The Warthog is a beast.

Not that it matters, but the modified F-16's are built in Greenville, SC. I worked there for the DoD in the early 2000's at the Lockheed-Martin facility when they did overhaul & manx on P-3's, C-130's, KC-10's, and others. I bet that was a culture shock for them to switch from handling FOD on heavies and moving to fighters! lol

I worked with a former Thunderbirds pilot who obviously flew the F16. He told some good stories. One I remember was him saying a typical day usually included a takeoff and climb to 30K feet where he'd roll out inverted and look straight down at the runway. Impressive ride.

My mother's cousin was like an uncle to me, he retired as a full-bird colonel in the Air Force. He flew F-4s in Vietnam, and he was part of the team that helped with the design of the F-15 and F-16, and he flew both of them in testing and as a pilot. Later he worked for Boeing. When I was a kid, whenever I saw him we would talk about flying, the airplanes he flew, their capabilities, etc. He would send me letters sometimes, including one I still have where he included a photo of him with his F-15 up at Andrews. Although I'm sure he could be difficult to live with at times (looking back, I tend to think he may have had a little bit of the Great Santini in him), he was someone I really idolized. I think of him whenever I see something like this.

the A10 only works when fighting against a primitive force. Its good for CAS, but it wont stay in the air in contested airspace, the amount of manpads in most battlefields really makes it obsolete.

Yep. Just like helicopters they are sitting ducks on a battlefield like Ukraine. When I was young I thought it would be cool to be a Cobra pilot, but not now. The proliferation of manpads has changed the environment. Just like drones have done to tanks and APC's.

i think choppers are more effective because at least they stay hidden behind something. The new apaches dont even have to raise up to fire their weapons like the longbow did. They can stay completely hidden

speaking of long serving aircraft: the still mighty B-52 ...

Oh Yeah! Amazingly long lived aircraft.

I was in the Air Force many years ago as a F-16 maintainer. During that time, I had the opportunity to go on what was called a “Incentive Ride” in the back seat of a D model twice. The visibility out of a F-16 canopy is second to none. To fly it is amazing!

I bet that was a hell of a ride.

Like no other! Videos off of YouTube really do not do it justice. I will say, pulling G’s with all the yanking and banking is exhausting and after a hour of that, you feel like you ran a marathon 😂.

Stumbled onto another video similar to what I posted about. Thought to save it and post here. There are others too.

I always find these videos fascinating.

Former Pilot discussing different aircraft

Great video - thanks for sharing!

I just read an interesting story yesterday that the Marines recently bought 25 F-5 fighter jets from Switzerland. They are going to use them as an aggressor squadron.

It's not everyday that you hear of US forces buying equipment from other countries. The story said we paid $1.5 million each for them. Doesn't sound like a bad deal. You would think the Swiss Air Force would have been pretty good at maintaining them.

The Aggressors used to fly F-5s before they converted to F-16s. When I was flying F-4s in England, we had the F-5 Aggressor Squadron collocated on our base. We used to fight them more than most other units because they were so close and they could add us to their schedule at the last minute. Those guys were the best and no matter how good you thought you were, within 30 seconds they were on your six and the fight was over. We were faster than the F-5 but they could out turn us all day and you can't out run a missile.

You ever fly A4s? I got acquainted with a retired pilot who flew several planes , but said the A4 was his favorite . He called it a flying roadster . Light and nimble , even though it wasn't fast as some, it would put a lot of G force on ya. I think the Blue Angels flew them for a while.

Never flew an A-4. They were a Navy plane and I flew Air Force aircraft. Over the course of my career I flew T-37s, T-38s, F-4s, and got to fly a few hours in the OH-58 helicopter. Did get a flight in an F-16 once and even got to fly in the jump seat of a B-52 for a 8 hour training mission. Longest 8 hours of my life, the B-52 is a loud, hot, noisy beast of an airplane. Everything takes longer in a B-52, refueling took forever and even when we finally got back to base, they spent another hour in the pattern doing practice approaches.