Luckily he chose to fly and possibly saved the entire program. Phil decided to take off because the bird had begun to divert to the left side of the lane, and he came across plowing the desert or flying. The left-hand missile and the static probe of the right tail also came in contact with the runway slightly. When the nose of the aircraft rose, the tail inadvertently scraped the trail. Remember, this was the first plane to have a fixed lever, and there was no opportunity for Phil to notice the plane until the high-speed taxi test. Williams, structural engineer of flight tests at YF-16, recalls:ĭuring the first high-speed taxi test, a violent lateral oscillation was established as a direct result of pilot-driven oscillations (several maximum left / right commands) when the airplane reached spin speed (~ 120 kt). Its first flight was a short jump unintentional around the standard on Januat the hands of test driver Phil Oestricher.

The prototype YF-16 (# 72-1567) was launched in Fort Worth on Decemand airborne by the C-5A to Edwards AFB on January 8, 1974.

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