This study presents a comparative analysis of classical model reference adaptive control (IO-DMRAC) and its fractional-order counterpart (FO-DMRAC), which are applied to the pitch-rate control of an F-16 aircraft longitudinal model. The research demonstrates a significant enhancement in control performance with fractional-order adaptive control. Notably, the FO-DMRAC achieves lower performance indices such as the Integral Square-Error criterion (ISE) and Integral Square-Input criterion (ISU) and eliminates system output oscillations during transient periods. This study marks the pioneering application of FO-DMRAC in aircraft pitch-rate control within the literature. Through simulations on an F-16 short-period model with a relative degree of 1, the FO-DMRAC design is assessed under specific flight conditions and compared with its IO-DMRAC counterpart. Furthermore, the study ensures the boundedness of all signals, including internal ones such as omega(t).