Conformal Tanks on US F-16s?

[Center_Mid]

Never seen them on USAF F-16s. Any reason why not? Because we have a huge tanker fleet? I would think they'd be useful.

Also, a minor point: when did everyone start calling F-16s "vipers"? Yes, "fighting falcon" sounds like a high school mascot, but why viper?

 

[bunk22]

Don't know about the tanks but it has been called the Viper since the beginning I think. Funny that I caught a fake on the net attempting to give advice about being a fighter pilot...I knew right away as he said he was an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot. Never hear of that? He eventually admitted he was not a USAF pilot. Idiot.

 

[Center_Mid]

Don't know about the tanks but it has been called the Viper since the beginning I think. Funny that I caught a fake on the net attempting to give advice about being a fighter pilot...I knew right away as he said he was an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot. Never hear of that? He eventually admitted he was not a USAF pilot. Idiot.

Fighting Falcon was the "official" name given either by General Dynamics or the AF. I can remember at the USAFA having to memorize aircraft silhouettes, names, and missions, and we called the F-16 the FF, not viper. Full disclosure: I'm not an AF pilot, never was. Left the Academy at the concusion of my first year because I knew I'd never get to UPT in the early 90s age of RIFing. My eyes were borderline non-PQ at the time. Interestingly, my cadet squadron was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment the summer after I left because of some bad stuff that happened during SERE training.

 

[Zondaracer]

Actually, if I remember my Air Force history, "Fighting Falcon" was chosen in a naming contest. Contest submissions were accepted from all ranks and AFSC's. I was told that the nickname "Viper" came about first, but the Generals didn't want a plane named after a snake, and Fighting Falcon kind of matched the naming of the F-15 Eagle. Since Viper pilots felt that "fighting falcon" was a heterosexually challenged name, viper stuck. The winner won a free dinner at the NCO club!

 

[Center_Mid]

I was told that the nickname "Viper" came about first, but the Generals didn't want a plane named after a snake, and Fighting Falcon kind of matched the naming of the F-15 Eagle.

Makes sense. Fighting Falcon does seem like a name chosen by some old-school general. Viper definitely sounds cooler, though it has the unfortunate connection to a certain Tom Cruise movie about fighter pilots.

Coolest "official" fighter names? I'd go with Mustang, Phantom, Hellcat, Tomcat (pretty much all the "cats"), Corsair, Fury, Spitfire, Voodoo. Less cool: Sea Vixen, Shooting Star, Mosquito.

 

[Center_Mid]

BTW, do you race Zondas or is that just an aspirational name?

 

[bunk22]

Fighting Falcon was the "official" name given either by General Dynamics or the AF. I can remember at the USAFA having to memorize aircraft silhouettes, names, and missions, and we called the F-16 the FF, not viper. Full disclosure: I'm not an AF pilot, never was. Left the Academy at the concusion of my first year because I knew I'd never get to UPT in the early 90s age of RIFing. My eyes were borderline non-PQ at the time. Interestingly, my cadet squadron was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment the summer after I left because of some bad stuff that happened during SERE training.

I know very well what it was called officially but it acquired the name Viper from the beginning. How does one know what they are going to get in 3 years?? I had buddies who didn't puck up a pilot slot then applied two years down the road and picked it up. To each their own but I don't buy that excuse. Anyway...

http://www.f-16.net/articles_article10.html

Viper: the unofficial nickname
The F-16 is often referred to as the "Viper", a nickname especially popular with people involved with the F-16. Before "Fighting Falcon" was selected as official name, pilots at Hill AFB, the first F-16 base, came up with a number of proposals, including "Viper". Lt. Col. Pat "Gums" McAdoo, USAF Ret., one of the first F-16 pilots at Hill AFB, recalls the origin of the name "F-16 Viper":

At end of runway, the F-16 did resemble a cobra or something as it approached you. However, I think Northrop had already taken that name for the YF-17.​

We all voted, and Viper came in really high. Seems there was a series on TV that had 'colonial Vipers' flying off of Battlestar Galactica (a term later used for the Eagle).​

In any case, the Generals didn't want a plane 'named after some snake'!​

Falcon was a good name, and it fit in with the motif that the Eagle had created. Sort of a little brother, but still a 'Bird of Prey'. In fact, GD had a great promo out in late 70's called "Bird of Prey", and it used the Falcon as the real world model. ​

Even when F-16 Fighting Falcon became the official name, Viper stuck around and became the unofficial nickname for the F-16. The name "Viper" is even officially used for the Joe Bill Dreyden "Semper Viper" award, which is awarded for excellent airmanship by F-16 pilots.

 

[Hacker15e]

Let's not forget that the airplane the YF-16 squared off against in the Light Fighter competition was the YF-17 Cobra.

Notice any similarity with the snake name there?

Viper was a General Dynamics name, and then when it was selected by the USAF, it was re-named in line with the "birds of pray" naming convention started with the Eagle.

 

[JPilot9]

So you're saying we'll eventually be calling the F-35 the Tyrannosaurus to keep in line with the current dinosaur theme?

 

[Center_Mid]

How does one know what they are going to get in 3 years?? I had buddies who didn't puck up a pilot slot then applied two years down the road and picked it up. To each their own but I don't buy that excuse.

Fair enough. Of course I didn't know, but I didn't like my odds either. We were all sat down at a briefing at the end of 1st BCT and were told by a one-star that only about 25% of our class would likely attend UPT. That percentage ended up larger in the end, but it wasn't like the old days. That briefing wasn't what made me choose to leave. My real problem was that my eyes were 20/70 by Recognition and I really just wanted to be a pilot. Shame on me for that. There was probably someone else out there who really wanted to go to the Academy and serve his/her country regardless of whether that was as a pilot, missileman, or whatever. That wasn't me. I just wanted to be a pilot and I figured eyes would get worse and would be the simplest way to DQ me for a slot (they did get worse). So I left at the end of the year and pursued flying as a civvie. Could've left earlier, but I wanted to prove I could do the first year and wasn't just leaving because it was hard. Yeah, maybe I could've stayed in two years and then tried to get LASIK and a slot, but that didn't seem realistic back then.

 

[Zondaracer]

BTW, do you race Zondas or is that just an aspirational name?

I wish I raced Zondas, or anything. I am so strapped for cash that I race rental karts on occasion. I would buy a race kart but have spent all my money on flying. I actually came up with this name because I was looking for an AIM screen name back in the day that didn't have a bunch of numbers, and I was a fan of the Pagani Zonda. I saw one in person in France about 10 and a half years ago, and that was the only time.

 

[USMCmech]

So you're saying we'll eventually be calling the F-35 the Tyrannosaurus to keep in line with the current dinosaur theme?

Well, the F-22 was offically the Lighting II (after the P-38), not the Raptor.

The A-10 is technially the Thunderbolt II (after the P-47) not a Warthog.

A lot of military jets have one official nickname, and another that is the one actually used.

 

[bunk22]

Well, the F-22 was offically the Lighting II (after the P-38), not the Raptor.
A lot of military jets have one official nickname, and another that is the one actually used.

No, the F-22 has always been the Raptor, the F-35 is the Lightning II.

 

[USMCmech]

No, the F-22 has always been the Raptor, the F-35 is the Lightning II.

I'm pretty sure that in the early days of the program it was the Lighting II, not sure when they offically switched to Raptor.

It's lame that they just recycled the name for the F-35.

 

[bunk22]

I'm pretty sure that in the early days of the program it was the Lighting II, not sure when they offically switched to Raptor.

It's lame that they just recycled the name for the F-35.

Can't find any info on it, all I see it Raptor from the get go. The 35 was Lightning II from the beginning. But if you have the info, lets see it....as I'm not certain either.

 

[USMCmech]

Ok, found it. The prototypes were called the Lighting II by Lockeheed.

"The YF-22 was given the unofficial name "Lightning II" after Lockheed's World War II-era fighter, the P-38 Lightning, which persisted until the mid-1990s when the USAF officially named the aircraft "Raptor".[10] The F-35 later received the Lightning II name in 2006" (Wikipedia)

 

[bunk22]

Wikipedia though (better source?).....and it isn't called the Lightning by anybody and never was officially either.

 

[SurferLucas]

If you do a google search for YF-22, most models of the aircraft carried the name "Lightning II"...I seem to recall it being used as the nickname "back in the day". I want to say it was the YF-22 named after the P-38 and the YF-23 was named the "Black Widow II" after the P-61, which would seem fitting.

 

[Hacker15e]

the YF-23 was named the "Black Widow II" after the P-61, which would seem fitting.

The Black Widow name came about as a joke, based on the red triangles that were painted on the aircraft for one of the flight tests. They resembled the red hourglass on the spider...and seeing the connection to a previous Northrop product, the YF-23 test team ran with the joke.

The way I heard it, Northrop didn't like the idea at all and squashed it.

 

[inigo88]

There was a PC flight simulator game (a really fun one at that) from 1996 called "F-22 Lighting II."

There you go, definitive proof!