CORRELATION OF F-16 AERODYNAMICS AND PERFORMANCE PREDICTIONS WITH EARLY FLIGHT TEST RESULTS.

F-16 design objectives and pertinent configuration features are reviewed, and the major external configuration differences between the YF-16 prototype and the F-16 full-scale development airplanes are discussed. Since comparision of YF-16 wind tunnel and flight test lift and drag data showed some differences, the approach to predicting F-16 aerodynamics was to use YF-16 flight-test-derived data corrected for YF-16-to-F-16 configuration differences as determined from wind tunnel tests. A comparison of YF-16 and F-16 wind tunnel lift, drag, and pitching-moment data reflects the close similarity between the F-16 and YF-16 configurations. Early F-16 flight test results show similar differences between wind tunnel and flight test lift and drag as experienced on the YF-16 and therefore validate this empirical approach. The untrimmed drag due to lift generally appears lower in flight than in the wind tunnel, and the subsonic lift in the intermediate angle-of-attack range is higher inflight than in the wind tunnel. The trim horizontal-tail deflections, however, are larger than indicated by the wind tunnel, which was not the case for the YF-16 and therefore was not predicted. This results in a small increase in trim drag. The flight-measured F-16 performance parameters pertinent to the air superiority mission - range constant, turn rate, and acceleration time - are all within 5 percent of prediction.