In 1975, the first F-16 left the GD Plant with it's test pilot and made it's first flight off the runway at Carswell. The landing gear would not come down, and the plane did some interesting acrobatic flying trying to shake it loose. finally, they decided to belly land in the grass alongside the runway. Here is the footage.[video:vimeo]https://www.facebook.com/kgerrard2/...fSTIxNDcwMDc5MDoxMDE1NzkxOTAzMDAxNzY2MA/[/video]

Good piloting there

Pucker factor 10

WOW

Cool. Look up the F15 landing on one wing by an Israeli pilot after an air to air collision.

wow, thanks for sharing.

awesome video!!! I was born there in 1973 at the base hospital. A lot has changed there since that time. dad finally quit grocery shopping out there a few years ago. said he wasn't really saving much anymore.

I remember the commissary from the 70's.

I was on Alert at Carswell, we had squawk radios in our trucks and heard the whole thing. We climbed on the building to watch.
Story was the acft was doing performance manuvers for a foriegn country that was looking to buy some planes...There was grandstands
news, and all the brass. They tried to scramble a tanker for fuel but didnt have the time,..Pilot landed that thing like a feather...

Read that on the carswell fb page. It was supposed to go to the Paris air show. Prototype 2 and not its first flight.

Thanks T Birfd.