The Air Force now has a golden F-16
David Roza - Yesterday 2:23 PM
When Air Force Col. John Boyd, the father of the F-16 fighter jet, first envisioned the aircraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he wanted to avoid making it ‘gold-plated’ with needless features added on by Air Force staff that would add weight and decrease its maneuverability in a dogfight. Well, he might be rolling over in his grave right now, because the Air Force went ahead and painted one of his babies gold anyway.
This week, the Iowa Air National Guard revealed a shiny gold-painted F-16 in its hangar, which is itself a throwback to when the Iowa Air Guard first painted an F-16 gold during its 50th anniversary in 1996. At the time, painting a military aircraft anything other than standard gray was a rare feat.
“Veteran 185th [Fighter Wing] members say that other than the Thunderbirds, painting an entire U.S. Air Force jet was ‘not done’ 25 years ago,” wrote Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot in a press release about the jet on Friday.
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