Downtown wrote:
I was watching a special on The Learning Channel or Discovery Channel. It compared the U.S. Airforce and Russian Air Force.
Yes, I saw that too. The Luftwaffe have adopted the strategy, too, of testing possible AF candidates before recruiting them. I think the show said they had to stand 5G in a centrifuge without having been given any training or utilizing breathing or muscle exercises. If they don't pass they aren't even recruited.
The US, on the other hand, trains pilots for over a year (was it two?) before putting them to a G test. If they G-LOCed and weren't able to cut the mustard they were tossed... or relegated to flying dog sh*t out of Hong Kong.
The West also put more emphasis on engineering (G-Suits, forced oxygen, monitors so the plane's software can figure out the pilot's state of consciousness) whereas the former Soviet Block countries had higher pilot conditioning requirements... all a matter of cost, I guess.
Amazing that during the reunification of Germany that the West suddenly owned a squadron of MiG-29 Fulcrums. Hello?!?! KA-CHIIING! How many Pentagon and Nato military brass were rubbing their hands with glee? Probably could have started a fire from the heat alone!
Check out this article at Combatsim about blackouts:
http://www.combatsim.com/htm/may99/blackout.htm In the article the writer interviewed actual pilots who fly the F-16. They indicated that holding 6G or 7G turns was not even an issue and they they could even hold 9Gs for quite a while with no loss of vision (the article states a test pilot held 9Gs in a centrifuge for over a minute and it was stopped by a supervising doctor, not the pilot's LOC!). The key is preparation, proper technique and physical conditioning. Now, these pilots have the benefit of an inclined seat in the F-16, G-suits, forced oxygen and excellent physical conditioning. That obviously adds a lot of tolerance.
I don't mean to suggest that WWII pilots that were drafted had these sorts of benefits, but we should remember that they were trained for the purpose and should have been able to take more Gs than an unconditioned person… the minute you add breathing exercises and muscle straining it hugely bumps up tolerance. Obviously, they didn't have the know-how that we do today and a lot of these were just kids off the street, but still, it is a factor to remember.
Dynamite Danny might be a little extreme in wishing there were no black outs or red outs (yank and bank, boy!) but I think quite a few people have indicated that the black out onsets too quickly. This is still a very early Beta, so a lot of changes will be made: hopefully the reduction of G effects will be one of them (though I like the look of the tunnel vision very much!).
Cheers,
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phaetnAT
Aces High Alpha Tester
[This message has been edited by phaetn (edited 09-30-1999).]
