The photos in this post features the 75th Anniversary of Supersonic Flight F-16 Viper
The pictures in this post celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Supersonic Flight F-16 Viper and were taken at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB). The 412th Maintenance Group has completed this special paint job. This weekend marks the first airshow held at Edwards AFB in thirteen years.
The 2022 Aerospace Valley Open House, Air Show & STEM Expo honor the first supersonic flight made by then-Capt. Chuck Yeager over Edwards AFB, as well as the 75th anniversary of the Air Force.
Using a sonic boom, Yeager used to kick off the Edwards AFB Airshow. He opened the performance with a really impressive pass while piloting a USAF fighter jet.
Yeager was selected to fly the Bell X-1, a classified experimental aircraft designed to evaluate a fixed-wing aircraft’s ability to withstand the extreme aerodynamic stresses of sonic flight as well as the human pilot’s capabilities. On October 14, 1947, he flew the X-1, attached to a B-29 mother ship, to a height of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier when the X-1 rocketed to 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), which was roughly 662 miles per hour (1,066 km) at that altitude.
He died on December 8, 2020. The NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center participates in the airshow in addition to the US Air Force (USAF).
As previously reported, the Air Force and NASA jets will be “going full steam” to see which can break the sound barrier first as part of a unique air show held beneath a supersonic corridor to commemorate the first sonic boom.
“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.
Because the aircraft will be at an altitude, the crowd won’t be able to see them, but “they’re definitely going to hear them and feel them,” he said. “We’re just really excited to showcase that unique part.”
Photo by U.S. Air Force
