Cost effectiveness, durablity, and high performance blend together making the F-16 Fighting Falcon one of history's greatest aircraft.

Jim "Twitch" Tittle tells us about the F-16, its variants, clones, and of its notable victories in the air.

SVPPB

Out of curiosity, what were the Pakistani losses during the Afghan conflict. Surely, the Soviets drew some blood.

Thanks for that article. It was an interesting read. It really is a superb little fighter, that one. I'm sure it conjurs up affectionate memories for most flight sim fans.

What's next up? Are you taking suggestions for future articles? How about some research into the new crop of fighters being offered to air forces around the globe? Like F/A-18E, Rafale, EF-2000, F-22, JSF and Su-37?

Keep up the good work matey.

LD.

Most European airforces converted from the F-104 to the F-16A (block 10 later block 15) not the C's. A recent midlife update program brought these aircraft up to a standard comparable to the F-16C / block 50 model.

Even the lighter F-16A can only match in theory the speed of the F-104 but not many pilots like to fly the F-16 at that speed. The exact top speed is not that important as the F-16 was/is a beter weapons platform and has beter avionics.

But even then I miss the sight and sound of the F-104's flying over Europe. It's unique shape always made you wonder how the hell it stayed up in the air. It triggered my interest in this hobby and it probably was the main reason for my (short) airforce career.

The F-16A single seat is already used as a recon platform since 1984 when the Royal Netherlands Airforce 306 squadron became operational. They use an Oldelft Orpheus camera pod on the centre station.