gambit
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Nah...I was talking from a pure visual perspective. I can handle the larger vertical stab root of the 'C/D', but the 'A' body is the most visually appealing.I'm sure in it's clean configuration, the F-16 is in it's prime however the CFTs also seem to have little or no effect on it's performance.
The F-16 is genuinely a fighter jet. Forget about 'stealth', and I do not say that lightly and everybody here know how I feel about 'stealth', but low radar observable is a feature that is not needed to make an aircraft a 'fighter'. When aviation was borned, maneuverability was the rage and the biplanes were designed specifically for that feature. Practically no designer wanted to make a passenger aircraft. Every man wanted an aircraft that under the civilian facade is a fighter. The F-16 is the last of this breed. Never mind the two-seater version. The B/D versions are trainers. It is the single seater that is the fighter. Everything about the F-16 is about making it as pure a fighter as possible.
The F-15 is Mike Tyson. The F-16 is Manny Pacquiao, Sugar Ray Leonard, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Donnie Yen all rolled into into a single body. Although, I am partial to Donnie Yen myself.
There is a difference between a 'mission' and a 'type'. The F-15 was designed to accomplish a 'mission', which is air superiority. I can assign a B-52 to that job if I wanted to. But a 'type' is philosophical and the F-16 was built from a philosophy, not a mission.
In boxing, winning a title is a mission, but whether you have a body type to accomplish that mission is a different issue. You can spar with Manny Pacquiao and even if he does not land a single touch to you, there would still be no mistaking that you faced a fighter. Going up against the F-16 even in mock combat and you will leave the engagement relieved that he was unarmed. Never mind about off boresight missiles. The F-16 is about agility and maneuverability using the most basic forms and quantity of surfaces, then coupled that with an oversized engine, and you got as close to a fighter in the air as can get.
The F-16 may very well be the last of its kind, my friend. And I am glad to have been on that control stick at 9g.