Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sluggo, is permanent physical damage like limited neck mobility a "typical" thing for most 1000+ hour fighter pilots, at least as they age? Why does the G-force damage the neck in particular? Although I guess if my head suddenly weighed 9X what it does, yeah, that might compress a disc, or something like that.
On the 'G-measles" - why does this affect arms and thighs in particular? What about the feet and lower legs? Seems to me, just from basic physics and physiology, that the highest localized blood pressure would be in the feet. Or are the capillaries in the lower leg and foot tougher because they get over-pressure on and off as one walks, jumps around, etc? I guess you were wearing some sort of G-suit?
Neck stress had to do with compression, as well as moving your head under G. The trick was to turn your head to face the adversary first and then apply G, and move only your eyes under load. Easier said than done, in any dynamic air-to-air engagement there were times it was necessary. And during my tour as a schoolhouse instructor, I spent a lot of time looking backwards at the student evaluating his (or her) maneuvering and energy state.
G-measles tended to affect areas that were perpendicular to the G-axis, and given the seat's 30-degree recline, that made the thighs and forearms the candidates for capillary bursts. The feet were actually slightly elevated... sitting in an F-16 is somewhat like being in a Barcalounger. Not surprisingly, given what is available on the web, I even found an article on them which shows a picture of G-measles.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,329 posts, read 54,400,252 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by SluggoF16
You got that right. It just LOOKS like a fighter aircraft. At the time everything else was essentially upgraded jet-powered WW II era aircraft (think Panther, Banshee, Skyknight, and Shooting Star) it was truly revolutionary.
I was always impressed with Bob Hoover's praise for this aircraft as being an 'honest' stick and rudder aircraft. One thing that must've sucked in that era was the smoke. I was up around Bradley Field one time doing a student cross country and off in the distance saw what looked like a smudge in the sky, took a while to get close and turned out to be an F-100 Super Saber, couldn't have been a lot of fun advertising your presence so clearly to those who were looking for you.
My first exposure to a military demo team was the Italian Frecce Tricolori flying Canadair F-86Es, that and the fact an F-86 was the first cockpit I ever sat in (one of my Dad's WW II crewmates brought me into an Air Guard hangar when I was probably around 6-7) has made it one of my favorite airplanes for a long time. Not too shabby looking either for its era.
in my opinion, the F86 would look like it belonged in the inventory today, though a bit dated.
in my opinion, the F86 would look like it belonged in the inventory today, though a bit dated.
Something that I always thought just plain looked fast, sitting on the ramp, were the F-111 and the A-5 Vigilante. Not fighters per se, but attack/bomber aircraft, but great-looking.
Something that I always thought just plain looked fast, sitting on the ramp, were the F-111 and the A-5 Vigilante. Not fighters per se, but attack/bomber aircraft, but great-looking.
the vigilante was actually a pretty impressive aircraft. it could hit a top speed of mach 2.1, and actually held an altitude record of just over 91,000ft.
IIRC, the Vigilante, designed to drop a bomb out a chute above the engine exhaust, due to some aerodynamic quirk, would "drag" the bomb along behind it, or would do this at some speeds anyway. Oddly the Wikipedia article does not mention that or I can't find it anyway.
This may be just a "C" story, not sure.
North American certainly did build some of the most interesting aircraft, featuring very high performance, but at the expense of being rather complicated and expensive.
The 91K altitude flight story is interesting though. For some reason the plane would roll onto its back at/near the top of the ballistic trajectory. Apparently the crew expected this and found that the right answer was to just "go with it" and let the airplane right itself when it fell back into thicker air.
How they dealt with being well above the Armstrong Limit was not discussed in Wikipedia. Probably they had full pressure suits on.
IIRC, the Vigilante, designed to drop a bomb out a chute above the engine exhaust, due to some aerodynamic quirk, would "drag" the bomb along behind it, or would do this at some speeds anyway. Oddly the Wikipedia article does not mention that or I can't find it anyway.
This may be just a "C" story, not sure.
North American certainly did build some of the most interesting aircraft, featuring very high performance, but at the expense of being rather complicated and expensive.
The 91K altitude flight story is interesting though. For some reason the plane would roll onto its back at/near the top of the ballistic trajectory. Apparently the crew expected this and found that the right answer was to just "go with it" and let the airplane right itself when it fell back into thicker air.
How they dealt with being well above the Armstrong Limit was not discussed in Wikipedia. Probably they had full pressure suits on.
...North American certainly did build some of the most interesting aircraft, featuring very high performance, but at the expense of being rather complicated and expensive...
Not this one. Ugh. (I have ~675 hours in it, including this very one.)
I don't know that much about fighter planes, but I have always been fascinated by the MIG-29OVT. One of the first planes that uses thrust vectoring, even before the first F22 or F35 was flying. I have seen it on some airshows in Europe and enjoyed it very much. I think it must be fun to fly.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,329 posts, read 54,400,252 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by SluggoF16
Not this one. Ugh. (I have ~675 hours in it, including this very one.)
I was surprised to see that according to a WIKI article, two were deployed to Iraq in 2015. I thought it'd been retired long before that.
Anything in particular that elicited your 'Ugh' or just generally a bad idea/execution?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
