COBI F-16AM Fighting Falcon Set 5896 (Damaged Box)

COBI's F-16AM Fighting Falcon is a 1:48 model built from 425 blocks, 31 cm long, in Royal Netherlands Air Force colours, with detachable AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles, a Dutch pilot figure and a display stand with the national flag and Lockheed Martin logo.

Condition

This set is sold at a reduced price because the outer box is damaged — it may have holes, creases or crushed corners. The contents are brand new, sealed and complete. If you are building the model rather than collecting sealed boxes, the only difference is the price.

Look at the canopy

There is no frame across the front of it. The F-16's canopy is a single piece of polycarbonate curving from the nose back over the pilot's head, and in 1974 that was startling.

Every fighter before it had a windscreen frame, and the frame sat exactly where a pilot looking for an enemy needed to see. Removing it meant the canopy had to survive a bird strike on its own and be optically good enough that a curved surface did not distort the target. It also put the pilot's head above the fuselage line, so an F-16 pilot can look almost straight back over his own shoulder.

Combined with the reclined seat and the side-stick, the cockpit was designed around what a human body can do under g. Every fighter since has copied it.

Specifications

Pieces: 425 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:48 · Detachable weapons, display stand
Model dimensions: 31 × 22 × 11.5 cm (12.2 × 8.7 × 4.5 in)
Condition: new and sealed, outer box damaged