#AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS ROLLING FULL#

In a modern fighter, the presence of digital, fly-by-wire flight controls permits the use of “relaxed stability criteria.” This means that you can build a basically unstable aircraft, keep it under control with computers, and use it to pull Gs like nothing seen before. Because of the lack of limiters, it is possible to bend an F-4 seriously if it is stressed beyond design limits. In planes such as the F-4, pulling really high Gs is done infrequently and carefully. The pilot who aspires to fly such fighters as the F-16 must first understand that this plane is a different proposition than the fighters of the preceding generation. Over the last few years, media reports of pilot deaths resulting from G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC, or “G-Lock”) in high-performance fighters have underscored the current realities of life for the professional fighter pilot.

At nine Gs, a 200- pound pilot weighs the equivalent of 1,800 pounds, and he feels every ounce. Not only do the Gs affect his blood supply, they also have an impact on every fluid, muscle, bone, and other tissue in his body. The same phenomenon affects the blood nourishing a fighter pilot’s brain and vision when he maneuvers in tight turns in air combat. The water is being accelerated toward the center of rotation hard enough to generate a counter (centrifugal) force that keeps it in the bucket.

#AIR COMBAT MANEUVERS ROLLING FULL#

When a bucket full of water is spun around in a horizontal circle on a rope, Gs are what keep the water from spilling out. A “G” is a multiple of the gravitational pull of Earth.

Air combat maneuvers rolling