Pilot On Board For First Flight, Will Eventually Be Unmanned
The U.S. Air Force completed the first manned flight of the QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) on May 4 at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL. The QF-16 took off at 1505 EDT and climbed to an altitude of 41,000 feet during its 66-minute flight. The Air Force awarded a multi-year contract to Boeing in March 2010 that represented Phase I of the initial engineering, manufacturing and development of the QF-16, with options to buy up to 126 FSATs.