Message posted by Magoo on March 28, 2001 at 17:42:13 PST:

RF

I think you'll find there is a somewhat simpler explanation for these "disorientation and fatigue" accidents. Most of these crashes happened in the early days of the program when night flying was the norm. As the aircraft were still black at this time, the aircraft would depart TTR at dusk, and fly across the NV-CA border and down across the R-2508 ranges for their 'mission', and then return to TTR.

The terrain along this route is challenging to say the least, with both the lowest and highest points in the US within 200 miles of each other, and everything from desert to densly forested snow-capped mountains in between. Throw in one or two air-to-air refuellings, and having to fly a totally new type of aircraft which is inherently unstable and challening to fly at best, and you can see why there is so much potential for accidents.

In fact, I'm surprised more have not been lost, although I suspect many of the pilots that fly the '117' are generally exceptional, with high levels of experience on other types.

Although Spooky refers to these 'neural net' trials, I doubt whether they have been trialed operationally, nor even on a flying aircraft for that matter. I suspect it remains very much in the realm of the simulator world for the time being, and may not see the first operational until the first real UAV/UCAVs enter service in the next decade or two.

Magoo

In Reply to: Re: F-117 crash details posted by Rocketfox on March 28, 2001 at 16:28:54 PST:

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