While flying an F-16 in the Iraq War, Air Force pilot Raj Shah had a multimillion-dollar global positioning system at his disposal. While flying combat missions in 2006, he had everything the Air Force thought he might need, including the global coordinates of his intended targets. His problem was there was no way of looking … Continued
A YouTube video of Thunderbirds lead pilot Maj. Blaine “Deuce” Jones taking an F-16 for a joyride was just published, and it’s awesome.
The short, called “Fly Amongst The Solo Thunder – USAF Thunderbirds” begins with Jones and cre…
For more than forty years, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has served as the backbone of the U.S. Air Force’s fighter fleet, but one year before the first F-16 entered service, the team behind its development had already developed a better F-16, in the F-16XL. The fighter was so capable, in fact, that it went from being nothing … Continued
In the largest air strike of Desert Storm, 72 U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons took off from the Persian Gulf to refuel over northern Saudi Arabia. Their target was Baghdad and the Nuclear Power Plant at al-Tuwaitha. One of the pilots, Maj. Emmett Tulia, would fight for his life in the skies above the … Continued
The F-16 Fighting Falcon has been the U.S. Air Force’s workhorse fighter for more than forty years, and at one point, it looked like a carrier-capable version would do the same for the U.S. Navy. More than 4,600 F-16s have rolled out off the assembly line since it first took to the sky in 1974, … Continued
We never get tired of seeing the tricks pilots can pull off, but this video is particularly impressive.
The following footage was captured inside the cockpit of a Pakistan Air Force F-16 BM Block 15, an aircraft under the PAF 11th Squadro…
The first time you select afterburner in a fighter is an experience you’ll never forget. Over a decade later, I can still remember every second of it. I had made it through the attrition of pilot training and was now in the 9-month B-Course learning to fly the F-16. After several months of academics—going over … Continued
If you have any hope of winning, your strength has to be greater than your opponent’s weakness. As a young second lieutenant in pilot training, I learned that lesson the hard way.
I was flying a Basic Fighter Maneuver Flight, also known as do…
Anything close to the maximum structural speed for a jet is usually just for the glossy brochure—99.9% of the time we don’t come close to reaching it. There was one time, though, that I pushed the F-16 as fast as it could go.
I was statione…
U.S. Air Force F-16s belonging to the 31st Fighter Wing rapidly deployed to Decimomannu Air Base, Italy as part of an exercise incorporating elements from the developing operational concept known as Agile Combat Employment.
Several F-16s belon…