Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air National Guard units, the aircraft is also used by the U.S. The F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", but "Viper" is commonly used by its pilots and crews, because of a perceived resemblance to a viper snake as well as the Colonial Viper starfighter on Battlestar Galactica which aired at the time the F-16 entered service. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and 11 locations for mounting weapons and other mission equipment. The Fighting Falcon's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for good visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, an ejection seat reclined 30 degrees from vertical to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/ fly-by-wire flight control system that helps to make it an agile aircraft. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which in turn became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta.
Air Force, improved versions are being built for export customers. Although no longer being purchased by the U.S.
Over 4,600 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976.
Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF).
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