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Dave Palmer sits in his living room with his model F-16 on June 20, 2024. (Ismael M. Belkoura | Fort Worth Report)
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As a retired 79-year-old pilot, Dave Palmer’s body has been through a lot.

Palmer was part of a team of experimental test pilots who flew F-16s from 1977 to 1988 for General Dynamics from its Fort Worth plant and California’s Edwards Air Force Base. The New Jersey native, who now lives in Parker County, flew planes ranging from the F-4 to the charter plane Beech Baron 58 during his life and accumulated around 11,000 hours in commercial, military and contract test flying, according to his memoir. 

Several test flights he performed for General Dynamics led to burst capillaries along the underside of his arms and legs. During the tests, he experienced nine times the force of gravity, effectively making his body weigh one ton during certain maneuvers.

As a result, Palmer has severe nerve damage throughout his body. 

Nevertheless, he has no regrets.

“When you’re young, you think you’re bulletproof. And to be perfectly frank, I’d do it again,” Palmer said, with a smile. “I love that airplane.”

‘This is the guy’

Palmer graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1967. He spent the next three years in naval aviation training to prepare for the Vietnam War. He primarily flew F-8s during his two years of war-time service.

In late 1972, Palmer shifted course in his aviation career and applied for the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. His former Navy squadron leader helped Palmer get accepted.

“He took me under his wing and called some people up in D.C., and said, ‘This is the guy, you gotta have this guy,’” Palmer said.

Palmer found success in the test pilot world. He even received the Outstanding Navy Test Pilot of the Year in 1974. 

Around that same time, he learned about General Dynamics creating a new plane — the F-16. Palmer applied to the company’s test pilot program and was accepted in 1977.

“The fact that I’d already had combat (experience) was a big help,” he said.

Dave Palmer owns a model F-16 with his name on the nose of the plane. (Ismael M. Belkoura | Fort Worth Report)

Love at first sight

Palmer quickly realized that the F-16 was unlike any other plane he had flown before.

The F-16 is incredibly agile, he said. Compared to the F-8, which had a high operational accident rate, the F-16 rarely lost control. 

“Unless there’s something wrong with a particular F-16, it’s bulletproof, in the sense that it’ll never bite you,” Palmer said.

Palmer was one of the five pilots who tested the F-16 as it ramped up development in the late 1970s. Other pilots included:

Phil Oestricher, the first pilot to fly the F-16 in 1974.

Neil Anderson, an engineer-turned-test pilot for General Dynamics since 1967.

Dave Thigpen, the pilot to fly modified F-16s as early as 1976.

Jim McKinney, who applied alongside Palmer and was one of his close friends.

“We all knew what each other was worth — we were all pretty good at what we did. It was just a lot of fun,” Palmer said.

Palmer continued test piloting the F-16 into the 1980s, receiving a promotion to chief test pilot in 1982 while on active duty in the Navy Reserve. He flew different versions of the F-16 for General Dynamics in the Paris Air Show from 1982 to 1988.

Dave Palmer speaks on his experiences as a test pilot with a model of the F-16 in the foreground. (Ismael M. Belkoura | Fort Worth Report)

More test pilots joined the fray as the years went on. General Dynamics hired Kevin Dwyer in 1980. He knew Palmer when he was an instructor at the test pilot school. 

Palmer was always helpful and available to answer questions, Dwyer said.

“Dave was quite often with the Navy, and so the rest of us would be working weekends at Fort Worth and we’d be teasing him about that, but always good-natured,” Dwyer said. “He was a good guy to work with, I enjoyed it a lot and consider him a friend.”

After Palmer moved on from the test pilot program, he was selected to serve as a top official in the Joint Strike Fighter program. The program eventually led to the creation of the F-35, which Palmer called “an F-16 with the radar signature of a small bird.”

The F-35, though, is nothing quite like the F-16 for Palmer. Despite the wear and tear on his body, the jet is still the favorite of the 50 or so fighter planes he flew throughout his life.

“I love the F-16 more than any other airplane I’ve ever flown — by a lot.”

Ismael M. Belkoura is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.