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Watch From Inside the Cockpit as This F-16 Climbs 15,000 Feet in 45 Seconds
High performance fighter jets: not for the weak of stomach.
The F-16 fighter jet is far from the most advanced interceptor prowling the skies today, but it’s still capable of some rather amazing feats of aerial performance. Via the Aviationist — which if you’re an airplane geek and you don’t know about, shame on you — comes this video of a Pakistani F-16 taking off and climbing 15,000 feet in just under 45 seconds.
The pilot, Turkish test pilot Murat Keles, spends a few seconds after going airborne gaining speed and then jacks his plane into a vertical climb. The video below, filmed with a GoPro camera mounted in the cockpit, captures the hair-raising maneuver:
The F-16 in question belongs to the 11th Squadron, better known as the “Arrows,” of the Pakistani air force. Murat Özpala was the rear-seat pilot on the flight.
Photo credit: YouTube/Murat Özpala