Most people never go faster than a commercial airliner. Louis Skupien just broke the sound barrier twice, hit Mach 1.58, and pulled 9Gs, all in one flight.
This episode of Full Throttle drops you inside Edwards Air Force Base, the birthplace of nearly every major leap in American aviation. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier here. The X-15 hit Mach 6.7. The Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the same dry lake bed you’re about to fly over.
Then the video goes behind the curtain with the 412th Test Wing and the 416th Flight Test Squadron, the people who test the tech that keeps fighter pilots alive, including Auto GCAS, a system that can literally save a pilot’s life if they black out near the ground.
After training, briefings, and gear-up, Louis straps into the back seat of an F-16D Viper with USAF pilot Maj. Anthony “Hash” Pipe. What follows is one wild ride. A max-performance unrestricted climb straight off the runway. A low-level run through Sidewinder Canyon at 500 knots. A climb to 50,000 feet, the edge of the stratosphere, where the sky turns dark, and the curvature of the Earth is visible.
Then the moment everyone’s waiting for. Mach 1.58. The sound barrier, broken, twice. And if that wasn’t enough, a 9G turn that pushes the human body to its absolute limit.
Watch the full flight to see what it actually feels like to go supersonic in an F-16 Viper.
