Fort Worth Mayor Price takes a ride in an F-16

With family and close friends looking on, Mayor Betsy Price took to the warm blue skies from a Lockheed Martin runway in west Fort Worth on Friday in an F-16.

Price becomes the fourth mayor to do so, following Kay Granger, Kenneth Barr and Mike Moncrief, who flew while he was a state senator.

After about four hours of training and instruction, a preflight physical by a flight surgeon, and an inspection of the plane, Price was strapped into the F-16B by Ricky Roberts, a life support specialist, who tightly held her hand and told her before take-off: “Peace be with you. Enjoy it.”

Price was flown by Paul “Bear” Randall, a native Californian and Navy test and combat pilot who has been with Lockheed for 13 years, the last five as a chief test pilot of the F-16.

The flight lasted about an hour, with the plane reaching speeds of 600 mph. They flew over the area at 15,000 feet and west to over Possum Kingdom Lake and the Brazos River, and over Price’s family’s 1852 homestead as well as her Fort Worth home near Texas Christian University.

“The power of Lockheed Martin is the people who work here and the passion that each one of us brings to the program. We want to have a good experience,” Randall told Price.

Price said she was “a little anxious” but honored to take the ride. She also flew the plane and experienced some of its capabilities.

“I think it’s going to be great, Price said. “My objective is that we raise the profile how important the Lockheed Martin F-16 and now the next generation F-35 that we’re building is, for not just for this community, but indeed all the world.”

Price’s grandsons, Price Carter, 8, and Chappell Carter, 9, watched the take-off and landing, and said they thought their grandmother was pretty cool for going in the plane.

More than 4,550 F-16’s have been produced in the last 40 years. The plane Price flew in is a government plane maintained and used by Lockheed as a chase plane.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Fort Worth Mayor Price takes a ride in an F-16."