F-16 - the industry superiority fighter 

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."

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

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.

One of the most beautiful planes ever..

Yeah, F-16 is beauty)

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

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

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.

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) :)

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.

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".

Best multi-role fighter ever. My favourite.

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

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

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

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!

This page is severly underrated

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

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

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

I'm only 4 mins in and already this video has earned you a sub. Love it! I'm a huge F-16 fan. I like your geeky humour, for example when you said "also surpassed, even though by accident" I knew straight away you were talking about that historic 'first flight' that shouldn't have happened.

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

My two favorite fighters: P-51 F-16

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 loved watching these things take off at Bagram Air Field.

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

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

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

Fantastic quality production! Thank you!

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.”

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Well done, I've read a bit about the politics/development/industry history behind the F-16 myself and everything I cognitively heard you say in this video (meaning, I may/may not have missed something) checks out! :)

Great channel and videos. Your analysis is on point.

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.

Doug Masters and Chappy Sinclair approves

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.

I really like your video's and documentaries! Thanks!

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.

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

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

You sound like a human strongbad. Your humor is on point. Subscribed!

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.

The legend👍

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

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

I really enjoyed this video. Thank you

My favorite single engine fighter jet...

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

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

Superb. Thorough but very easy to follow.

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.

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.

An absolutely beautiful and sleek design. Watching these planes fly around here in Tucson and approaching to land at TIA and occasionally DM AFB is thrilling enough, but having seen the Air Force Thunderbirds perform here at DM AFB was jaw dropping... I wonder how much longer this plane will be around until F-35 finally replaces them altogether. I love this channel. They feature some really neat coverage and facts about all kinds of bitchin' airplanes and are not so long that they end up becoming monotonous....

Can't wait for the f22 vid! Subbed

Designed by pilots for pilots!! An amazing fighter jet

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

F16 and the F15 are the best fighter combinations ever.

Great delivery of this informative video, pretty damn funny!

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

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

Thank you for this!

Excellent summary! Never knew most of what was presented here.

Almost as beautiful as the P51 Mustang.

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

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

Thank you. Excellent video.🖖

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

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

1st vid this aeronautical enthusiast saw of yours - subbed.

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 !!!

How about a review of the Rafale from Dassault Aviation ?

"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"?

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

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.

Republic Of Singapore Air Force Rocks🇸🇬❤️

That ground crew intro looked weird af

Such a lot of information contained in this fascinating video. The F16 has a long history and this video presents it a very clever manner.😀

You do a fine job , Thanks .

Nice. Was this reuploaded?

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

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

Awesome video and very informative thanks

Badass fighter it cannot stand in front of Mig 21.

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

I hesitate to watch videos like this, mainly because of incorrect information. However, this one is really good. Good history of the development and illustrating the differences between the variants. I was hoping for a minute or two on the heavily modified Israeli version. Oh well, future content! Great job!

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

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.

Great plane but they ruined my ears, pilots love that kick of the afterburners but sadly they were oblivious or just didn’t care about those working on the ground down at the end of the runway. And yes afterburners are not needed cause on air show day they don’t use them. I was stationed at Hill AFB. The largest f-16 squadron.

This is so great of a video.

I love this guys commentary.