F-16 Full Afterburner Takeoff & UNRESTRICTED Climb (USAF Thunderbirds)

United States Air Force (USAF) Thunderbirds Lockheed Martin F-16D Fighting Falcon (two-seater) performs a full afterburner maximum performance takeoff and unrestricted climb out of the Daytona Beach Int'l Airport on runway 25R during the Daytona 500 Race Week. The F-16 uses full power initially before flying low above the full length of the runway (10,500 feet) and then pitching up to an unrestricted vertical climb. This may have been a ride for the either the media or with a NASCAR driver. Thanks for watching!

[RyanHull]

"Roger, Cleared for takeoff. Fly runway heading, climb and maintain.... Low Earth Orbit." LoL

[tecton]

I was an avionics tech stationed at Eglin AFB and the F-16 was one of the aircraft I worked on, along with the F-15 and the F-111. We had an F-15 stop in on his way back to Nellis AFB with a communication problem. Long story short, the pilot was very impressed with my work and wanted to thank me somehow so I asked him if he could do a V-max climb out which he did. It was at night and it was so cool to watch the afterburner getting smaller and smaller.

[laserfloyd]

1:19 passenger is like "Oh, so, how high does it Went to an airshow as a kid an saw an F-16 do this exact same thing. Just amazing. :D

[mykey]

We used to watch the pilots do these climbs after an engine swap to fully test it out when I was stationed in SC. The F-16 is very nimble and fairly small compared to an F-15. I still love that jet even though it has been almost 20 years since I have been in one and near one.

[lunatic_]

1:08 gotta hate this moment u get 1000ping for no reason :/

[rixille]

F-16's man... They provide a supplementary mixture of testosterone and confidence right into my body.

[hogflyer]

Reminds me of an F-14 flight demo, the best flight demo I've ever seen, at ERAU in 1980. Last pass was near the speed of sound down the runway and he went vertical at the end of the runway. Heard the boom as he climbed away to the east (he was cleared to FL350). Golfers complained the noise from a 15 min flight demo disturbed their game so the F-14 was banned from any more flight demo's after that by the city. What was really amazing was he kept within the airport boundaries for the whole flight demo with lots of AB and vertical maneuvers.

[TheHDAviation]

That climb was insane, must have been quite the experience for the passenger. Awesome sigh to see  and hear.

[warotimi]

Now thats how you intercept a threat 1:20

[XMattingly]

F-16's generally don't get as much credit as F-15's and F-18's, but they really are incredibly agile and powerful fighters. They used to have parking spaces by the blue lights at the Des Moines airport and you could watch jets take off with a parallel view of the runway. I've actually seen F-16's take off with much less distance and a steeper angle than what's shown in this video: they'd nose up 45° maybe 500 ft down the runway, leap straight up into the sky and — BOOM! — within 10-15 seconds they'll climb so fast that you can't even see them anymore.

[stewscuda]

I love Fighter jets... My Dad flew the F-100 at Nellis in 67-69

[elfinplatypus]

3 seconds later
Tower, this is TS429 F-16. We just nearly had a wingstrike. Need help, over.
TS429, this is tower. How did you nearly wingstrike at 68, 000 feet?
Umm... we kinda... well... er... nearly struck the ISS.



(dead silence)



Blog it.

[rmandiou]

Was in the U.S. Air Force for over 12 years and grew up as a Air Force brat.  I loved watching these fighters take off.  I wanted to be a pilot for the AF but never really followed through with it when I was told my eyesight wouldn't allow me to fly so I enlisted instead and became a Security Forces troop.  The first few years of my service I had to stand on the ramp guarding these types of aircraft which could get very boring.  But because I loved military aircraft so much it was still fun to me to be able to get up close to the aircraft.  My family was stationed at Shaw AFB where they fly the F-16 and I would watch them fly out whenever I had the chance.  I joined the AF from there.  My first deployment was to Saudi Arabia in '99 and we would watch the fighters take off to enforce the "No-Fly Zones".  It was fun watching the F-16's and F-15's take off and go into a vertical climb and race each other to whatever altitude they were going to fully armed.  You could see the 16's beat the 15's into the vertical climb and gain altitude but you could see the 15's would catch up to and over take the 16's many of times.  Some of the loudest aircraft I have ever heard though taking off are the B-1 and the British Tornado at full afterburner.  The B-52 gets points as well for deafening take offs.

[budgetbasscovers]

My father was Chief Systems Engineer on the F-16 program back when it was developed. That aircraft holds a special place in my family.

[michelelhess]

simply can not wait to be thrilled by these amazing pilot's May 13&14, 2017 at Wings over Pittsburgh air show! it's been six years since the last show!

[covidmisinformation]

Here's how old I am. I was at Holloman AFB, NM in 1983 when the F-16 first took to the skies in the red, white & blue paint. One day, there were two F-16 Thunderbirds, and two of the remaining T-38 Thunderbirds which all landed at the same time for refueling or something minor, because they were only on the tarmac for about thirty minutes. They went to the EOR and staged for takeoff, the T-38s in front and the F-16s in the rear. The Talons throttled up and commenced to roll. About halfway down the runway, they lifted up and were pulling their gear in, when the Falcons began rolling behind them. About the time the T-38s were at the other end of the runway, and starting to turn upward, the F-16s had lifted off, tucked in their gear, and did hard turns into the vertical climb. By the time the T-38's were going vertical, the F-16s were punching through 10, 000 feet, with full afterburner blazing out behind them.

[Daytonaman]

"I'm a space shuttle!"

"Shut up Carl!"

[cagonzal]

Love watching the TBirds fly. There so professional and discipline

[rileywoods]

Thank you so much for this awesome capture!

[AFCop]

I was the Dedicated Crew Chief on #8 before it became a Thunderbird.  When I had her, 91-1466 was her tail number and we were assigned to the 389th Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, ID.  Brought a tear to my eye watching her fly again, I do miss that airplane and watching her fly.  "T-Bolts