Information supplied and copyrighted
by Joe Baugher
General Dynamics AFTI
F-16
Last revised March 31,
2000
To evaluate unconventional control of an
aircraft in flight using CCV surfaces directed by digital systems, the Flight Dynamics
Laboratory of the Air Force Systems Command sponsored an Advanced Fighter Technology
Integration (AFTI) program. In 1979, General Dynamics was awarded a contract to convert
the fifth FSD F-16A (75-0750) into an AFTI aircraft. It capitalized on the experience
gained with the CCV (Control Configured Vehicle) F-16 (72-1567).
The AFTI F-16 was fitted with twin canard
surfaces mounted below the air intake, these surfaces having been taken from the CCV/F-16.
The aircraft was fitted with a bulged spine which housed additional electronics. It had a
full-authority triplex Digital Flight Control System (DFCS) and an Automated Maneuvering
Attack System (AMAS). This system provides six independent degrees of freedom and utilizes
a voice command system with a dictionary of 50 words. It is designed to be fault tolerant,
so that no single failure should affect correct operation. In the event of a second fault
developing, the system is able to revert to a standby condition which will permit safe
flight to continue. To guard against unforseen failure modes which might bring the entire
digital flight control system down, the system incorporates a simple analog backup
flight-control system.
The AFTI took to the air for the first
time at Fort Worth on July 10, 1982, Alex V. Wolfe being at the controls. Following
manufacturers trials carried out at Carswell AFB, Texas, the AFTI/F-16 was moved to
Edwards AFB for a two-year program of flight tests. Phase I testing was primarily devoted
to evaluating the DFCS and involved the demonstration of direct translational maneuvering
capability. Phase I testing was completed on July 30, 1983. In 1984 Phase II testing
started with a dummy, then an operational FLIR mounted in the wing root, F-16C-standard
avionics fitted, and the Automated Maneuvering Attack System was installed. During Phase
II testing, which lasted until 1987, the AMAS enabled the AFTI/F-16 to translate in all
three axes at a constant angle of attack and to be pointed up to six degrees off the
flight vector. >[? The digital flight control system gave the pilot a new freedom in
maneuvering, making it possible to assume unorthodox flight attitudes, using nose
pointing, direct force translation, and other unconventional means of maneuver. The
aircraft was also used to test and evaluate a variety of single-place cockpit layouts and
systems. Pilots evaluated heads-up and head-down displays, voice interaction command
systems, synthesized speech voice warnings, and touch-sensitive display screens. This
aircraft also tried out products from the the Air Force Microcomputer Applications of
Graphics and Interactive Communications (MAGIC) project, which studies pictorial formats
for situation displays in all three axes.
In September of 1987, the F-16/AFTI team
received the Air Force Association's 1987 Theodor von Karman Award for the most
outstanding achievement in science and engineering.
In recent years, the AFTI/F-16 became
associated with close air support (CAS) studies, some of them conducted by NASA. These
studies began in 1991. In this configuration, the large moveable ventral foreplanes were
removed, and various attack infrared sensors were mounted in wingroot turret fairings and
above the nose in front of the cockpit. These close air support tests were in support of
the proposed A-16 or other future close air support/battlefield air interdiction aircraft.
The AFTI/F-16 was later upgraded with an F-16C Block 25 wing and with Block 40 F-16C
features such as APG-68 radar and a LANTIRN interface. It went through a five-phase CAS
evaluation program over 1988-1991, testing such low-level battlefield interdiction
techniques as automatic target handoff-systems in which target data was transferred from
ground stations or from other aircraft to the AFTI/F-16, the Pave Penny laser-designator
pod, off-axis weapons launch techniques, and various digital systems. The AFTI/F-16 fired
a HARM missile for the first time on May 19, 1994 as part of the Talon Sword Bravo program
in a demonstration of technology that could be used for the Suppression of Enemy Air
Defenses (SEAD) role. The purpose of this demonstration was to show how sensor data from
satellites, received and correlated by a support aircrart, could allow an attacking
aircraft to direct weapons against selected emitters.
Sources:
- Combat Aircraft F-16, Doug Richardson,
Crescent, 1992.
- General Dynamics Aircraft and their
Predecessors, John Wegg, Naval Institute Press, 1990.
- The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and
Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.
- United States Military Aircraft Since
1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
- F-16 Fighting Falcon--A Major Review of
the West's Universal Warplane, Robert F. Dorr, World Airpower Journal, Spring 1991.
- The World's Great Interceptor Aircraft,
Gallery, 1989.
- Modern Military Aircraft--F-16 Viper, Lou
Drendel, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1992.
- Lockheed F-16 Variants, Part 1, World
Airpower Journal, Volume 21, Summer 1995.
- Vectored Viper, Roy Braybook, Air
International, March 1994, page 133.
- AFTI/F-16, World Airpower Journal, Volume
1, Spring 1990.
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