416th Flight Test Squadron
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The 416th Flight Test Squadron is a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
squadron. It is assigned to the
412th Operations Group The 412th Test Wing (412 TW) is a wing of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Overview The 412th Test Wing plans, conducts, analyzes, and reports on all flight and ground te ...
,
Air Force Materiel Command Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). AFMC was created on July 1, 1992, through the amalgamation of the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and the former Air Force Systems Com ...
, stationed at
Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...
, California. During World War II, the 416th Bombardment Squadron was a
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
squadron, assigned to the
99th Bombardment Group The 99th Infantry Division was formed in 1942 and deployed overseas in 1944. The "Checkerboard" or "Battle Babies" division landed at the French port of Le Havre and proceeded northeast to Belgium. During the heavy fighting in the Battle of the ...
of
Fifteenth Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...
. It earned two
Distinguished Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...
s for its performance in combat.


Mission

The 416th performs flight testing on
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
aircraft.


History


World War II

The 416th was established in early 1942 as a
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
reconnaissance squadron but was redesignated as a heavy bomb squadron before activation in June. It trained under
II Bomber Command The II Bomber Command is a disbanded United States Air Force unit. It was established in September 1941, shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor to command heavy bomber units assigned to Second Air Force. Following the entry of the United St ...
in the Pacific Northwest, being deployed with B-17Es directly to the
XII Bomber Command XII Bomber Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces formation. Its last assignment was with the Twelfth Air Force, based in Corsica, France. It was constituted on 26 February 1942, activated on 13 March 1942, and inactivated on 10 J ...
in North Africa shortly after the
Operation Torch Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
landings in March 1943. In Algeria, the squadron engaged in combat operations in support of American ground forces in Algeria and Tunisia during the 1943 North African campaign. In June 1943, the 416th helped force the capitulation of
Pantelleria Pantelleria (; Sicilian: ''Pantiddirìa'', Maltese: ''Pantellerija'' or ''Qawsra''), the ancient Cossyra or Cossura, is an Italian island and comune in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and east of the Tunis ...
Island. It bombed in preparation for and in support of the invasions of
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
and southern
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
in the summer and fall of 1943. In October 1943 the 416th was reassigned to the new
Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), was a military formation of the United States Army that supervised all U.S. Army forc ...
Fifteenth Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...
. Until the German capitulation in May 1945, the unit engaged in strategic bombardment of enemy targets in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece, attacking oil refineries, marshaling yards, aircraft factories, and other strategic objectives. After
V-E Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...
, it was assigned to
Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies and ...
Green Project, which was the movement of troops from Italy to staging areas in French Morocco. B-17s were dearmed with flooring and seats for 25 passengers installed. Each crew consisted of pilot, copilot, navigator and flight engineer. The 416th carried passengers from Tortorella and later from Marcianise Airfields to
Port Lyautey Airfield Naval Air Station Port Lyautey is a former United States Navy Naval Air Station in Morocco, about north-northwest of Kenitra and about northeast of Casablanca. The Naval Air Station was turned over to the Royal Moroccan Air Force and the last ...
, French Morocco, where transports moved them across the Atlantic or to
Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...
for movement via the South Atlantic Transport Route. The squadron was demobilized in Italy in late 1945, and inactivated in November.


Reserves

The unit was activated in the reserves in 1947 and possibly assigned some B-29 Superfortresses; however, it was never fully equipped or manned, and was inactivated in 1949 due to budget restraints.


F-16 flight testing

The squadron was reactivated for flight testing of the
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
in 1989, after an inactivity of 43 years. The unit inherited the role of the 6516th TS that was also based at Edwards AFB. As the 6516th, the 416th was tasked with testing different weapon systems and specialized equipment on the F-16 in different production versions (blocks). Weapons testing forms only a small part of the unit's task. Most weapons testing is conducted together with the Eglin AFB based testing squadrons. Some F-16s are painted in a regular gray USAF scheme for weapons testing, but other color schemes are used, such as white aircraft with red tails and ventral fins. These aircraft are often used as
chase plane A chase plane is an aircraft that "chases" a "subject" aircraft, spacecraft or rocket, for the purposes of making real-time observations and taking air-to-air photographs and video of the subject vehicle during flight. Background Safety can ...
s for other aircraft test programs. A variety of 416th F-16s are used to chase F-22s and F-35s. These aircraft are also relocated to other airbases all over the country, mostly going to Eglin AFB for testing assistance or to Fort Worth JRB for assistance to the Lockheed F-35 program. In the 1990s the 416th helped in the development of the MLU upgrade package for older (mainly European NATO countries') F-16A/B models. The USAF eventually didn't get involved in the production process but did provide test aircraft #80-584 for this purpose. It is still flying with the squadron to test further enhancement packages for both MLU Vipers as for the USAF CCIP program In the 1990s the 416th led the flight test effort in the development of the AN/ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System. The performance of this interim solution was instrumental in the retirement of the F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft in the mid 1990s. The Air Force planned to replace the F-4G but the program was cancelled and the AN/ASQ-213 remains the primary F-16 SEAD mission sensor for the HARM missile more than 25 years later. The unit briefly gained the
McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...
test mission (2004-2005). The F-15 fleet was sent to
Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...
when the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters arrived in 2006.Rogers, During early 2009, the squadron deployed to
Nellis Air Force Base Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloq.) is a United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exercises such as Green Flag-West flown in " Military ...
, Nevada and participated in a Red Flag exercise. This was the first of this type of deployment for any
Air Force Materiel Command Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF). AFMC was created on July 1, 1992, through the amalgamation of the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and the former Air Force Systems Com ...
unit. Red Flag 09-2 ran from 26 January to 6 February 2009. The reason for the deployment was to perform operational testing for the latest operating system M5.1+ software which is specific for the F-16. The squadron took five aircraft all equipped with this latest software and flew 54 sorties. Redesignated: 416th Flight Test Squadron on 1 March 1994 Another deployment was organized for 23 January to 4 February 2012, to test software for the 6.1+ operating system. The new software allows several improvements, such as ability to carry the Small Diameter Bomb. This will allow the F-16 to carry more weapons and deliver this munition from farther away. Although primary deployed to test, the 416th was also a participant with one pilot taking top Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) pilot. Former members of the 416th who have been hired by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
to be astronauts include
Mike Bloomfield Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American guitarist and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his ...
,
Duane Carey Duane Gene "Digger" Carey (born April 30, 1957) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and a former NASA astronaut. He piloted the space shuttle ''Columbia'' on March 1, 2002, during a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mis ...
,
Rex Walheim Rex Joseph Walheim (born October 10, 1962) is a retired United States Air Force officer, engineer and NASA astronaut. He flew three Space Shuttle missions, STS-110, STS-122, and STS-135. Walheim logged over 566 hours in space, including 36 hour ...
, Jim Dutton and
Nick Hague Tyler Nicklaus Hague (born on September 24, 1975) is a United States Space Force colonel and a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. Selected to be a flight engineer on the International Space Station, his first launch was on Soyuz MS-10, which ...
.


Lineage

; 416th Bombardment Squadron * Constituted as the 26th Reconnaissance Squadron (Heavy) on 28 January 1942 : Redesignated 416th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 22 April 1942 : Activated on 1 June 1942 : Redesignated 416th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 20 August 1943 : Inactivated on 8 November 1945 * Redesignated: 416th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 3 July 1947 : Activated in the reserve on 17 July 1947 : Inactivated on 27 June 1949 * Consolidated with the 6516th Test Squadron as the 6516th Test Squadron on 1 October 1992 ; 416th Test Squadron * Designated as the 6516th Test Squadron and activated on 10 March 1989 : Consolidated with the 416th Bombardment Squadron on 1 October 1992 : Redesignated 416th Test Squadron on 2 October 1992


Assignments

*
99th Bombardment Group The 99th Infantry Division was formed in 1942 and deployed overseas in 1944. The "Checkerboard" or "Battle Babies" division landed at the French port of Le Havre and proceeded northeast to Belgium. During the heavy fighting in the Battle of the ...
, 1 June 1942 – 8 November 1945 * 99th Bombardment Group, 17 July 1947 – 27 June 1949 * 6510th Test Wing (later 412th Test Wing), 10 March 1989 *
412th Operations Group The 412th Test Wing (412 TW) is a wing of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Overview The 412th Test Wing plans, conducts, analyzes, and reports on all flight and ground te ...
, 1 October 1993 – present


Stations

*
MacDill Field MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...
, Florida, 1 June 1942 *
Pendleton Field Eastern Oregon Regional Airport (Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton) is a public airport three miles northwest of Pendleton, in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Commercial service is provided by Boutique Air to Portland, subsi ...
, Oregon, 29 June 1942 *
Gowen Field Boise Airport (Boise Air Terminal or Gowen Field) is a joint civil-military airport in the western United States, south of downtown Boise in Ada County, Idaho. The airport is operated by the city of Boise Department of Aviation and is overseen ...
, Idaho, 28 August 1942 *
Walla Walla Army Air Base Walla Walla Regional Airport is a public airport in Walla Walla County, Washington, in the western United States. It is northeast of central Walla Walla, and is owned by the Port of Walla Walla. History World War II The airport was the locati ...
, Washington, 30 September 1942 *
Sioux City Army Air Base Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, Iowa, 17 November 1942 – 3 January 1943 *
Navarin Airfield Navarin Airfield is a World War II military airfield in Algeria, located approximately 10 km from El Eulma in Sétif Province. It was used by the United States Army Air Force Twelfth Air Force during the North African Campaign for heavy ...
, Algeria, 25 March 1943 *
Oudna Airfield Oudna Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield in Tunisia, which was located approximately southwest of La Mohammedia, south-southwest of Tunis It was used by the United States Army Air Force Twelfth Air Force during the North Af ...
, Tunisia, 5 August 1943 * Tortorella Airfield, Italy, 14 December 1943 *
Marcianise Airfield Marcianise Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield in southeast Italy, which is located approximately 10 km north-northwest of Marcianise in the province of Caserta, Campania; about 32 km north-northwest of Naples. ...
, Italy, c. 27 October–8 November 1945 * Robins Field (later Robins Air Force Base), Georgia, 17 July 1947 – 27 June 1949 *
Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...
, California, 10 March 1989 – present


Aircraft

* Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1945 *
Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
, 1947-1949 * General Dynamics (Lockheed-Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon, 1989–present * McDonnell Douglas F-15A/B/C/D/E Eagle/Strike Eagle, 2004-2005


See also

*
List of United States Air Force test squadrons This is a list of United States Air Force test squadrons. It covers units considered to be part of the Air Force and serves as a break out of the comprehensive List of United States Air Force squadrons. Most units in this list are assigned to Ai ...
*
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations Units in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) were the second-largest user of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. There were a total of six combat groups (twenty-four squadrons) equipped with the bomber assigned to the ...


References

; Notes ; Notes


Bibliography

* * * {{US Air Force navbox 412 Military units and formations in California