The last production F-16 in Fort Worth takes off from the Lockheed Martin plant on Tuesday, Nov. 14. The plane was sold to the Iraqi government. Angel DelCueto Lockheed Martin
Posted on 11/30/2017 8:58:56 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
FORT WORTH -Bobby Tamplin was 26 years old in 1977, when he went to work as a parts fabricator on the F-16 fighter jet. At the time, he was told his job would last “maybe five years.”
Forty years later, the 66-year-old recently stood on a windy, cold flight line at Lockheed Martin — just a few weeks before his retirement — to bid goodbye to the last F-16 to be built in Fort Worth. It is a bittersweet moment for Tamplin, who grew up working on the assembly line, to remember a time when the plant built almost one fighter a day.
“It was an aerospace milestone to see that many planes come and go every day,” Tamplin said. “But it was exciting.”
Later, when thinking about all the places the F-16 flies, he also said he felt a great responsibility. “You are producing an aircraft that is not only going to change Fort Worth, but it’s going to change air forces all over the world.”
But it’s the end of the line for Tamplin and the Fort Worth F-16 production line. To make way for growing production of the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter, Lockheed is moving the F-16’s assembly line to Greenville, South Carolina. While engineering, design and modernization activities will remain in Fort Worth, the last Cowtown jet flew out of town Nov. 14.
Over the life of the program, Lockheed has delivered 4,588 F-16s, including 3,620 built in Fort Worth. Along the way the F-16 program created tens of thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs that helped countless middle-class families buy cars, build houses and send their kids to college.
“It is a remarkable success story from every perspective,” said Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with the Teal Group. “Decade over decade, nothing rivals the
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
The last production F-16 in Fort Worth takes off from the Lockheed Martin plant on Tuesday, Nov. 14. The plane was sold to the Iraqi government. Angel DelCueto Lockheed Martin
Wow! Read in the article that the USAF plans to keep using the F-16 to at least 2048...when the plane/design is over SEVENTY years old!
That’s amazing!
Thank you for posting this article! Most informative!
John Boyd’s bird. What a genius.
The F-16 looks like a fighter plane. It is a beautiful, light nimble aircraft that looks like it means business.
The other aircraft I put into that category are the Hellcat, the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Saber. Maybe even the Mig-29. While I appreciate all fighter aircraft, when I think fighter I think of those planes.
Nice story. Thanks for posting.
That’s amazing!
The C-130 Hercules first flew over 63 years ago. It is still currently in production. Who knows when production will finally end, but it's safe to say a lot of C-130s will still be flying on the 100th anniversary of the first flight.
I was on Cape Cod last weekend, and had a DC-3 fly over the house...:)
Even evolution won’t change perfection. Take the shark, for example.
The F-16 is NOT John Boyd's bird. John Boyd, Pierre Sprey, and the rest of the fighter mafia wanted the F-16 to be a lightweight day fighter with no air to ground, and no radar.
Had the fighter mafia had their way, the F-16 would have gone the way of the F-5 decades ago as an obsolete one-trick pony.
I would have sworn the F-16 was in production a lot earlier than 1978, but I guess not. I was offered a ‘regulated position’ at the ‘Fighter Factory’ in the mid-eighties but turned it down. I don’t regret it a bit. If it requires joining a union, I ain’t touching it.
I was District Sales Manager for the old Cleveland based American Monorail Company in Texas as that production cranked up and walked that mile long plant many times when the overhead cranes AMCo supplied during WWII required some service/parts attention.
I still have a piece of aluminum honey cone given to me by one of the engineers at GD.
Fascinating process to watch those planes go together!
After transfer back to Atlanta sold a number of cranes to Lockheed for the C-5 and C-130 production lines.
Hill is now retiring the F-16s and will be the first operational F-35A wing.
From Wikipedia:
The FSD [Full Scale Development] F-16s were manufactured by General Dynamics in Texas at United States Air Force Plant 4 in late 1975; the first F-16A rolled out on 20 October 1976 and first flew on 8 December. The initial two-seat model achieved its first flight on 8 August 1977. The initial production-standard F-16A flew for the first time on 7 August 1978 and its delivery was accepted by the USAF on 6 January 1979.
Why does it bug me that Iraq is getting the latest F-16 model?
I would include the F-14 Tomcat. All business, and the swept wings are cool.
Not a fighter aircraft, but the Warthog is all business, too, in a different way.
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