Vought Model 1600

The Vought Model 1600 was a carrier-based fighter proposal that Vought and General Dynamics put to the United States Navy in the mid 1970s for its Navy Air Combat Fighter program. It was a navalized derivative of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, built on the Block 10 airframe with structural strengthening, an arrestor hook and a more robust undercarriage for carrier launch and recovery. General Dynamics had no carrier aircraft experience and so teamed up with Vought, whose F-8 Crusader and A-7 Corsair II had served the Navy well. Vought drew up three concepts, the Model 1600 with a Pratt & Whitney F401 turbofan, the Model 1601 with an improved F100 and the Model 1602 with a General Electric F101. The Navy preferred a twin-engine aircraft and on 2 May 1975 chose the Northrop and McDonnell Douglas design that became the F/A-18 Hornet, so the Model 1600 was never built.