KerbalX

Probably my second favorite never produced jet: The F-16XL. First things first, just like the real thing this is a lengthened version of my F-16 Viper replica with a cranked delta. Unlike the real thing, it is somehow at least as unstable as that replica, it hates straight and level flight, you will probably destroy the engine a few times on takeoff (I use a joystick and it’s still a bit of a harder takeoff than it probably should be, not because it’s hard to raise the nose, but because the moment it gets lift it wants to do a backflip, this is how the real F-16 works, afaik the CoM is even further back on the real one). Atmospheric Autopilot is necessary. One tip for flying this, if you find yourself struggling to get the nose on with a payload, use the airbrakes for a sec while maneuvering. I have no idea why it works but those spoilers work wonders to increase control, with the obvious downside of killing off airspeed.

A few details: It has great lift as expected, the huge wings offer ridiculous internal tank size making an external tank basically unnecessary unless you’re gonna be in AB the entire time. As well as internal size, the underwing area is huge now, I fit the payload from one of the wiki pictures on it, 4xAIM-120s, 2xAIM-9s, and 12x500lb bombs.

Now for a moment I’d like to speak directly to General Dynamics: How in the hell did you fit 27 pylons on this thing? I have 18 on it currently, wouldn’t be hard to add the centerline pylon to make it 19, but look at the remaining area! You gonna fit another 8x500lb bombs on the cranked part of the delta? How does that not completely ruin the location of the CoM relative to the CoL? Ok back to you now. All the aft horizontal control surface on this thing are autoflap-aileron-elevators that i’ve tuned a bit, and it has the interestingly placed leading edge slats on the forward portion of the crank.

Mods

• B9 Procedural Wings Modified
• BDArmory for Runway Project
• Ferram Aerospace Research
• Kerbal Foundries2
• Nice MKseries Body
• Procedural Parts
• Squad (stock)
• TweakScale - Rescale Everything!
• coldwaraerospace
• kerbalfield