F-16 Afterburner Takeoff

F-16 Afterburner Takeoff

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to ride in a high performance fighter, like the F-16, when it made a takeoff in full afterburner? Now's your chance to find out. Below is an excerpt from Book Two of The Millennium Chronicles, titled "The War". It describes just such a takeoff from the perspective of a young reporter, Jamie, riding in the back seat of an F-16, number four in a four-ship formation, launching on a bombing mission. The narrative begins when Jamie's airplane, piloted by a man not much older than her named Dan, enters the arming area at the end of the runway... just prior to takeoff. Enjoy!

EXCERPT FROM "THE WAR", BOOK TWO OF "THE MILLENNIUM CHRONICLES":

Soon they reached a wide paved area at the end of the runway.  The four planes stopped side by side near two blue pickup trucks.  No sooner had they halted then a small mob of ground crewmen, all dressed in Air Force BDUs, battle dress uniforms in camouflage colors, with orange vests and ear protectors, rushed over to them, two to each plane.  Jamie watched the plane next to theirs, Cuddy 23 she now knew, as one man placed chocks against the left main wheel, then proceeded to pull out the pins and red streamers from where the bombs were hanging.  She saw there were three, one in the pylon and two in the TER, one for each of the two napalm bombs.  Quickly the man she was watching hustled to the front of the airplane, staying well clear of the engine intake sucking huge amounts of air down its throat, and met the other crewman out front, both clutching bunches of pins and red streamers in their fists.  When all eight men were out front one from each pair gave a thumbs up to the pilot.  Jamie saw them get a thumbs up and saw Dan return the signal.  The eight men then hustled back to their trucks.  The whole sequence to arm their weapons had only taken a few minutes.  She heard, “Cuddy 21, channel two, go,” quickly followed by “toup threep fourp.”  She heard a click as Dan changed their radio to the control tower’s frequency, and right away heard, “21 check.  Toup, Threep, Fourp!”  Then, “Tulsa Tower, Cuddy 21 flight ready for takeoff,” followed by, “Cuddy 21, taxi into position and hold, winds one six five at five, altimeter three zero one niner,” then, “Cuddy 21, position and hold, three zero one niner.”  As lead was speaking Jamie heard a rush of increased noise and lead’s plane quickly pulled forward onto the runway, stopping just left of the center.  All four planes were moving together now.  Jamie saw number two pull up left of the leader, then they followed the number three plane, passing closely behind the first two planes, their jet buffeting as it passed through the others’ exhausts.  Number three quickly swung into position to the leader’s right and even as it made its turn Dan was swinging around to position them to the right of the number three plane.  It was all happening so fast, almost with a sense of urgency. 

No sooner had Dan brought their plane to a halt, now in close formation with the other three jets, then, “Cuddy 21 cleared for takeoff, altimeter three zero one niner, climb straight ahead until passing 3000, then contact departure control, departure route tango.”  She heard the leader respond, “Cuddy 21, cleared for takeoff, altimeter three zero one niner.”  Almost immediately she heard a rapidly growing crescendo of the roar of nearby jet engines, and saw the number three plane’s pilot, she remembered it was Captain Allen, callsign “Scout”, made a quick circle motion with his right hand, index finger extended upward.  Immediately Jamie saw the power lever move smoothly forward and felt a surge of energy as the big engine just feet below them spun up to its full speed.  It seemed the very air throbbed from the maelstrom of superheated air screaming out of four jets standing close together on the runway.  She caught her breath as their plane seemed to come alive with power.  It literally shivered, straining to be released, the nose pushed down by the awesome thrust from the tail, the main wheels locked but barely holding onto the concrete.  No sooner had the needles on the array of engine instruments before her stabilized in their new positions then she saw Dan give Scout a thumbs up signal, and saw him pass that signal on to the leader.  Just like that their flight leader released brakes.  She watched with fascination as the leader’s plane began to roll, slowly at first.  The exhaust pipe was now visible, a black circle rippled by the hot turbulent air rushing out of it.  Within a second she saw a yellow glow appear up inside the rapidly receding image, and as she watched it grew in intensity until the entire plane, now a small form rapidly accelerating away from them, seemed dwarfed by a gigantic tail of fire.  It reminded her of a rocket, a small machine pushed by a huge plume of fire, only this rocket was speeding away down the runway.  Her sight of the lead’s plane was quickly blocked by the number two plane as, ten seconds later, it began its roll.  Then Scout’s plane began to move.  A few seconds later she heard Dan say to her, “You ready?  Here we go!” and he released their brakes.

She felt a little acceleration, her helmeted head moved a little back toward the headrest of her ejection seat, but she tensed her neck and easily resisted the movement.  She thought to herself, This isn’t so bad … about when I kick my car’s V-8 engine down into passing gear to get around a truck.  Even as the thought formed she noticed the power lever move even farther forward, then felt a jolt of acceleration.  Dan had showed her the airspeed indicator, similar to the ones she’d used in light airplanes, and with this first jolt she saw the indicator had begun showing their airspeed, 80 knots.  She thought, That must be the afterburner.  The acceleration was a steady push, thrusting her back into her seat, her head getting heavier.  Then came a second, stronger surge of acceleration, as the second stage of the five-stage afterburner lit.  Then a third, stronger bump of power -- they were now passing 120.  Her head really wanted to fall backwards against the headrest!  Then the fourth stage lit, even stronger!  She was straining to keep her head straight, and her eyes were beginning to water!  Then the fifth stage of the afterburner lit.  It felt like someone had rear-ended them!  The plane surged forward.  Her head succumbed to the brutal acceleration and was now pinned back against her headrest, her chest felt squeezed, her breathing rapid and shallow.  She saw through blurry vision their airspeed needle was rapidly sweeping upward, now 160, now 180, the plane’s nose smoothly came up and she sensed the ground vibrations cease as the wheels left the pavement.  Her head still pinned back, the airspeed rapidly accelerating through 230, she saw the landing gear lever raise and soon the red light in the lever went out, showing the three wheels were up and locked.  The acceleration continued as strongly as before, maybe more so now that the landing gear was up, and before she could think much about it she saw the power lever move aft and felt the acceleration stop, freeing her head from the headrest. 

She was astonished to see their airspeed was 400!  Dan’s voice came on, “You OK back there?” 

She croaked, “Yes.” 

“We’re approaching 3000 feet.  As soon as we do we’ll go left and join the flight.  You can spot them above us to our left, see, about ten o’clock high?”  She looked up to the left, high above Dan’s left shoulder and saw one F-16, a speck against a white cloud.  Then as she looked, she saw another, even higher and smaller, farther to the left.  “I see two of them.”  “Yeah, lead’s a little harder to see, about four miles ahead of us.  We’re going about 100 knots faster than lead, who’s doing 300, so we’ll be there shortly.  OK passing 3000 now so we can turn and get on an intercept path to the others.”  With that Dan quickly rolled their plane onto its left side and increased their G’s, the force of gravity they were feeling, to three G’s.  Jamie’s breath caught in her throat and her G-suit rapidly inflated, squeezing her abdomen and legs.  Dan’s voice came on sounding amazingly normal and unpressed, as if he were not feeling the pressure she was. 

“Lead’s got a left turn going.  Think of it as a big circle.  We’re going to pull around to fly across that circle to catch up with him.  We’ll hold this 100 knot overtake speed until we get close, then slow down to pull into formation.” 

Jamie could only listen. 

Soon the three G’s dissipated back to the norm one G.  “OK, we’re on the line to intercept now.  If you look at your upper one to two o’clock position you’ll see the others.  Two is already in formation and if you look closely you can see three between us and the first two, on the same intercept line we’re flying.  He’ll get there first onto lead’s right wing like we were lined up on the runway, and then we’ll come up on his right wing.”  Way up there Jamie saw two F-16’s, close together, but couldn’t see number three.  Then as she continued to look toward the first two, she saw a flash of light as the number three plane adjusted its bank angle.  Just as Dan said, it was rapidly approaching the first two at about the same angle they had, and as she watched it seemed to merge with the first two, and then there were three planes, close together, and rapidly growing larger as they approached.  She now knew the flight was going 300 knots, and she saw Dan had them at 420!  The three planes were rapidly growing in size as they approached!  Just as she wondered how they’d ever match speed with them she saw the power lever move all the way aft and felt a strong deceleration, and the plane began to buffet.  She was thrown forward in her harness as their airspeed quickly dropped to 375, then 350, then 320.  The buffet subsided just as Jamie slid them closely under the three planes and into position just feet away from the number three plane’s right wingtip. 

Dan, “And that’s how you do a rejoin!  Like it?” 

Jamie couldn’t answer, dumbstruck by the casual aggressiveness of these four pilots.