AIDC IDF: Taiwan's Own 4th Gen Fighter

[Faust]

I do love the odd, esoteric and somewhat forgotten planes, it seems. I always find that there’s something intrinsically rewarding about picking up a kit of a plane that most people don’t even know about. It makes it a lot more fun to build, too, assuming I can get around to it sometime!

One particularly good example of this is the AIDC FCK-1, or IDF. This is the Taiwanese answer to the F-16/F-18, and, maybe not surprisingly, looks a little like both combined. This fighter wasn’t built in large numbers, but it was successful and is still in service. I personally love the idea of a twin-engined F-16, and with the IDF, that’s kind of what you get! When I ran across an injection moulded example at a swap meet some time ago, I was thrilled!

Even though it’s not in my preferred scale of 1/72, it’s still a cool kit. I think it will look great once it’s built, too. Heck, as a What-If, it could even make a cool T-X contender for the Talon replacement program! Check out my out of box review of this rather oddball creation below. You might be surprised how not-terrible the kit seems to be!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/zhengdefu-148-aidc-fck-1b-ching-kuo-oob/

Edited October 6, 2016 by Faust

[Jim B]

Should be interesting.  Looks a little like a cross between the F20 & the F16.

[Faust]

Yeah, there's a lot of different fighter ideas in there. Clearly, more F-16 than anything, but it's just different enough that it's entertaining. 

I really do think that it would make an awesome Talon replacement, but I guess it's too big. It at least has two engines, which is good for training safety. I love the A/T-50 Golden Eagle, but I wonder about the single-engined nature of it. There are lots of 1-engine trainers, of course, but the US has generally gone with two.

The IDF here already has that part covered!

[Mike999]

I made several biz trips to Taiwan back in the 1990s and got to see the IDF in person.  There are some good reasons why it looks like the offspring of an F-16 and F-18. Back in the early 1980s the USA banned the sale of F-16s to Taiwan, due to pressure from The Other China.  However, there was no ban on "technical assistance," so General Dynamics, Lockheed, and other American contractors provided a lot of input on the IDF.  I worked for a large aerospace company involved in that project and some others in Taiwan.

The AIDC, which builds the IDF, has a big factory in the city of Taichung. That city's airport is dual-purpose, civil and military. So while waiting to take off from Taichung on a commercial flight, it's not unusual to see an IDF or other military aircraft cross the flight line right in front of your plane.

Taiwan built another IDF, at least as a prototype, and I used to have a 1/72 kit of that one but sold it on eBay long ago.  It had a more squarish canopy but was the same  twin-engine configuration.