F16 Fighter to Drone as converted by Boeing

[saddamsnightmare]

December 23rd, 2013.

Gentlemen:

This should go along with the WWII U.S.Navy Drone in the Conversations section. Apparently our older F-16's are destined to a newer, shorter life as drones. Does the conventional F16 use a cooling system in the cockpit like the drone does?

http://bcove.me/jwwtliu0


Enjoy, the ultimate RC Jet....

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's!

 

[steelypip]

Apparently our older F-16's are destined to a newer, shorter life as drones. Does the conventional F16 use a cooling system in the cockpit like the drone does?

Yes, it's the standard cooling system. It's blowing condensation because it's in Florida and they have rather a lot of humidity there on warm mornings.

Nothing in this is new except that it's a QF-16 instead of a QF-4, a QF-106, a QF-102, or some other timed out airframe.

 

[TehTDK]

Why is the cooling fans blowing when there is no pilot?. Unless of course all the avionics would overheat and shut off

 

[TucsonVTXF]

your night!!! and to defog the canopy if there was a pilot.

Why is the cooling fans blowing when there is no pilot?. Unless of course all the avionics would overheat and shut off

 

[Coffey1]

If its capable of higher Gs , then other pilots may not be able to take it down.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

December 23rd, 2013.

Gentlemen:

This should go along with the WWII U.S.Navy Drone in the Conversations section. Apparently our older F-16's are destined to a newer, shorter life as drones. Does the conventional F16 use a cooling system in the cockpit like the drone does?

http://bcove.me/jwwtliu0


Enjoy, the ultimate RC Jet....

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's!

Thanks for posting this up!

IMHO - As for the "ultimage RC jet", I would offer the D-21 Drone that was a single engine version of the SR-71 and was launched from a piggy-back ride on the SR-71 family of aircraft (Google: D-21 Drone for more info) and actually has more impressive performance stats than her mother ship did.
https://www.google.com/search?newwi...10.0....0...1c.1.32.hp..0.10.1061.elfjIbgntaw

 

[steelypip]

I think you're actually under selling the D-21 a little - it was actually autonomous once launched, so was among the first guided cruise missiles with some degree of environmental awareness.

As for runnining the AC full blast on the QF-16, you can safely assume that they used as much cheap off-the-shelf parts for the drone conversion as possible. Keeping it all cool is probably a big part of keeping it working.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

December 25th, 2013.

As to the D-21, not bad for a flying engine, it's somewhat less of a plane then the Navy TD-1 of World War two, which for test flights was fitted with a cockpit for a pilot. The Navy Drone was "America's Kamikaze", because the plane itself flew into the target with its bomb. reconnaissance was never its forte, and the QF-16, just a big clay pigeon (admittedly one of the more expensive clay pigeons, so to speak)!

Merry Christmas!