The F-16 jet fighter took its first ever flight in 1974, but it is still as important an aircraft now as it was then.
Were it not for one test pilot’s quick thinking 50 years ago, the entire F-16 programme might never have made it past its first fateful flight.
When pilot Phil Oestricher climbed into the cockpit of the General Dynamics YF-16 prototype at Edwards Air Force Base in California on 20 January 1974, his mission was a relatively straightforward one – a high-speed taxi test where the aircraft would travel on the ground under the power of its own engine.
