EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Sept. 23 -- The U.S. Air Force Edwards Air Force Base issued the following press release:
While most Air Force maintainers spend their shifts keeping combat jets flight-ready, an eight-person depot crew recently arrived at Edwards Air Force Base with the opposite mission: dismantling a damaged fighter to keep the rest of the fleet in the sky.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon, tail number A86-0047, arrived at Edwards Air Force Base in 2010, but a ground mishap that caused irreparable landing gear damage forced its early retirement from active service in 2026.
"Every jet on our ramp plays a unique role in flight test programs across so many different airframes, whether its flying chase support for F-22 Raptors and F...