Truly a great man and incredible pilot. My dad had the utmost respect for your grandfather. We lived in Eastern Hills so I only got to see him a couple of times but he made a lasting impression on me.
Hi Dad, I watch this video when I think of you. It’s been almost 8 years since you passed away. How lucky we are to be able to watch this video and hear your voice and see you even though you are not on this earth anymore. You’re probably soaring somewhere in the universe.Lauri❤❤❤
RIP to your father. My father-in-law Ralph Graf was an engineer on the flight control systems for the F-16 as well as F-111, and has told me many stories about Phil and what an honor it was working with him. He has said many times that test pilots were a different breed of pilot, and that Phil was special even among those special men. He said nobody was as smooth or precise flying a plane, and his calmness and professionalism was a step above. I'm blessed I still get to hear these stories from him at age 90... I just showed him this video, and he was surprised and said he didn't remember it being this bad 😜. He said they immediately took the feedback from Phil and made adjustments to the control system before their next flight. He's been singing the praises of your father all night with his stories. God bless.
I read all about your dad's career, and that takes a while. From full scale to models. You and your family must be very proud of him and all of his accomplishments. Not only that he seemed like a very down to earth nice man. RIP
wow, just now seeing this, FEB 2024, my dad was one of the two software guys, systems analyst for General Dynamics, who wrote the initial flight ops programming
My aunt was interviewed in a documentary on the Thurston High School shooting. She is still alive, but I didn't know she was in the documentary. Though I did know she was involved with the shooting. Her best friend was Kip Kinkel's mother.
A B-52 pilot who had been in Vietnam told me about the "Sabre dance" and said an F-16 had done one. Well it took forever to find it because of the YF designation. That was about 10 years ago. So glad to hear the story from the man. Thank you for this, and thanks to those here who supported him or the program.
RIP Phil. Thank you for everything you accomplished as a full scale pilot and a modeler. You were very generous with your time no matter how many times we asked you to, "tell us the story about the first flight in the F-16."
My dad Joe Mayes was an engineer with Phil at GD during the 50s. Phil wasn't real crazy about office work and kept bugging the folks at test to let him in. He flew F8s in the Marine Corps so he had plenty of experience but I think they preferred AF guys. He absolutely loved airplanes. If he wasn't flying them, he was talking about them. A wonderful man. I went on the Texas A&M on an AF scholarship majoring in Aero Engineering, hoping to be just like Phil. My dad worked at LTV and worked on the A7 which I later flew in the Navy. I thought Phil had told my dad he had to use the manual disconnect for the fly by wire to save the airplane so I have to admit the story is a little different from what I had heard. RIP Phil. Thanks for making such a great impression in my life.
There I was, a 16yr old kid working at Nasa Dryden after school and summers. We were on the lakebed and drove by to see the YF16 up close and decided to watch the “taxi test’ Epic! I would end up flying the Viper for 24 years, 188 Combat patrols and lots of adventures. Crazier yet is my F16 RTU class asked me to find a grad night speaker. I called Phil and he graciously traveled to Luke AFB and told the tale and many other great stories. Awesome! Great memories! :)
Thank you Phil for paving the way for a generation of Viper pilots like myself. Everything you did made us much safer and confident in such an AMAZING machine! RIP!
My dad and Phil flew Control Line Airplanes together as Teens, and he came to our house a couple of times in Florida, and I remember showing him Falcon 2.0 and Falcon 3.0 and asking him how close it was to the real deal. And he just laughed and said the cockpit kinda looks like that, but it's just a blast to fly, and this is a poor simile. :D RIP Phil.
Robo-Cat like reflexes! In it’s first iteration the Viper’s stick did not move. It sat to your right and was extremely sensitive to the force of inputs, but it did not move forward, aft, left, or right. This is at least part of why it was called, “The Electric Jet,” because that kind of pilot interface is about as fly-by-wire as it gets. They later added some mechanical deflection so the pilots could have a more natural feel for the stick, one that is more like a stick that is connected to cables or hydraulic actuators. Hell of first flight!
A great nation thanks you for your service and a job well done 👍 you raised a wonderful family who filled your shoes and carried your torch to light the way!!! God's speed to your family
My father-in-law Ralph Graf worked on the flight control system for the F-16... he's still alive living in the Fort Worth area. He told me the original design was all electric and the stick didn't actually move at all, and the test pilots hated it 😜. He said Phil was the best test pilot he ever worked with and his flying was super-smooth... he has told me the story of the "first flight" many times. They took all that data from the unplanned flight and made adjustments to the flight control system before the next flight. He is still very, very proud of what they accomplished with the F-16.
It wasn't Phil, it was Niel Anderson, the Chief YF-16 test pilot for GD who was designated to fly Flight 1, which by calling Phil's flight Flight 0, he "sorta" did.
Just to give some context, the F-16 has been a front-line fighter so long, if the Sopwith Camel had had an equally long career, it would have been buzzing around in the skies of North Vietnam shoot down MiG-21's in the 1960's.
Bizim Kaan ilk uçuşunu böyle gerçekleştirseydi, vay halimize vay. Heykelciler sevinçten yerinde duramazlardı ve uçağımızı, onu yapan tüm ekibi ve tabiki RTE yi topa tutarlardı. Keşke bu vidyoyu izleselerde o çok beğendikleri 'amerikan malı' uçağının nasıl uçtuğunu anlasalar. 21.02.2024 Arkadaşlar. Ne önemli bir gün.
' wow that cooool F-16XL plane... keep up american company make more new F-16XL planes this year to next year... add more missiles, machine gun, better long range mile, more speeding up
