GOING SUPERSONIC with U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds! Pulling 7 G's in an F-16 -Smarter Every Day 235

DESTIN: Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Today we're

going

to hang out with the US Air Force Thunderbirds. Let's see if we can break the sound barrier. The temptation, when you make a video of yourself flying in an F-16, is to use the power of editing to look as impressive as possible. Do I need two chin straps because I have two chins? But that's not this video, because I'm not awesome. These pilots, however, are incredible. But through this experience I learned that an F-16 is very different from a T-38. Several years ago, I flew a familiarization flight at Randolph Air Force Base in a T-38, a twin-engine trainer they use to train their fighter pilots.

I learned a lot about the effects of G-

force

s on the cardiovascular system and, for the first time in my life, I felt the

force

s of a fighter jet... 5 G's, in fact. When I got the Thunderbirds itinerary and started reading things that said things like "get enough sleep," I thought, oh, I haven't really done that. And then it says hydrate. And when you think you're hydrated, drink some more. It seems like it's a big deal, but you know, I've done the fighter plane thing before. So it has to be similar, right? I have this. Man, I was wrong.

Let's start with who the Thunderbirds are. They are made up of 12 officers, eight of whom are highly experienced fighter pilots, and 120 soldiers from almost 30 different professional fields. These are the crew chiefs, mechanics, and technicians who make sure the planes are always mission-ready. Each member had to apply and was carefully selected in a highly competitive selection process. Its mission is to plan and present precision aerial maneuvers and to showcase the capabilities of modern high-performance aircraft and the high degree of professional skill necessary to operate such aircraft. They have done this with a variety of aircraft over the years and are currently operating the F-16 Fighting Falcon, more commonly known as the Viper.

The FAA and military greatly restrict

supersonic

flights over land due to sonic booms. My flight was scheduled to take place before an air show practice at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Biloxi is right on the Gulf of Mexico, and there's a stretch of open water between there and my home state of Alabama, where

supersonic

flight is approved. I'm finally

going

to be able to break the sound barrier, which is something I've been dreaming about since I learned about the physics of supersonic flight. This is my pilot, Thunderbird 8, call sign Flack, Major Jason Markzon. It turns out that Flack was trained by Supa, the same instructor pilot who took me in the T-38, which made me feel a little more confident about what we were about to do.

He explained to me that the F-16 airframe was incredibly maneuverable, to the point where the human body was the limiting factor. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Actually, what we're going to do when we first enter airspace is a G-awareness exercise, or g-ex. So we'll accelerate to about 400 knots and then hit 4 to 5 G. DESTIN: You're going to test my limits. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. DESTIN: You probably know this, but just to review, right now you and I are at 1 G. We feel like normal gravity surrounds us, right? If you're in a fighter jet, you pull the stick back and fly in an arc, you'll feel like you're being pressed through the seat because of that radial acceleration.

It's like when you drive a car and you turn very fast. Everything slides across the board: the same thing. So if you are in a 2 G maneuver, your 10 pound head will feel like it weighs 20 pounds. If you are in a 7 G maneuver, your 10 pound head will feel like it weighs 70 pounds. And conceptually I know all this and I understand the math, but what Flack wants to do is actually subject me to this environment. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Well, it's a warm-up. It's not so much a test in the sense of, hey, can I... are we ready to get a G?

DESTIN: Are you an adult or are you a child? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Make sure our connections are good. Can you breathe properly? That kind of things. FATE: Okay. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: So your G tension probably hasn't changed since your trip on T-38. DESTIN: So when we start, you'll know instantly if I can hang up or not. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Pretty close. Pretty close, yes. DESTIN: Okay, great. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes, I'll listen to your breathing so I can give you feedback if I see something. And then when we do the next real G awareness exercise, we'll do a 6 to 7 G 180 degree turn.

DESTINATION: Holy cow. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: So we'll hold onto that for a while. DESTINATION: 180? They are 6 to 7 G for how long? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: 180 degrees turn. So we'll hold it for... probably 20 seconds or so. DESTIN: What? OK. I'm going to be honest with you about what I was thinking at this point in the game. We're sitting around talking about all the things that are going to happen and I'm like, you know what? I can do this. I ran a half marathon. I can carry all the groceries in the house in this... in one go, in one trip I can get all the groceries.

And if things get worse, I'll just lie there and take the G's and take them. I might faint, but I'm fine. I understand the mathematics. I'm fine. But I knew I needed to fake a little humility, because I didn't want to... if something bad happened, I just wanted to be able to say, I told you you were going to get me. So I was saying things like this to Flack. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: We'll do four aileron rolls... consecutively. And then we'll do our maximum turn of 9 G. DESTIN: After the ailerons turn? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Well, we can do it before you turn the spoiler if you want.

DESTIN: So this is the shake and bake thing? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: This is... yes, this is... that is... this is when the real test of his mettle occurs. DESTIN: So what happens is you do the little things and then you say, okay, just to remind you that I'm the fighter pilot and you're not, now we're going to do these things. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: It's not that. It's just to show you the training and the physical nature of being in the cockpit. DESTIN: After the briefing, it was time for Sergeants Jasper Roberts and Ed Portan to get me dressed.

They measured me, put my helmet on, made sure the mask fit correctly so hypoxia wouldn't be an issue, trained me on the ejection seat, and buckled my G-suit to the correct size. On the way to the flight line, they kindly offered me a pair of aviator sunglasses, which I declined, and we walked to the plane. And to be honest, this is where it started to seem real. Do you always walk to your plane in slow motion? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Everyone walks in slow motion. Everyone else moves fast, but we walk in slow motion. DESTIN: That's funny.

There was a lot of tradition at this point and you feel really special, but your feet are firmly planted on the ground when you have to put on the G-suit in front of

every

one on the plane. If you don't know what you're doing, there is absolutely no way to look good putting on the G-suit in front of other people. Putting on the G suit is half the exercise, man. Climbing into the cockpit of an F-16 is absolutely surreal. MAN: Right foot, right here. DESTIN: Yes, sir. MAN: Take your left hand and put it in front of your name.

DESTIN: Did you name it after me? MAN: Oh, absolutely. DESTIN: That's impressive. MAN: Sit down. DESTIN: This is great. MAN: Put that helmet on. You can see it well. DESTIN: Looks great. That's going to be difficult. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: .. DESTIN: Yes. Left, right, left, right. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Lata, that's my boy. That's my Boy. DESTIN: OK, here we go, the moment he was waiting for. Let's aim for the runway. You're going to engage the afterburner, which means putting fuel into the exhaust for extra thrust. Turn right, shoot straight up to 16,000 feet. This is crazy. It's what I imagine it would feel like to ride a rocket.

MAJOR JASON MARKZON: I'm ready if you're ready, my friend. DESTIN: I'm ready, sir. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Let's do this. Rocket up. Smoke. Ready now. Smoke out. Ready now. And on the go. Here comes the afterburner. There she is. Airborne. The air is rising. Turn right. Departure. eight in the air and passing 200 through 5220. that's eight for the start. Radar contact. Raise and hold. 1-6,000-- 16,000. Getting ready to go up to 1-6000. DESTIN: And you're operating radios while you're doing this. That's a pleasure. What is your thrust-to-weight ratio? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: It's one on one. DESTINATION: Man. See yourself turning to avoid the sun.

MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Sure, we'll continue with that. DESTIN: And so, we're at 16,000 feet. Now that we're airborne in an F-16, we should probably learn to read our instruments. This is the head-up display, also known as the HUD. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: If you look at the HUD, on the left side, it says 351... that's our airspeed. DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: If you go down from there, more or less down the stairs, where it says SIM, S-I-M. DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: The number just below is our current Mach number, which is 0.70. And then below that on the left, that 1.0... that's the current... sorry, that's the maximum G that we got.

And then at the top of that ladder is the current G that we're putting out. DESTIN: So current G, 1.0. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. FATE: 1.3, 1.4, got it. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. Mach 0.69 is where we are. DESTINATION: Understood. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Great. Alright, are you ready to do that g-ex we talked about? DESTIN: Yeah, let's do it. Okay, here we go. The first maneuver according to the flight plan is the G-awareness exercise: two 180-degree turns, and when I feel the Gs, I'm supposed to tighten

every

thing, hold my breath, make sure I have enough oxygen to my brain. And I'm also wearing the G-suit, which is supposed to tighten my legs, and that should help.

Tell me when I need to start doing the maneuver. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yeah, so we... I'll say, here come the G's. And when I say G, that's when I'm going to start

pulling

. That's when I need you... DESTIN: Do I need to get my head back? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: That's when... you don't necessarily need your head back, but that's when you'll want to start applying your G tension. FATE: Okay. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Great. Everything's fine man. DESTIN: By the way, we still don't know if my suit works. We didn't do it dry. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Man, I'm sure he's fine.

Alright, here we go. Here come the G's. Alright, that's it. DESTINY: 4.6? MAJOR JASON MARKZON: 4.6. FATE: Okay. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: All right, ready? Here we go. A 180 degree turn is coming. Here come the G's. Okay. Destin, how are you feeling? You have 6.7 there. FATE: Good. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Okay, man. Yeah, that's awesome, dude. DESTIN: The first maneuver we did in the F-16 was already much more difficult than the most difficult maneuver we did in the T-38, which made me realize that this is more than this, but everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Then, we went supersonic.

We took the plane to full power, which means the engine will run faster without the afterburner, and we tried it. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: As you can see, I'm in over my head right now. DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: And we're at 0.99 Machs. As soon as I activate the afterburner, we'll break Mach. DESTIN: Okay, so I'm looking down. OK. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: See that Mach 0.99? DESTIN: I see that. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: All right, ready? DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Here we go. AB, here's the Mach, man. We just broke it. 1.02. DESTIN: Nothing happened. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: 1.04. 1.05. Well, then...

DESTIN: The altimeter went crazy. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: I can tell you that I can feel the plane starting to climb. DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: And watch what happens when I'm idle. Do you feel like you slow down like this? DESTIN: Oh, wow. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. FATE: Difficult. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Really slow down, right? So... DESTIN: And the... and the altimeter went ballistic. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yeah, the altimeter went crazy, right? So that's just the... I think it's the pressure on the pitot tubes. DESTIN: Yes, it's static pressure. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. DESTIN: Breaking the sound barrier in the cabin of a high-performance aircraft is something I've dreamed of and studied for years, and it finally happened.

I was expecting a jolt or maybe a small rumble. Nothing happened. Other than these gauges crashing, I wouldn't have known we went supersonic. But the reason the meters skyrocketed is fascinating. Let's start with this. This is called a Pitot tube and this is how you measure the speed at which a jet is going. This is essentially the pointy part of the jet. This is an old one that is a little worn, but if you look at the end, there is a small hole. When a plane flies through the air, air molecules reach the Pitot probe and crash into that hole.

And if you have a pressure gauge on the back of that hole, you can measure what's called stagnation pressure. Basically, it's about how much air builds up, which of course is a function of how fast you're going. However, another thing about pitot tubes is that they havecall sign Mace. She's the one the Air Force has selected to perform some of the most difficult maneuvers performed by the Thunderbirds, and let me tell you, I felt some of these maneuvers and it's hard to overstate how difficult they are. What strikes me when talking to Mace is how remarkably modest she is.

Just listening to her talk, you'll say, oh, well, what she's doing is clearly not at the limit of human ability, but she totally is. But what really surprises me about Mace is how incredibly humble she is. This is Thunderbird 6. This is Mace. Mace, I don't know exactly how the show plays out. So there are eight birds? MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: There are six that are actually at the demonstration. So we refer to them as the diamond, which is 1 to 4, and then the solos, which are 5, and then I'm the opposite solo. So the six of us gathered together, in close formation.

We call that delta at the end of the show, but in the first part of the show you see four jets together in a very close formation: three loops, rolls and all kinds of things like that. And then you have 5 and me, who are making opposite passes, making the most of the airplane. I'll pull 9 G. I'll do vertical rolls where I go from 200 feet above the ground to 15,000 feet in just a few seconds. So we're kind of in shock and awe, and we really show them what the F-16 can do. DESTIN: I just flew, did 7.2 G's and couldn't think.

And they told me you do 9 G's in the program. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Yeah, so it's an acquired tolerance, right? DESTIN: Is it really? MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: I think 7 is a comfortable place to be. Alright. But from 7 to 9 the feeling is substantially worse, but we train for that, right? We flew for four months during the winter, learning our profiles and getting used to getting Gs. We'll fly twice a day, so you really build up a tolerance. If I haven't flown for a few weeks, it's a little harder to pull the Gs again than when I do it all the time.

We wore the G suit, like you wore today. It gives you life back. DESTIN: Yes, but I still couldn't think of anything. My brain just stopped working, and you... you're not the only one. You're talking on the radio and you're doing coordinated timing maneuvers and all that. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Yes, so I have parameters that I have to meet. Not talking on the radio under 9, just because, you felt it, the air is being expelled from your lungs at that point, and we have specific breathing techniques to do, exchanging that air to maintain the pressure in your lungs for 9 G.

But I'm flying 200 feet above the ground, doing a max turn, and then when I come out of that and go into my half Cuban, which is where you get up and go over, I'll do about 8 going. uphill for that, then. DESTIN: Are you doing 9 G's at 200 feet from the deck? MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Mhm. DESTIN: Are you serious? MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Yes. DESTIN: So what's the angle of inclination for that? Because... MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: It's almost 90. DESTIN: Is it really? So how are you fixing that? MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: So we have a flight path marker on our head-up display, our HUD.

And then you really put it on the horizon line, and as long as you keep it there and get a solid pull, you'll maintain a level turn without a lot of rise and fall. DESTIN: It sounds like I'm just saying words, but they're superhuman things. I mean... MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: We practiced a lot. DESTIN: It's like a superhero thing. That is incredible. Thank you so much. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Yes, absolutely. DESTIN: Yeah, 9 G. That's impressive. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: 7.5. DESTIN: Whatever. 7.2. I couldn't do 7.5. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: I was like... DESTIN: Thank you. MAJOR MICHELLE CURRAN: Yes, of course.

DESTIN: I don't know if you really understood what Mace said there. He is

pulling

9 G's, almost 90 degrees, and is 200 feet from the deck. If you're going hundreds of miles per hour, it won't take you any time to travel 200 feet. There is no margin for error here. This is what I learned flying with the Air Force Thunderbirds. Sometimes in life I feel overconfident, and I'm probably not the only one who does, but maybe I'm overconfident because of something I learned in a book, or overconfident because of a life experience I've already had that is similar to me. to this one, or maybe even because of a past success I had.

However, this is where I am now. If I don't approach each new experience with an appropriate balance of confidence and humility, there's a good chance I'll be forcibly humiliated. So in the future, whether it's a physical challenge or an argument with a friend, I'm going to try to maintain that balance between confidence and humility, so that I don't end up looking stupid, which can happen, sometimes, in front of a lot of people in Internet. Teaching people how to maintain this balance between confidence and humility... that's what the Air Force does. If you talk to any of these pilots, they will tell you that there is no margin for error.

We constantly have to remain humble and practice to improve the ability to operate an aircraft safely. But there's something else the United States Air Force does. They take people who may not believe they can do amazing things and show them that they can. That was incredible. If you are interested in the Air Force, I will leave links in the video description. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Many thanks to the Thunderbirds. Thanks to all the ground staff who prepared the plane for Flack to take me. It was incredible. So he looks at that. Links below in the video description.

Go see them. Thank you. Bye bye. You'll notice there are no sponsors on this video, a big thank you to all the sponsors who support at Patreon.com/SmarterEveryDay. I hope this video earned your subscription. If not, it's not a big deal. I'm Destin. You are

smarter

every day. Have a good. Bye bye. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: If you want, I can let you fly for a bit. DESTIN: Yes. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Great. Alright, buddy, you've got the plane. DESTIN: There is no contribution. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yes. Aileron rolls, left turn, right turn. You can get some G's if you want.

FATE: Okay. I'm going to do a roll. MAJOR JASON MARKZON: Yeah, do it, man.