The photos in this post features the 75th Anniversary of Supersonic Flight F-16 Viper.
Taken at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) the photos in this post features the 75th Anniversary of Supersonic Flight F-16 Viper. The special paint job has been realized by the 412th Maintenance Group.
Edwards AFB is holding its first airshow for the first time in 13 years this weekend.
The event, named 2022 Aerospace Valley Open House, Air Show, & STEM Expo, commemorates the 75th anniversaries of the Air Force and the first supersonic flight, by then-Capt. Chuck Yeager in the skies over Edwards AFB.
Yeager himself used to open the Edwards AFB Airshow with a sonic boom. He flew in a USAF fighter jet and kicked off the show with a very nice pass.
Yeager was chosen to fly the secret Bell X-1 experimental aircraft, built to test the capabilities of the human pilot and a fixed-wing aircraft against the severe aerodynamic stresses of sonic flight. On Oct. 14, 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California, he rode the X-1, attached to a B-29 mother ship, to an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 metres). The X-1 then rocketed separately to 40,000 feet (12,000 metres), and Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, which was approximately 662 miles (1,066 km) per hour at that altitude.
He passed away on Dec. 8, 2020.
Besides the US Air Force (USAF), NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center too takes part in the airshow.
As already reported, to celebrate that first sonic boom and take advantage of holding a rare air show beneath a supersonic corridor, the air show will feature Air Force and NASA jets “going full steam” to see which can break the sound barrier first.
“We want to heighten that and showcase that, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime for air shows to be able to actually go past Mach .99 and actually hit that sonic boom,” Chase Kohler of the 412th Public Affairs office said in June to Bakersfield.com.
The crowd will not be able to see the aircraft as they will be at altitude, but “they’re definitely going to hear them and feel them,” he said. “We’re just really excited to showcase that unique part.”
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
