F-16 Aircraft Database

YF-16 Prototype
Rolled out at Fort Worth, Texas on December 13th, 1973. First flight on January 20th, 1974 which is the very first flight of an F-16. It had been moved in a C-5 galaxy 12 days prior on January 8th, 1974 and assembled for first flight. The first flight wasn't supposed to happen, but during high speed taxi trials the aircraft lifted off with the only option for the pilot was to proceed and fly. In the first stages the right-hand stab hit the runway a couple of times creating some damage to it.

Accepted by the USAF. During it's European tour in June of 1975 it carried a large 53 on both sides of the intake. On the right side some other markings including what look like sortie marking counts.

Twin Canards
The first YF-16 (#72-1567) was rebuilt in December of 1975 to become the USAF Flight Dynamics Laboratory's Control Configured Vehicle (CCV). CCV aircraft have independent or 'decoupled' flight control surfaces, which make it possible to maneuver in one plane without movement in another - for example, turning without having to bank. To achieve this, the aircraft's flight controls were modified and it was fitted with twin vertical canards underneath the air intake. First flight in the CCV role was on March 16th, 1976 and the tests lasted till July 31st, 1977. On June 24th, 1976 was damaged when the engine failed during a landing cycle. It was repaired but broken again in a hard landing in July of 1977. This cut the CCV tests short.

Sent to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio where it was used to test an escape module.

Dropped from the USAF inventory.

Restored to original configuration for display at Hampton Roads History Center, Virginia.