Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Hunter Hires
Take a good long look at the main pic of this piece. Click on it, even, to enlarge it. Now ask yourself: could you have landed this perfect shot?
As the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has proven time and again over the years, its personnel is not only talented at shooting guns at enemies, but also gifted when it comes to shooting photos.
The one we’re bringing you today in our Photo of the Day section was taken at the end of August by a Senior Airman. It shows the nose and underbelly of an F-16C Fighting Falcon as it takes off from the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in New Jersey. And it also shows the plane in perfect detail.
The one you’re looking at here is of the 16C variant, the most advanced of the family. It is deployed with the 177th Fighter Wing housed by the said base, and it looks perfectly ready to do combat: it has missiles attached to the wingtip hardpoints, but also two large drop tanks closer to the main body.
To each side of the massive air intake, we get to see the plane’s colorful navigation lights, and if you strain your eyes just the right way, you may even get to see the pilot inside the cockpit.
What we don’t get to see is the afterburner of the single-engine that powers the plane. When fully on, it can shoot the F-16 to speeds of up to Mach 2 (1,535 mph/2,470 kph) and can take it to distances of up to 2,620 miles (4,217 km).
With over four and a half thousand of them made to date, Fighting Falcons are some of the most widespread fighter planes in the world. Over the years, they amassed over 13 million sorties and 19.5 million flight hours.
The one we’re bringing you today in our Photo of the Day section was taken at the end of August by a Senior Airman. It shows the nose and underbelly of an F-16C Fighting Falcon as it takes off from the Atlantic City Air National Guard Base in New Jersey. And it also shows the plane in perfect detail.
The one you’re looking at here is of the 16C variant, the most advanced of the family. It is deployed with the 177th Fighter Wing housed by the said base, and it looks perfectly ready to do combat: it has missiles attached to the wingtip hardpoints, but also two large drop tanks closer to the main body.
To each side of the massive air intake, we get to see the plane’s colorful navigation lights, and if you strain your eyes just the right way, you may even get to see the pilot inside the cockpit.
What we don’t get to see is the afterburner of the single-engine that powers the plane. When fully on, it can shoot the F-16 to speeds of up to Mach 2 (1,535 mph/2,470 kph) and can take it to distances of up to 2,620 miles (4,217 km).
With over four and a half thousand of them made to date, Fighting Falcons are some of the most widespread fighter planes in the world. Over the years, they amassed over 13 million sorties and 19.5 million flight hours.
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