A remarkable anniversary in the history of Lockheed Martin’s F-16 programme will be marked on 20 January, exactly 50 years after a prototype of the lightweight fighter got airborne for the first time.
Our recently published extensive report into the milestone tells the story behind General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher’s unscheduled outing from Edwards AFB in the YF-16, the programme’s official first flight on 2 February 1974, and the single-engined type’s evolution into the world’s most widely-flown fighter. Click here to read the full article.
To coincide with the 50th anniversary event, this gallery of images highlights some of the additional notable events, unusual F-16 variants, and leading operators of the US airframer’s evergreen fighter, as it continues to enjoy production success for multiple customers.
European Defence Editor Craig Hoyle has reported on the UK, European and international military aviation sector for almost 30 years, and has also been the Editor of Flight International since 2015. He joined FlightGlobal in 2003, and also compiles our annual World Air Forces directory.View full Profile
The long-stalled deal to provide Turkey with 40 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighters was approved by arms regulators, who simultaneously advanced a proposal to sell 40 F-35A stealth fighters to Greece – orders worth a gargantuan $31.6 billion to Lockheed.
California-based start-up JetZero has secured $175 million in Series B financing to advance development of its blended wing-body Z4 demonstrator, bringing total financial commitments beyond $1 billion.
United Arab Emirates defence house EDGE has signed an agreement with Spanish company Indra “focused on the development, production and lifecycle support of loitering munitions and smart weapons for Spanish and European defence programmes”.
Sweden has signed deals with Finland’s ICEYE and Planet Labs of the USA to field a space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability from later this year.
Major US defence manufacturers maintain a strong financial outlook despite a White House executive order prohibiting stock buybacks and dividends for firms deemed to be underperforming on contracts.
