YF-16 Flight Zero

kevfla · Dec 27, 2010

As there appears to be a number of F-16 fans on F-Chat, combined with Lockheed-Martin releasing archived film clips, thought you would enjoy seeing the F-16's unofficial first flight. Some of you weren't even born yet when this took place. Goes to show what a fantastic aircraft the F-16 is!

Piloting is my uncle, Phil Oestricher. He lived to retire from what was then General Dynamics and still resides in the Ft. Worth, Texas, area. As exciting as being a test pilot was, he derived equal pleasure from flying something as basic as an Aeronca Champ.

Enjoy!

KevFla
Orlando

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRMCykYWreM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

El Wayne · Dec 27, 2010

Some reading material to go along with that video: http://www.codeonemagazine.com/article.html?item_id=44

At their most colorful, the stories have the tail and both wings hitting the runway. At their worst, some go so far as to say the unintentional first flight was intentional. According to this version, Oestricher - in a race with Anderson - wanted to ensure that he would be the first pilot to fly the F-16. This story doesn't hold water either because Oestricher had already been designated to make the first official flight, which he did on schedule twelve days later. Anderson would later gain distinction by making a wheels-up landing in the YF-16 No. 2 prototype (more about this later) and being the first to fly the full-scale development and production airplanes.

The return of the first F-16 prototype to Fort Worth prompted many to approach its first pilot for his recollections of flying the aircraft. Oestricher grumbles at the requests (he's had to retell the story thousands of times). But usually - out of a desire to set the record straight - he finally agrees.

Oestricher plays down the significance of the event. "We'd progressively taxied the airplane faster and faster and wanted to get a better idea of how it handled," he said. "Few people know this, but we actually intended to lift the airplane off the ground that day. Our intention was to move the throttle to military power for a few seconds and let the main gear come up a couple of feet while we went down the runway.

"We encountered two problems," Oestricher continued. "First, the roll control was too sensitive, too much roll rate as a function of stick force. Second, the exhaust nozzle control for the prototype was wired incorrectly. You had to be on the ground for the nozzle to be wide open, so as soon as you took the weight off the wheels, the nozzle closed and essentially doubled the thrust at idle.

The pilot's report for that day shows that Oestricher rotated the airplane to about ten degrees when he reached a taxi speed of 130 knots, with the airplane still accelerating slightly. He made small lateral stick inputs to get a feel for the roll response but got nothing, presumably because the main gear were on the ground, which stopped the airplane from rolling. At this point, he slightly increased the angle of attack. Immediately upon rotating the second time, the airplane lifted off with the left wing dropping rather rapidly, the report states. After a right roll command was applied, the airplane immediately went into a fairly high-frequency, pilot-induced oscillation.

"Every time I tried to correct the oscillation, I got a full-rate roll," Oestricher explained. "And the airplane was continuing to accelerate all the while because the nozzle had closed, even though I had the throttle at idle power. We had way too much idle thrust to have a practical airplane."

Before the roll oscillation could be stopped, a rolleron wheel of the AIM-9 missile on the left wingtip lightly touched the runway, the right horizontal tail struck the ground, and the aircraft bounced off its main gear several times. This bouncing pointed the airplane off the runway. The latter factor prompted Oestricher to fly out of the situation, as he felt that it would be impossible to keep the airplane on the runway, even if the nose wheel could be quickly brought down.

Oestricher applied intermediate power and allowed the airplane to climb slowly in a shallow left turn. The report refers to the style of flying as, "understandably somewhat conservative." Oestricher flew a wide pattern to a long, decelerating final approach and touched down six minutes after the takeoff.
Click to expand...

Bob Parks · Dec 27, 2010

kevfla said: ↑

As there appears to be a number of F-16 fans on F-Chat, combined with Lockheed-Martin releasing archived film clips, thought you would enjoy seeing the F-16's unofficial first flight. Some of you weren't even born yet when this took place. Goes to show what a fantastic aircraft the F-16 is!

Piloting is my uncle, Phil Oestricher. He lived to retire from what was then General Dynamics and still resides in the Ft. Worth, Texas, area. As exciting as being a test pilot was, he derived equal pleasure from flying something as basic as an Aeronca Champ.

Enjoy!

KevFla
Orlando

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRMCykYWreM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that first flight video. I remember seeing films of that close call. Re flying the Champ, I know many ex-fighter pilots and airline pilots who on their days off fly Cubs, Champs, Husky's, Luscombs, and one flies a Ford powered Pietenpol. My late friend and UAL pilot, Jack Leffler said that he flew nose draggers for a living and tail draggers for fun. He owned a Monocoupe AW and a Cessna 185 and I got to fly them both with him.

kevin956 · Dec 27, 2010

Wow. Epic stuff. Thanks for sharing.

LetsJet · Dec 27, 2010

You have to ask your uncle if he ever considered aborting that takeoff. That looked so unstable I think I would have re-thought "wheels up".

I would have liked the video to continue to show the landing. He did land right?

kevfla · Dec 27, 2010

LetsJet said: ↑

You have to ask your uncle if he ever considered aborting that takeoff. That looked so unstable I think I would have re-thought "wheels up".

I would have liked the video to continue to show the landing. He did land right?
Click to expand...

He said it was so out of control that trying to keep the plane on the deck would have resulted in a crash. It was one of those split-second decisions when instincts took over and he lived to tell about it. Some of his colleagues weren't as lucky.

The YouTube clip has links to other movies, such as the wheels-up landing (not him), B-58 stuff, etc. Up until this fall, I've only been able to see the flight footage if he brought a video with him on a visit or a crash 'n burn compendium that's available commercially.
There should also be some test footage of F-111 flights that Phil participated on.
Taz, find anything?

KevFla

Rifledriver · Dec 27, 2010

I was happy for your uncle to see some sky get under that thing.

It was starting to remind me of that famous footage of an F100 at Edwards that got into a very high AOA stall, very low.

It did not end well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyJkKcXYqSU

LetsJet · Dec 27, 2010

kevfla said: ↑

He said it was so out of control that trying to keep the plane on the deck would have resulted in a crash. It was one of those split-second decisions when instincts took over and he lived to tell about it. ........

KevFla
Click to expand...

Well I'm glad he did. Gravity tends to be a ***** once you have more alt.

It looked like he took a special path to the left of asphalt, but still... I guess he was feathering the throttle until he felt more in control. It almost appears there is lack a of thrust.

tazandjan · Dec 29, 2010

Brian- They called that the Sabre Dance or Hun Dance. Some made it, most did not. No zero, zero ejection seats then, so they rode it out. Problem was insufficient rudder authority at high AoAs, a problem with many fighters. They increased the height of the rudder in late model Huns and that fixed it (mostly), so they then retired it. Happens a lot in fighters, get it nearly perfect and then retire it and start all over. If you look at most modern fighters, they will have a strake or strakes on the bottom of the fuselage to help maintain directional control when the fuselage blanks the rudder at high AoA. Twin vertical stabilizers were another solution.

Have not collected any Vark film, but there is a lot out there. Scariest was the first, and only, spin test. Lost the aircraft. They popped the spin chute and it did not even hesitate, just ripped completely off.

Taz
Terry Phillips

Rifledriver · Dec 29, 2010

tazandjan said: ↑

Have not collected any Vark film, but there is a lot out there. Scariest was the first, and only, spin test. Lost the aircraft. They popped the spin chute and it did not even hesitate, just ripped completely off.

Taz
Terry Phillips
Click to expand...

I guess they were also the first to test the escape capsule or whatever you guys called it?

James_Woods · Dec 29, 2010

They had an AIM-9 missile mounted on it for the FIRST FLIGHT TEST???

viper_driver · Jan 11, 2011

cool video, entered service only 6 years later! The F35 is going to take nearly 20.

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