Inside History of the USAF Lightweight Fighters, 1900 to 1975

This book, in two volumes, attempts to explain the technology developments that evolved in the period from 1900 at Kitty Hawk through the ensuing seventy-five years leading to the development of the United States F-16 Multinational Weapon System in the mid-1970s. By 2017, 4,550 F-16s, all with the first all-electric, fly-by-wire flight control system have been manufactured for use by twenty-six countries. Awestricken birds undoubtedly ask themselves, How do humans do that? as an F-16 streaks by at over two hundred times the airspeed of the bird. This book strives to provide the how-and-why answer to that fascinating story.