An F-16 picture with something weird...

[F-16Viper]

anyone know what this thing is? (its circled in red, cant miss it )

[C]

It'll be the Sidewinder on the wingtip of the camera aircraft...

[gryshnak]

It's a very large missile about to catch up with the F16

[Hagar]

It's good ol' Snoopy.

[cheesegrater]

I think the picture is fake. The clouds are in low resolution but the F-16 is cartoony. Also, the edges look messed up. I think it is a wingtip and the F-16 was pasted in the picture.

[Stormtropper]

Hmmm...one F-16 with smoke pods and the other with AIM-9s?

[Theis]

I don't think the picture is a fake!

http://www.f-16.net/gallery_item20719.html

[expat]

It is the Acqu unit on the wing tip of the aircraft taking the picture.

Matt

[elite marksman]

This picture is definatly a fake. Firstly, the bubble on a -16 is gold-tinged, to protect the electrical equiment, and secondly, because there are absolutly no visible shadows, and due to the geometry of the -16, there should be a shadow on the horizontal stab if the aircraft was facing directly into the sun, or shadows on the dorsal or ventral sides if it wasnt, none are present, thus it looks like a ss from a sim that does not incorporate self-shadowing pasted onto a low-res picture from the cockpit of a real -16.

EDIT, RDAF -16s dont have the gold-tinges bubble, but the warshot/smoke pod combo doesnt make sense. And you can tell its a warshot, notice the missile is white, not blue.

[cheesegrater]

That picture is fake and that book doesn't even exist.

[SkyNoz]

Looks like an ICBM, aswell I think it's fake. No instance can you ever capture this type of shot and the speed of which the missile is traveling. Non the less, something to have fun with.. I guess?

[C]

That picture is fake and that book doesn't even exist.

If you look hard enough, the book did exist but has been out of pirnt for some time...

Looks like an ICBM, aswell I think it's fake

Surpirising that is. Looks just like the front 11" of a Sidewinder to me, which (shock horror) would have probably been on the wingtip pylon of the 2 seat F-16 taking the photo...


...or is that all too logical. That is only a 30kb photo too...

Anyone got a wall I can borrow...

[alrot]

That picture is fake and that book doesn't even exist.

Of course can't you see how high is it must be 80.000 feets and if (supposly it can flight at this altitude) ,do you think can turn like this at this altitude?

[C]

I'd say it's impossible to say what altitude this photo is at. Somewhere around 30000ft wouldn't surprise me, particularly if the vertical climb is being held for the photographer...

[Mobius]

I think Charlie is right, it's not like it's difficult for an F-16 to do a vertical climb at high altitude, and anyways, why would it be faked if it's obviously a manuever any F-16 can do?  Also, notice that if you were looking at the F-16 in the second picture (below) at the same angle as the previously posted pic, you wouldn't see any shadows on it either. It just doesn't make sense that it would be a hoax...