Posted on 10/30/2015 5:29:25 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Edited on 10/30/2015 6:12:11 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — While visiting this sprawling military installation north of Kabul last week, I visited the flight line of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing. And then I stumbled into a little history.
The plane is an F-16C Fighting Falcon, commonly known in the service as a Viper. The U.S. military has at least one pair of fighters airborne over Afghanistan virtually all the time, carrying out everything from the armed over-watch and protection of ground units to airstrikes against insurgents.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
F-16 ping.
The wings (fixed wing aircraft) on that viper look more swept than the standard configuration. Is that right?
I am pretty sure it is a standard Block 40.
Great aircraft.
Aircraft are nothing without the guidance of a competent pilot.
Just an incredible design. I wish we’d build 1000 new models, starting tomorrow.
F-15Cs scored 32 aerial kills of a total of 41 victories in the gulf war. Of these, all but eight were achieved with the Eagleâs beyond-visual-range weapon, the radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile, a weapon that had been plagued by mechanical problems during the Vietnam war but performed well in the 1990s. The AIM-120A AMRAAM was not fired in anger, although more than a thousand âcaptive carriesâ of the missile were racked up during combat missions in the final days of the war. Eagle pilots made seven kills using the AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared air-to-air missile, and one pilot downed an Iraqi MiG-29 by maneuvering his adversary into the ground.
Thanks!
Where does the moniker Viper come from ? Always was a Falcon in my era.... I thought the Viper was the newest variant of the F16 ?
Been retired since 96 so please understand I’m just asking as to the name Viper ....a nickname maybe ??
..... thanks if ya have time.
Stay Safe JJ.
The first F-16 pilots nicknamed it the Viper after the Battlestar Galactica fighter, but the name didn’t stick.
Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/outrageous-adolescence-f-16-180949491/#fZTpoGQ65dmUpvvM.99
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Grateful ..... thanks ya’ll
Was mixed up on the name when i read this.....
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/10/26/meet-viper-newest-f-16-fighter.html
Stay Safe !!
Cool technology for the F-16!
Just like the A-10 official name is Thunderbolt2 but got the nickname “Warthog” from a experimental spotted camo that one of the prototypes was trying out
Thanks Top Hat ..... Thought I’d missed a meeting .....:o)
Stay Safe !
The SR71 was called the Blackbird and the Habu when first flown out of Kadena AFB, Okinawa.
It is funny how an unofficial nickname can overtake an official nickname
The classic is the Huey....
The UH-1 official name was “Iroquois”... Army helicopters were to have Indian tribe names....
But “Huey” came from the slang for the “UH” designation
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