![About a year after General Dynamics won one of two contracts for the Lightweight Fighter competition in 1972, Harry Hillaker was invited to give a talk to the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His recollection follows.
My initial response was, You must be kidding. You want me to go into the lion's den?
McDonnell Douglas did all kinds of advertising and everything else that was anti lightweight fighter. My immediate reply was, thanks but no thanks.
About fifteen minutes later, I got a call from Dave Lewis [then-chairman of General Dynamics Corporation]. He said, Harry, I hear that you're giving a talk on the F-16 up here to these McAir guys. That's great. I want you to give them hell, and I'm going to be there to see you do it.
I called the AIAA guy back up and said I had second thoughts.
A couple of days before the meeting, the program chairman said that the chapter had sold more tickets to that meeting than to any other past meeting, even meetings with astronaut speakers. He said they had over one hundred coming from McDonnell Douglas alone.
I gave the talk. After about an hour of questions and answers, the program chairman interrupted to let those who wanted to leave, leave. Two hours after that, the hotel manager came in the room and asked us to leave because they had to set up the room for a breakfast the next morning. At 2:30 in the morning, about fifteen McAir guys and I closed the bar.](thumbnail.php?img=media/Hillaker_AIAA_Flyer_SM_1267828237_2323.jpg&size=d "<p>About a year after General Dynamics won one of two contracts for the Lightweight Fighter competition in 1972, Harry Hillaker was invited to give a talk to the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His recollection follows.</p>
<p><em>My initial response was, You must be kidding. You want me to go into the lion's den?</em></p>
<p><em>McDonnell Douglas did all kinds of advertising and everything else that was anti lightweight fighter. My immediate reply was, thanks but no thanks.</em></p>
<p><em>About fifteen minutes later, I got a call from Dave Lewis [then-chairman of General Dynamics Corporation]. He said, Harry, I hear that you're giving a talk on the F-16 up here to these McAir guys. That's great. I want you to give them hell, and I'm going to be there to see you do it.</em></p>
<p><em>I called the AIAA guy back up and said I had second thoughts.</em></p>
<p><em>A couple of days before the meeting, the program chairman said that the chapter had sold more tickets to that meeting than to any other past meeting, even meetings with astronaut speakers. He said they had over one hundred coming from McDonnell Douglas alone.</em></p>
<p><em>I gave the talk. After about an hour of questions and answers, the program chairman interrupted to let those who wanted to leave, leave. Two hours after that, the hotel manager came in the room and asked us to leave because they had to set up the room for a breakfast the next morning. At 2:30 in the morning, about fifteen McAir guys and I closed the bar.</em></p>")
Lockheed Martin aerospace engineer and designer Harry James Hillaker died on 8 February 2009 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He was eighty-nine.
Back in the mid-1960s, Hillaker spent his off hours designing the airplane of his dreams—a lightweight, high-performance jet that could fly circles around all other fighters. His spare-time project turned into an obsession. The obsession became a reality. Today that reality, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, is the standard against which all other fourth-generation fighters are measured.
Hillaker retired from the company (then General Dynamics) in 1985, after forty-four years of design work that included the B-36, B-58, F-111, and F-16. He remained active as a consultant to the US Air Force and industry. In 1990, he was inducted into the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering for his achievements. He also spent two terms as chairman of the Aerospace Vehicles Panel of the Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board.
The two-part Hillaker interview in Code One, published in 1991, remains one of the most visited pages on this website. The last question Hillaker, the designer, answered in that interview was: Are you comfortable with the title Father of the F-16?
His answer: "I'm flattered by it. As its father, I had the best part, providing the sperm. Now the gestation period and much of what happened later was something else. Other people can take credit for what happened there. My interest in airplanes is the external shape. I'm not that interested in what goes inside, except as how it affects the outside shape."
Harry was a gifted engineer. He was also a maverick with a dry sense of humor. During the interview, he told a story of how he refused to sign timecards when he worked for the company. He just didn't believe in them. One was brought to his magazine photo session to get a reaction. The only timecard he ever signed is the one he's signing in the photo used for the interview. That explains the grin.
Four pilots from the 301st Fighter Wing at NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth paid Hillaker the ultimate tribute—performing the missing man formation in their F-16s over his funeral.
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