Due to the same
pressures that revived the F-15 ACTIVE, the F-16 Forward Swept Wing concept was
also revisited. Two pressures on US fighter production emerged shortly
after the 'conclusion' of the war in Iraq. First, there was increasing
pressure to keep up with some very successful 5th generation fighter
programs--namely the MiG 1.44 and the Chinese J-10 and J-12. The second
pressure was budgetary. There simply wasn't enough money to continue to
develop and produce extremely complex and expensive aircraft like the F-22, and
less so the F-35 JSF. This lead to some innovative thinking on the part of
the aircraft industry. There had been some very promising experimental
aircraft in the past, and they looked to these to help fill the gaps and provide
interim 5th generation fighters that could be effectively supported in the
battlefield. The first of those fighters was the F-15 ACTIVE II, which we
have already covered. The second was the F-16 FSW, with some things
borrowed from the CCV program as well.
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Even though initial testing on a
forward swept wing had been done with the X-29, a parallel proposal for an F-16
had also been made. Since the X-29 and the F-16 had so many common
components, it was felt that the F-16 FSW would be a better candidate for
reviving the program. A prototype was quickly constructed and testing
began very shortly thereafter. Since a great deal of research had already
been done on the concept, pushing the development into production was done
rapidly.
The trans-sonic maneuverability
of the F-16 FSW was marginally better than the X-29. The aircraft could
operate with a significantly heavier warload, and it could operate from shorter
fields as well. The F-16 FSW is an incredibly able dogfighter, and is
generally without an equal in a toe to toe fight. It's ability to handle
heavier loads also increased it's value as a CAS aircraft.
This was the 1/48 Academy kit.
The fit was pretty good, and I only required a minimum amount of filler for most
of the model. The panel lines were nice and understated. The wings
and CCV canards were scratchbuilt from styrene, and attached via a cut down
popsicle stick which I glued in place after removing the original wings.
At first, I tried to recycle the original wings to save time, but that proved to
be a mistake. It took significantly less time to build the wings
completely from scratch. My only real complaint about the Academy kit is
the cockpit. I was more than a little disappointed with it. If I
were to do another one an aftermarket cockpit would be a must.
I also spent a great deal of time
smoothing the intake out, and giving it a more realistic path into the fuselage.
It's one of those details you'd probably never notice if you didn't do it, but
it really does add a little extra to the finished product. In hindsight, I
should've probably dropped the flaps, too. Maybe next time.
The two GBU-12s came from the
Hasegawa weapons set, and I used the stock hardpoints with stabilizers added
from the F-15 Strike Eagle kit. I used the kit's decals (which didn't look
too good), with a little artistic license thrown in.
I have to add, you should've seen
the guy's face at the hobby store when I told him I was taking that nice kit
home so I could cut it apart. It was priceless.
John
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