I'm proud to have been able to fly the F-16 for 8 years. This jet will always hold a special place in my heart.

The F-16 was the Spitfire of its generation. "If it looks right, it flies right."

The F-16 comes with so many features now. It's amazing. But, why still no cup holders????

The F-16 had another inadvertent first. During one of the flight tests of the F-16XL, powered by the uprated F110-GE-129 engine, reached supersonic speed without afterburner. Since supercruise was key feature of the Advanced Tactical Fighter (soon to be F-22) , and this occurred during the early years of the ATF program, folks within GE and General Dynamics gave passing thought at offering this aircraft as a possible ATF contender.

Sorry for the reupload. A little remaster needed. Hope, that is final

One of the most beautiful planes ever..

as far as 4th gen fighters, this one is my favorite. The very first time I saw an F-16 was at an air show at the Mountain Home AFB. I witnessed the Thunderbirds aerobatics team and I was in awe of this aircraft. It just looks badass and fast; even parked on the tarmac.

The mascot of my son's middle school is the F-16.

Yeah, F-16 is beauty)

Excellent production. Great editorial, well researched, and tons of fascinating archival footage. Thanks! (Re-post of my comment on the original which got lost in the shuffle) :)

From a former F-16 Crew Chief I say WELL DONE! You really did your research. Keep up the good work!!👍

The Navy didn't go with the F-14 in place of the F-16, the F/A-18 was the Navy's choice instead of the F-16 because they need 2 engines and a few other differences for ships.

Thank you Sky for a wonderful film. Appreciate your recognition of Col. Boyd's role in the creation of the F-16 LWF.

Best multi-role fighter ever. My favourite.

Always a great pleasure watching your videos. Lots of information, lots of research and a good sense of humour. The F-16 is my favourite 4th generation fighter. I fell in love with that aircraft when watching the movie "Iron Eagle" in 1986. IMHO that movie was superior to "Top Gun".

Great video ! One of the most beautiful fighters ever produced (the other, in my opinion, is the F-22 Raptor) and which even today, thanks to constant updates, efficiently performs the tasks for which it is designed!

My two favorite fighters: P-51 F-16

The F-16 is amazing. Light, fast, and maneuverable.

Flying the F-16 into combat alone is quiet smooth sailing, in and out, without a word on the radio. Package F-15s and it’s four sheets to the wind outright chaos start to finish, missiles, AAA, comm jamming, bogeys, defending up down sideways, VIDs, you can’t help but stores jettison on ingress so game over.

The F-16 is a beautiful aircraft but for me the F-14 Tomcat is the most beautiful aircraft ever made ,it just has the looks of a world class sports car & i love it ,the new F-35 looks like a Lincoln log with wings its so fugly.

This page is severly underrated

Such a gorgeous looking aircraft. Proves aptly the adage "old is gold"

As a former aviation/aerospace news editor for a weekly newspaper in Las Vegas, I was able to get closer to F-16D's than most civilians. The "Fighting Falcon" is truly an amazing workhorse of USAF hybrid technology.

I loved watching these things take off at Bagram Air Field.

Just shows how sound the original design was. I love that bird - if it was a car, it was a '79 Porsche Turbo.

When I went through URT, I had a few instructors that flew the A model. It was riddled with issues, and they lovingly called the A model “The Lawn Dart.”

this is the best, most superior fighter jet ever designed. I love it and its development over the years. Its the BOMB!!!!

F16 and the F15 are the best fighter combinations ever.

Phenominally concise and thorough tutorial on this fantastic airframe! I actually learned a few things previously unknown. Great work!

Love the aesthetics of F-16, Mig 19, and F-22. Su-35. Looks like a wasp. Gotta love these machines. Technical Marvel's indeed.

Can honestly say the F-16 is the only Jet Fighter i have ever seen in my life. A couple Venezulean F-16s visited my country 20 years ago... will never forget them

The main 2 things about the F-16 are that it's cheap, MUCH cheaper than it's larger cousin, the F-15 and it's very adaptable for both fighter roles and ground attack missions and has been designed to be able to accept upgrades which has been going on ever since it first entered service. It's a win win for both the USAF and the American taxpayer which is perfect. She's small, pretty fast, deliberately designed to be unstable to make her nimble and agile and in my opinion... pretty sexy. The true test of her quality is that she's still going strong now and is in service all over the World.🇺🇸🇺🇸✌✌

My favorite jet but I'm highly biased. I'm no fan of conformal tanks, though. More gas, yes, but you can't get to anything on the upper strakes without removing them. 11:47 The F-16 has leading edge flaps, not slats. The two are very different. 12:22 Those are ventral fins for stability. 14:05 The early Blk 30 jets still had small mouth intakes with 110s.

The F-20 Tigershark would've been an excellent companion to the F-16, either as an aggressor or as an export fighter

Sky, you have done a Gem with this video with particularly good voice over.

They really hit a home run on 4th gen. Still keeping the peace all these years later. Balls of steel on those test pilots. I'm glad they were mentioned.

The next military story will be about the F/A-18

I started working at General Dynamics 1/22/80 in the F-16 major mate 1112 area. Also later on I went to F-22 and finally F-35 , I retired 11/01/16 , I loved every minute out there in Ft. Worth !!!

I think you paid a fitting tribute to the F-16 my man, well done! My favourite version is the F-16 Viper variant, it's the ultimate F-16 in my opinion.

Doug Masters and Chappy Sinclair approves

Still one of the few aircraft ever made that can accelerate in a vertical climb

this guy does the best videos and research on warplanes on the internet. if he'd do the same for various warships, that would be a plus plus.

I live near Shaw Airforce base so I get the privilege of watching these beautiful jets fly very often

The F-16 WAS the replacement for the F5 Freedom fighter. It was in competition with the F20 Tigershark which lost out. It was supposed to be a "giveaway" plane to nations friendly to the US but unable to afford their own air forces, but the performance value of the F-16 made it a mainstay aircraft in the US arsenal. The MIG-25 turned out to be a joke, a Russian Colonel flew one to an American Airbase in Japan and the US took it apart and found out that it couldn't do half of what Russia claimed it could do, it literally would fly itself apart if you pushed it past mach 1.8. It took Russia 40 years to finally get their act together and build a descent fighter aircraft and renamed the remodeled Mig-25 to the MIG-35, the plane that could finally do what they said the MIG-25 was supposed to be able to do, and with the MIG-35 you have to overhaul the engines if you push it to Mach 3.

Sky, I love your channel! You're on my post notifications now! Informative AND funny.!................

there will never be another fighter jet like f 16 no matter how cool 5th generation jets are. there is just something about f 16 which make so special

If I had to choose between watching the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds, I'd choose the Blue Angels; but if I had to choose between watching the F-16 and the F-18, I'd unquestionably choose the F-16. It's just more fun to watch fly, peppier, and sleeker. A magnificent bird.

The jet I work on is featured in this video, that's amazing

F-16 the modern Bf 109 Edit: by "the modern Bf 109" i was referring to number produced.

Unlike other videos, yours is of true documentary quality. Thanks

It's nearly a 50yr old design, and yet it still looks like it was designed yesterday.

Read the book “Boyd” by Robert Coram for a deep look at how the US fourth-generation fighters were made, and how the true vision of the “fighter mafia” was never truly realized. The F-16 was the closest though, with the original YF-16 being almost perfectly built for EM fighter theory.

You do a great job in covering all the interesting deta8ls!

I might be a bit biased but Greek f16 c block 52+ with the Aegean ghost camo look amazing , great work pal !

Very Nice Video Fully Informative Thanks For Sharing

Fantastic and well presented video. Just finished reading "Viper Pilot" a few days ago, so this was an easy click and watch. Thank you!

My favorite single engine fighter jet...

Early 1978, Wright-Patterson AFB. I am there with a KC-10 pilot attached to my ROTC unit. I am there on Flight Physical business and he drove me because he had straighten out some paperwork to return to flight duty. We go up there in a USAF-marked station wagon. My physical over, we go looking for some admin building. He gets lost. Real lost. I am reading signs... "are you sure we are supposed to me here?" We get waved through a few times, AF wagon, I guess. We keep going. Finally he admits he is lost.... but there are no road signs, just scattered buildings built on what was once a huge aircraft ramp. One building has a tall solid wall extending a long way each way, but a gap right next to the building with a man-gate. "This might be it." He hops out to go see if the front door is open. I hop out and walk to the gate on the side, as it is ajar. I lean through and I am 50 feet from an F-16 surrounded by 5-6 blue berets with M16s. HOLY CRAP! We were NOT supposed to be here. I had seen pictures in Aviation Week, but the F-16 was most definitely NOT for public consumption at that time. We would be in deep shit if caught, but I HAD to take a second peek. Preproduction, I was pretty sure, surprised to see a gold-tint canopy, clean, no rails, nothing. So alien-looking at that time. The Captain gave up on locked doors and waves me over. I wave HIM over as the guards had not seen me. I gesture for him to be quiet and look through the gate. He steps through..... jumps back. "HOLY CRAP. (Whispering) Let's get the %?#& out of here." We quietly walk-run to the car, and leave. We find our way out and to his admin building. On the way back to school we gush like schoolgirls about the F-16 but as we get close to home he says, "OK, but for reals...career consequences and all that..... this never happened." Till now. Thank you, Captain Viviano. You were awesome.

Thanks Skyships Eng great information

The legend👍

Imagine congress telling the military "no thats too much money" nowa days! 😂

TO ME THE F-16 FIGHTING FALCON(MOST RECENT VERSION) IS THE "PORSCHE" OF ALL FIGHTERS. GD HAS DONE A GREAT JOB WITH AVIONICS AND ERGONOMICS AND I BELIEVE THIS FIGHTER WILL HAVE A LIFE SPAN SIMILAR TO "BUFF" B-52'S. ALSO THE A-7E CORSAIR II SHOULD BE MENTIONED. UGLY TO SOME BUT PERFECT FOR ITT'S ROLE AT THE TIME. GREAT VID! THANKS.

I've been involved with this airframe for 41 years. Good video, time for an update.

I remember seeing the Thunderbirds at the Plattsburgh air force base as a youngster. Today still it's one of the most impressive displays I've seen. I know they claim war has changed and we don't need large numbers of much of anything really, but the formula for this plane was right. Shove a huge engine into a small, maneuverable versatile package and crank out tons of them that don't cost a lot. I think I remember that working for some countries in the past. Then make the high end cutting edge stuff for the special hardcore business and to keep the whole ball rolling. Didn't Hitler and many others try the whole super machine and the one wonder weapon that would overcome unreasonable odds? And we've tried the whole theory of one super plane, vehicle, or whatever that can do it all and make all others obsolete saving us a ton of money plenty of times. For me it was the F-111. Great plane, but it didn't work out as one plane for everybody. You can go back as far as you want and each generation of generals or leaders, etc. have always insisted war has changed. My generation has heard the whole "they'll never be another bayonet war" They'll never be foot soldiers on the ground again" " they'll just blow up the whole world with a push of a button" My father was claiming this after Korea and here we are in 2020. This isn't about the F-35 by the way, I think it's great and will have terrific applications (being able to get large numbers of them on and off the ground quickly in shitty places) but it doesn't make anything newer or older any more or less obsolete nor save us tons of money by retiring all these old expensive planes as it was marketed. The A-10 has been obsolete for an extremely long time yet the American public likes it, it's cool, has it's purpose, and it makes money for certain congressmen and their districts. The Tomcat had updates ready to keep it a top notch fleet protector for a long time, but it simply came down to the wrong people not being able to make enough money off it. I love military hardware and don't mind a bit seeing my tax dollars spent on stuff as long as it's good and worthwhile. I strongly doubt we could keep more than 50-60 heavy bombers in the air for a week of total war. Playing the role of sensitive babysitter has weakened us

Designed by pilots for pilots!! An amazing fighter jet

...My Uncle was on the design team for the F-16 (& the F-111 before that). I still remember when he took me on tour of the General Dynamics plant in Forth Worth.

Another epic documentary Sky! Truly comprehensive and fascinating. Thank you 😊

Almost as beautiful as the P51 Mustang.

Why am I watching this damn it, I am 23 years old and I got grey hair already I don't need to fill my head with even more history that will probably never serve me any good in life

The F-16 was and forever will be my favorite aircraft.

While in university I had a roommate that was former USAF. That's when I first heard the term VIPER for the F-16. He claimed it was called that because early models had the same control stick as the BSG vipers on the TV. That was horse shit. The BSG Vipers used the joystick from a OV-1 Mohawk.

The blended wing was done on the SAAB Draken in the 50s which was looked at before designing the F-16

How about a review of the Rafale from Dassault Aviation ?

In Norway and the Netherlands they were equipped with braking chutes for landing in icy conditions on short runways. A local modification on the F-35 as well.

Thanks for the great presentation of my favourite 4th gen fighter

Republic Of Singapore Air Force Rocks🇸🇬❤️

i expect to see f-16v vipers in the next ace combat video game

Still my favorite fighter. Love this airplane, have for years. Of course, I still love my Marlin 30/30 lever action rifle. I don’t hunt anymore but, still fun at the range.

Excellent presentation...

"The Fighting Falcon." That's a great name, the "Strike Eagle" is another one!!! Why is it that in the history of fighter jets, no one has ever designed a jet that they then name "The Hobbled Grandma"?? What about "Terminally Sick Orphan"?

WOW! What a great channel! Absolutely hilarious but informative. Also, I'm so glad I found it. It's keeping me company whilst i'm working all day today on the holiday.

Badass fighter it cannot stand in front of Mig 21.

The F-16 takes it's rightful place as a legend in the US combat aircraft space. Along with the P-51, P-38, F-4U, F-104, F-4, F-14 and F-15. It is highly maneuverable, fast, effective and fairly cheap. A real bargain.

Is and always be the Best jet ever existed !! That's why alot of country loves them I could guarantee 💯 that it could break the sound barrier.

That ground crew intro looked weird af

the wide single intake and smooth top of the fuselage resemble a whale shark cruise feeding.

The F-14 such a beautiful airplane

_Novels of eternal love_ - damn, the sophistication of YT sites just went up a notch or two. Well done!!

I live across town from Luke AFB. There's a reason they call F-16's: "Lawn Darts".

Talking about thunderbirds, maybe you could do an in depth video covering the remarkable Thunderbird 2, surely the greatest flying machine ever devised.

Fantastic vid man! Thanks for sharing, and greets from the Netherlands. T.

The beauty of sky F16 fighting falcon

F-16-N carries no external stores and therefore is far more agile than the F-18. This is why it is the "adversary" aircraft flown by the instructors at the Top Gun School.

Nice. Was this reuploaded?

One of my favorite looking planes, along with the F-15 and F-14! I also prefer the official name "(Fighting) Falcon" to the nickname "Viper".

This is a very good summary of the history of the F-16.

..."anybody see an aircraft carrier around here"?

F16 killer of mig21 & su30

F-16 is STILL one of the most beautiful aircraft made....

Excellent..thank you. Gotta love the F16..❤