USAF Chief Of Staff Praises F-22 After Chase Flight At Edwards

The F-16 is not often left in the wake of another jet fighter, especially when the Fighting Falcon is thundering along at more than one and one-half times the speed of sound. But that’s what happened when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan flew chase during an F-22 Raptor test mission in January. Addressing troops in Europe several weeks later, Ryan noted that the F-22 “is a real airplane. I’m in an F-16 with a -129 motor in it and this is the best F-16 the Air Force has. I take off and come back around. The F-22 starts rolling. I light the burner and I give the F-16 everything it can take. I try to keep it up to the Raptor but it goes straight up and starts walking away from me. We rolled over at about 30,000 feet and start accelerating out. He’s out at 1.6 Mach and I’m still back trying to catch up to him in full afterburner and he’s just in low power. For a pilot, that’s amazing.”