When they carry ECM pods can they use the long or the short pylon? I’m having trouble finding decent pictures.
What era is the F-16 your building from, and what’s its user nation?
F-16 have carried more than a few types of ECM pods in their time. I think the type of pylon is relative to the type of ECM pod it carrying.
Like upnorth said, what era and what nation?
Here in Denmark we only carry a 300GL external tank on the centerline station.
Instead of an ECM pod we have ECM components build into the wing weapon pylons, but its very different from nation to nation.
How long is the pod? its limited how long it can be on the centerline, too far back and it will hit the ground durring takeoff and landing, too far forward and it will interfer with the nose landing gear.
have a look at this pic http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f16_3.jpg
and this http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16c-flare-19990609-f-2171a-001.jpg
and this http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16c-flare-19990609-f-2171a-008.jpg
and this http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16-98904f16lgb.jpg
and this http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16-990780a.jpg
also have a look at this site http://www.fas.org./man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-16.htm
Hope this helps
I’m using an ALQ-131 for a USAF viper. All the pictures I can find seem to show a short pylon, so I have modified mine accordingly.
out04,
ALQ-131’s are carried on the “short” pylons…it’s kind of a short pod. The ALQ-184 pod, I’ll give you the standard Weapons School answer…“It depends!” The short -184 pod is attached with a “short” pylon. The long -184 pod uses the long centerline pylon. We had three set ups at Prince Sultan Air Base during Iraqi Freedom. Active duty Vipers from CONUS and PACAF as well as Reserve Vipers from Texas, Utah and Florida (Homestead). I was able to walk down the ramp and got to see all of the ECM/Targting/HTS pod setups. The Reserves did not stay at Prince Sultan and left just about a week before the war started with their -131s on short pylons. Remember, each unit may hang a certain pod so look closely at the unit’s standard conventional loads.
Mine has a -131 hanging, so I modified for the short pylon. Hated to do it too, since the plane was nearly complete finish-wise. Worked out alright though. Thanks for the input folks.