fitinto the wings, as the thin aerodynamicallyoptimized wing didn’t have enough space.The F-16s landing gears are stored just behindthe air intake, and in order to provide enoughstability and bracing on landing, they needa unique folding mechanism to swing them outwardto create as large a wheelbase as possible.The front landing gear, which is steerableduring taxi, also rotates 90 degrees to lieflat just under the engine inlet.Above the inlet is a boundary layer diverterchannel. This ensures the engine gets consistentlaminar flow.As air travels along the length of the aircraftit forms a layer of slow moving turbulentair called a boundary layer. If this air isallowed to enter the engine it not only lowersperformance, it can also damage the engine.As the turbine rotates it will pass throughthe slow boundary air on one side and thenfast free stream air on the other. This meansthe force on the turbine blade changes foreach and every rotation, causing cyclicalbending. A recipe for fatigue failure.This boundary layer diverter separates thislayer and diverts it underneath the wings.All of this ensures the engine can operateat as high a thrust as possible, even whenthe F-16 is performing extreme maneuvers,which is exactly when it is needed most asthe plane bleeds energy to produce lift.It’s essential that a plane like this cancontinue to generate effective lift duringthese maneuvers,but typical wings lose lift as angle of attackincreases beyond a certain angle, as flowseparates from the wing. This is called astall.These leading edge strakes help to mitigatethat.They act similarly to the canards of the SU-34,one of the planes the F-16 will likely begoing up against in Ukraine, with 19 of themreportedly being taken down thus far in thewar.Canards and leading edge strakes help producelift during high angle of attack maneuvers.Canards placed close to the wing, like theSaab 37 Viggen, create a vortex that passesover the wing, ensuring the wing continuesto get high energy airflow during high angleof attack maneuvers which allows it to continuegenerating liftDuring the development of the F-16, GeneralDynamics did consider a canard configuration,testing different configurations and geometriesincluding versions with no strakes or canardswith subscale models in wind tunnel, testingthrough its optimum maneuvering speeds between0.4 and 0.8 mach.The goal was to maximize lift and minimizedrag at high angles of attack, producing graphslike this, and these were used to comparedesigns.As they were narrowing down on the designthey consulted NASA, and they found one areato improve on.The sharpness of the leading edge.General Dynamics had rounded the leading edgeof the wing to weaken these high angle ofattack vortices , but NASA advisedthem to sharpen the leading edge in orderto strengthen them.The F-16 underwent a great deal of iterativedesign in the wind tunnel phase before eventuallylanding on the design we are familiar withtoday. With the long blended leading edgestrake that makes the F-16 immediately recognisable,and this comes with an added benefit.It provides enough space for the barrel ofF-16s powerful 20 mm rotary cannon.You can see the barrel of M61 Vulcan hidinghere, a minor clue to the weapon hidden withinthe fuselage of the tiny plane.One of the early conclusions of the Red Baronreport was that lackluster armament of theF-4 made it difficult for it to compete inclose quarter battles. It lacked an internalcannon, which left the F-4 without offensiveoptions in close quarter battles, where missilescould not be safely used. The F-4 was eventuallyretrofitted with the M61 slung underneaththe plane.But, the F-16, looking to fix the problemsof the past, came with General Dynamics M61Vulcan rotary gatling cannon as standard,and was packaged neatly inside the plane,creating minimal aerodynamic drag.The M61 is the smaller cousin of the A-10sGAU 8/A, and while its rounds are tiny incomparison. The noise it emits still packsa punch. A massive cannon for a tiny aircraft.The 6 barrelled cannon fires from the topposition. Spinning 16 times a second, thegatling cannon spews 100 20 mm rounds persecond. With an ammunition drumcapable of holding just 511 rounds, the fullammunition drum can be unloaded in just over5 seconds.The drum fits neatly behind the pilot here,and the vibration of gun firing on the pilot'sleft side is jarring for many new pilots.It is such a small fighter, and I think I'vesaid this before, when you get into an F 16,you sit down and you strap into that. It'snot like you're sitting in the jet. It's likeyou're wearing the jet and the gun is righthere. As I sit there in the cockpit, the gunbarrels, the muzzles are right back here.It's just out of reach. It's so close though.And so when you shoot the gun and you're shootinga hundred rounds a second of 20 millimeter,it is unbelievably violent in the jet, butyou're thinking about the target that youhave to go and shoot.And so one of my experiences flying the F16 was I was teaching as an instructor pilotat Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona.And so I had the privilege of taking in AirForce pilots, they're wearing wings, they'vegraduated Air Force pilot training, but they'renot fighter pilots yet. And putting them intoan F 16 and then we would make sure that everybodyshot the gun in training. In fact, they hadto qualify with the gun as a weapon. And sothe first time experience for anybody shootingthe gun in an F 16 is a little bit of an emotionalexperience. People would say funny things,they would cuss. It was all on the tapes,the HUD tapes, the heads up display recordings,and we come back in the debrief and we kindof laugh at the students because they knewthat they were going to go shoot the gun andit was always shooting at a target on theground is when they would do this for thefirst time, raf.And so it's a little bit intense. You're divingat the ground, you're doing 4 50, 500 knotspointed at the ground. Obviously there's asurvival instinct that kicks in there. You'retrying to put the pepper on the target, youpull the trigger for the first time and thewhole jet shakes violently. It's like somebodystarted up a chainsaw just in your left earand the whole jet is shaking and your hand'son the throttle there. And I can always rememberevery time I would shoot the gun, there'sthis hard foam insulation that's just behindthe closeout panel, but the vibrations wouldcause some of those little bits of foam tofleck off, to flake off. And they would comearound the closeout panel and every time Iwould go shoot the gun for practice a straightI'd come back, and as I'm getting out of theairplane, I'd see these little yellow flexof foam all over my green flight suit on myleft arm.The vibrations were so intense, you get usedto it after the first time you shoot it, it'sa little bit of an emotional event. And thenafter that you're focused on, I need to putthose rounds on target. So the F 16 is incrediblywell integrated as far as a weapon systemwith that gun. And I'll tell you that bothfor air to ground and also for air-to-air,the gun sites on the F 16 are incredibly precise.And even with dynamics on the aircraft, evenunder maneuvers in terms of air-to-air shootswhere we're shooting at a banner, there'snot been a lot of actual air-to-air dog fightingwith the gun in recent memory. But the F 16is accurate when it shoots at air-to-air practicetargets to the point of it's almost not evenfair. It used to be kind of a scoring kindof a skill thing.And now you can just park the Pippa on thetarget open up and it just t shreds anythingyou pointed at in terms of an air-to-air target.And then in terms of airto ground, you canbe extremely precise with it. It's not quitea laser beam, but you can be extremely precise.And there's even ways that you can coupleup other sensors on the aircraft and shareinformation, even in a at night blacked outtype of close air support roll, you can hitwhat you want to hit on the ground.All from a gun hidden away in this tiny fighterplane.If we follow this leading edge strake downthe wing we come to another device designedto increase lift at high angles of attack.The leading edge flap. It deflects downwardsduring high angle of attack maneuvers to delaystall, allowing air to remain attached tothe wing surface.When performing a sustained turn at 0.9 Machat cruising altitude, it increases lift by18% and decreases drag by 22%. You can seethem actuate here during the 5 g take offI performed with the Thunderbirds back in2019.The seam between the leading edge flap andthe main wing is barely noticeable and fittinga control system into this wing, which isonly around 4 centimeters thick where theactuator system needed to fit, proved a challenge.The amount of torque needed to actuate a controlsurface like this at 0.9 Mach is not trivial.To solve this problem power is transferredfrom two hydraulic motors, which convert thepressure in the hydraulic system into rotationalmotion. The hydraulic drive motor itself istucked away behind the M61 Rotary cannon,next to the hydraulic motor that drives thecannon's rotation and ammo drive system.This power has to be transferred to thewing, and this is done through a series oftorque shafts, angular gearbox, and down anotherseries of torque shafts with rotary actuatorsin between.This leading edge flap is not controlled bythe pilot however, it’s controlled automaticallyby the flight computer, and the F-16 was groundbreaking in this regard. The F-16 was thefirst fighter aircraft to have a fly by wiresystem controlling every control surface.The leading edge flaps, the flaperons, therudder, and the horizontal tail of F-16 arenot controlled directly by the pilot.A fly by wire system using a network of sensors,wires and computers as well as the pilotsown input to control the plane. The F-16 wasemploying this new technological wizardryto allow it to efficiently spend the energyits single jet engine provided.Traditional flight control systems, up tothis point, used a mechanical systemconnected directly to the pilot's controlsto manipulate the flight surfaces. This isfootage of the F-4s control system. A heavyand complicated network of cables, rods, linkagesand hydraulics. It even has a 2 kilogram bobweights attached to the pilot's stick. A mechanismdesigned to make it harder to pull the stickas gs increase, an analog feedback system.To provide the pilot with an analog feedbackon speed the F-4 also featured a diaphragmthat deflected with ram air taken from thisprobe on the vertical fin. This introduceda force that acted to push the stick backwards,and indicated to the pilot to adjust a trimsetting.This system not only added a huge amount ofweight to the F-4, reducing it’s maneuverability,it added workload to the pilot and was morevulnerable to damage in dogfights with littleredundancy.With a fly by wire system, none of this wasneeded. The first batch of F-16s actuallyhad a stick that was immovable. It was justforce sensing. Later a small amount of movementwas added after pilots complained.So the non movable stick kind of little knownfact, you know the original F 16, it wasn'ta Lockheed Martin product, it was generaldynamics and they had made the F one 11 previously,tand the weapon system operator on the F one11 had a small joystick that they could useto steer the attack radar and that was a forcebased movement. It wasn't really a joystickthat would move, it was just the apply force.And so they took that same concept and thenthey put it into the F 16 stick. So it wassort of a general dynamics thing of we'vegot a force transducer, a control in scepteris what you'd call that.So what it turns out though is that the humanbody, does really well with knowing whereyour limbs hands are moving, knowing the positionof your body is something that you naturallydo pretty well, and that is something calledproprioceptive feedback. Well, when I havea force based inceptor, I don't get that proprioceptivefeedback anymore and it's really hard to judge.It's something that I think if you challengeyourself to go pick up a small weight at thegym and ask yourself, how much does that weighwithout looking at it, it's actually kindof hard to guess when you're down in thosefew pounds range.And the maximum force you can put on the F16 sidestick is 25 pounds. So it's kind ofhard to tell the difference between 15 poundsand 15.2 pounds. We don't do very well withthat. We do a lot better with knowing howfar we've pulled something. And so the originalF 16 controls didn't move, and what pilotsfound was that they were having a difficulttime. The test pilots at Edwards were havinga difficult time judging exactly how hardthey would move the controls, and so theywould think they were going to get a certainresponse from the jet and then they weren't,and then they'd pull harder too hard and thenthey'd get a different response. there isa phenomenon called pilot induced oscillationsor pilot in the loop oscillations. Sometimesit's just shortened to p i o and the F 16,even to this day, particularly if you havea lot of wing stores, can have a little bitof a wing rock on landing. And if you lookat some videos of F sixteens landing, sometimesyou can find if they have wing tanks or they'rebringing back some bombs that they didn'texpend, you'll find an F 16 that'll sort ofdo this little back and forth wing rock. Andthat is still, to this day, it's an artifactof having a sidestick that doesn't move verymuch because it's one of those things thatin terms of the mind to the hand, eye handcoordination, you start to make a movement.By the time you see the effect, it's morethan you wanted. So you take it out, you putin a correction. By the time the correctiontakes effect, it's more than you wanted. Yousee it, you come back. It's a feedback loopin our minds. And now p i o is kind of a dirtyword in aircraft design and nobody wants anyPIOs. I'll tell you PIOs pilot induced oscillationsare like snakes and some snakes are very dangerousand some snakes are not. And so the P I Othat's remaining in the F 16 in terms of itswing rock on final at landing is not superdangerous.These pilot induced oscillations can alsobe naturally stabilized through passive stability.Where the plane naturally self corrects itselfwithout pilot input. However the F-16 wasthe first aircraft in history to do away withpassive stability and make the plane intentionallyunstable in flight. This was done becauseit lowers the energy needed to fly and maneuver.We can understand why this is with a simpleanalogy. Here we have two situations, a ballplaced on top of a hill and a ball placedin a valley. If we push the ball on top ofthe hill, even a tiny bit, it will begin toaccelerate down the hill and will not stopuntil we put energy in to slow it down. Thisis an unstable system.The opposite is true for the ball in the valley.Apply a force and the ball will roll uphilland gravity will now provide a restoring forceto bring it back. It may oscillate back andforth a few times before coming to a stop,but it will eventually return to its originalposition. This is a stable system.We want to tailor our stability to find abalance between these two scenarios. Wherewe can cause a rapid change in direction witha small energy input, while also managingthe amount of energy required to get backto our original position. This is called relaxedstatic stability.The F-16 pitch stability is one of the areaswhere this idea was applied. One of the keyfactors that affects pitch stability is thelocation of the center of gravity and centerof lift.The center of gravity for the F-4 is locatedabout here. This is the point at which alllift will act around, it’s like the fulcrumon a see-saw. As a result of the wing designthe center of lift is slightly behind thecenter of gravity. This would force the planeto pitch downwards, but the horizontal stabilizerprovides counteracting downwards force.This isn’t ideal, we are wasting energyon downwards lift.We need upward lift to fly. It also increasesthe amount of energy the F-4 needs to inputto change its pitch.When it pitches upwards the force on the horizontalstabilizer decreases because of reduced airflow, and as a result the weight of the plane,acting through the center of gravity, forwardof the center of lift, wants to move the nosedown again.But the pilot is trying to pitch the planeup, and this natural stability is fightingthem. So more kinetic energy is wasted byconverting it to lift and drag with an increasedelevator deflection.The F-16 is different. Its center of liftis ahead of the center of gravity, in partthanks to those leading edge strakes pushingthe center of lift forward. This means tobalance the plane the horizontal stabilizerneeds to create upwards lift. This is usefullift and reduces the energy needed to keepthe plane airborne, and increases our maximumlift pushing this line on our energy maneuverabilitydiagram up, increasing our turn rate.However, it is an unstable system. When theplane pitches up it increases the angle ofattack of the wing and increases the lift.Because the center of lift is ahead of thecenter of gravity this forces the noses upeven more.In an air to air battle, energy isn’t justa fuel burning problem. Energy is needed tomaneuver, and as we spend it our ability tomaneuver diminishes until we replenish itby gaining speed or altitude again.any fighter pilot will tell you speed is life.And as a fighter pilot, energy managementis one of the most important things that youcan do. It's part of your situational awarenessin that combat arena. You don't want to getslow and you don't want to put yourself ina place where you are vulnerable and now Ican't turn, I can't move, I can't get my sensorsor my weapons engaged where I need to. Andthat's not just an air-to-air thing that'sin every aspect of being a fighter pilot.And that's even engaging in an air-to-groundarena because oftentimes when you're engagingair to ground, an interdiction mission, astrike mission or close air support mission,well you're supporting friendly troops onthe ground, but there's also people that reallydon't like you in the vicinity and they haveweapons also. And so you have to maintainthat energy to be able to evade, to be ableto move out of the way if you're getting shotat.And so with the energy management on the F16, it's interesting that this jet doesn'treally talk to you in terms of feedback tothe pilot. It doesn't really shake and rattleand vibrate like a lot of other aircraft willdo. I've flown the F 16, I've also flown theF 15, the F 18, the A 10, and those aircraftwill talk to you. Those other aircraft willtalk to you a lot more than the F 16. TheF 16 just feels smooth all the time, whetheryou're 200 knots and really slow or you're600 knots and really fast, it just sort ofdoes what you ask it to do. You think youmove the controls just a tiny bit and theaircraft responds. So managing your energybecomes a situational awareness challengefor the fighter pilot. And so a lot of that'shelped now with the joint helmet mounted queuingsystem or JE hemic is what it's called, whereright there in your right eye, you've gotyour airspeed, you've got your altitude, you'vegot your G, and so you can engage visuallyin that fight. I can keep my eyes on the threat,the target, keep situational awareness, andI don't have to look back in at my heads updisplay or down at the console to see howfast I'm going and how high I'm going. Youget the feel for it. You get a feel for howthe aircraft is responding. But that's whereexperience comes in and it's imperative experiencetraining comes in. It's imperative to maintainthat energy awareness in any kind of fight.The unstable design of the F-16 helped fighterpilots like David to manage energy more efficiently,but to maintain control of an unstable fightera pilot would have to make constant tiny corrections.A task deemed impossible before fly by wiresystems were invented.The system consists of a network of accelerometers,gyros and air speed sensors, all fed intoa central computer that manages the work.This instability makes the plane extremelynimble, ready to change direction with verylittle energy input. We could see this inpractice on the first flight of the F-16 prototype,the YF-16. A flight that was never supposedto happen.This was intended to be a short test alongthe runway, but the early control logic ofthe plane would not allow the engine nozzleto open to cut thrust if the wheels had leftthe ground. Meaning, even at idle, the planewas generating too much thrust.Then the plane rolled left, which caused thepilot to counteract it with a roll right command,but again the control logic of the early prototypewas not dialed in, with control input resultingin higher roll than expected at such a lowspeed. Resulting in an over correction, leadingto an oscillation.With this being the first full fly by wireplane, there many lessons to be learned alongthe wayBut the benefits it now provides are gamechanging. It helps the pilot get the mostof out of the plane.So for example, with an F 16, the airframeis limited to nine Gs. And so I can go andpull back on the controls on an F 16, andif I am less than about 300 knots or so, actuallymore like 400 knots, I'm not going to getnine Gs. It's just that's how much lift theaircraft can make. But once I get above about400 to four 50 knots, now the wing on theF 16 is capable of creating at least nineGs. In fact, it's capable of creating a lotmore than nine Gs. But what that fly by wiresystem does is when I start pulling back allthe way to the stop, it goes to nine Gs andit sits there. Even if the wing aerodynamiceffect of the whole airframe is that it couldgenerate 15 GSS or 20 gs, the fly by wiresystem says, Hey, I know you're asking foryour best possible turn.I'm just going to give you nine Gs becausewe're not going to break the airplane. Oragain, in a slow speed fight where I'm havingto, it's less than 300 knots. I'm having tocrank the nose around to either bring my noseonto the adversary or maybe I'm trying tojin out of the way of an adversary's weaponsystem, pull suddenly on the controls of anaircraft and your angle of attack is goingto increase rapidly. Alright, well with alot of more conventional aircraft, you'reworried about things like stall. Well, theF 16 doesn't really stall in the same kindsof ways, but that flyby wire system says,Hey, I know that if you get past about 26degrees angle of attack, bad things are goingto start to happen. In terms of the controllability,the F 16 stops behaving as predictably above26 degrees angle of attack.And so they fly by a wire system simply says,that's where I'm going to stop you right there,and I'm going to give you up to 26 degreesor nine Gs and do with that whatever you needto.A plane capable of 9 g maneuvers is not muchuse if the pilot cannot remain conscious duringthem. The F-16 has some interesting adaptationsin the cockpit for this.Traditionally the control stick was mountedcentrally, between the pilots legs. This madeit mechanically simpler, with the networkof mechanical linkages being central and symmetricthroughout the plane. It also allowed thepilots to use both hands to wrestle the controlsurfaces into position during high g maneuversas the air flowing by them tried to push themback down.For the F-16 this wasn’t a problem, andthe control stick was mounted convenientlyon the pilots right hand console. A comfortableresting position that makes it far easierfor the pilot to control the plane while tryingto stay conscious at 9 gs.The seat is also reclined by 30 degrees, thismakes the F-16 feel like an executive officein the sky with unobstructed 360 degrees thanksto the bubble canopy, but it also comes withmajor advantages to increasing the pilotsg tolerance.The most common g force a pilot experiencesis directly down. When flying in a straightline even cells in your body have inertiain that direction, and when suddenly pitchingthe plane upwards, those cells want to continuetraveling in that direction.This isn’t too much of a problem for cellsto stay fixed, but your blood cells are freeto travel through your body. And in a scenariolike this they race in the direction of thattravel, pooling in your lower extremities.This starves the pilots brain of oxygen andthey can pass out as a result. This effectcould be minimized by placing the pilot flaton their back, with the entire body aligned,blood wouldn’t have to fight gravity toget to the brain, but this position isn’tpractical.The F-16 found a compromise with a 30 degreerecline, reducing the pressure on the heartby the equivalent of about 1 g. The reclinealso makes it easier to fit the pilot intothe diminutive forward fuselage of the f-16,Another measure to increase the pilot's g-toleranceis the g-suit. A pilots g-suit contains multipleair bladders that are connected directly toF-16. When the plane is instructed to performa high g-maneuver it immediately begins topump compressed air into these bladders. Thissqueezes the pilots legs and to limit thevolume available for blood to pool into.The F-16 is a 45 year old aircraft, and manyadvances have occurred in aviation since itsmaiden flight, stealth technology and interconnectedintelligence networks have been the main focusfor 5th generation aircraft like the F-35that have been slowly replacing the F-16,but one thing hasn’t changed since 1975.Physics.The F-16 pushes the boundaries of maneuverabilityfor a fighter aircraft and the pilots inside.It’s a highly capable fighter aircraft thatthe strongest air force in the world deemedcapable of continuing service until 2048.The plane will be a major asset in the nextphase of the fight for Ukraines freedom, providingessential air support to the troops on theground as they attempt to push forward throughentrenched Russian defenses.Ukraine has been targeting long range antiaircraft batteries with success, and capturedoil platforms off the coast of Crimea thatwere housing Russian sensors. All to clearthe way for Ukrainian Su-24s to get closeenough to launch cruise missiles, targetinghigh value Russian assets in Crimea, includinga kilo class submarine.The F-16 can also carry these cruise missiles.Every asset in the Ukrainian air force isgoing to play a vital role in Ukraines fightfor freedom.Having an actual fighter pilot add contextto this story was incredibly valuable, helpingus truly understand the power of those energymaneuverability diagrams. We ended up talkingto David for nearly two hours and ended upcutting an incredibly interesting story fromthis video, about how he helped develop anautomatic obstacle avoidance system for theF-16 that has saved lives. A fascinating systemthat works in a way I didn’t expect, I hadassumed it simple uses radar to measure distance,but that is not how it works. You can watchthat extra video on Nebula right now, alongwith an uncut explanation of energy maneuverabilitydiagrams.Access usually costs 5 dollars a month, butyou can get access right now with the hugediscounted price of just 2.50 a month, usingthe link in the description.Bonus videos are just one benefit to Nebula.You will also get ad free versions of ourvideos at a fraction of the price of YouTubepremium. With YouTube cracking down on adblockers this is the best way to support ourchannel while not having to deal with adsinterrupting your viewing experience. SomethingI find really valuable while watching longform videos.When I am taking flights to shoot interviewsI often download videos from Nebula, whichyou can do by the way, and watch them on theflight.You will also get access to our original worldwar 2 series, the Logistics of D-Day and theBattle of Britain. As well as Real Life Lore’smodern conflict series that deep dives intoconflicts like the War in Ukraine.Along with originals from some of your otherfavourite creators, Like Mustard, PracticalEngineering, Neo and Wendover Productions.Nebula is simply the best place for our videos.No ads, bonus videos, and exclusive high budgetoriginals and all for the price of 2.50 amonth.\n"