When Air Force Col. John Boyd, the F-16 fighter jet's father, initially envisioned the
aircraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he intended to avoid making it "gold-plated" with
unnecessary features put on by Air Force personnel that would add weight and
reduce mobility in a combat. He could be rolling over in his grave right now,
because the Air Force painted one of his babies gold anyhow.
This Thursday, the Iowa Air National Guard unveiled a gleaming gold-painted F-16 in its hangar, a nod to the Iowa Air Guard's first gold-painted F-16 on its 50th anniversary in 1996.