CAP’N,
Sounds like you need to do a little career justification yo’self. Maybe a little quicker than us bubbleheads cuz they havn’t found an Apple Mac that can do my job………YET!

Not an A-loads/structures expert by any means (in certain ways their science resembles alchemy to me!) but I do know that ultimate load factor of an airframe, IE-when things break near 100% of the time, is oftentimes nearly twice the G-limit (+/-) for an aircraft or what a pilot can handle. Design engineers like to design-in a factor of at least one + over everything- less chance to screw up….In airplanes where that operating limit exceeds nominal pilot tolerance they put SW in that won’t let a pilot exceed it. The T-34C we both flew had no such sw thus the 12g you saw (I hope you didn’t do it!). All Hornets have this SW built in I think. It kicks in when a pilot exceeds thiose limits where the machine takes over for ya..like a governor on a go-kart so you don’t go too fast. (With a Zen-Hornet Master like Lex this probably never happened. ;-0) I’ll bet your heavy has something like that too..because you know you COULD easily do an aeileron roll or pull 4-5 g’s if’n you HAD to, but it wouldn’t be good for bidness!

Any box/WRA- avionics/mechanical must be designed robust enough to pass a 40G crash load on modern stuff. That doesn’t mean it needs to operate properly after a crash. Just physically survive without flying around. O’course we all know 40G will kill a human most often.

b2

Thank goodness for GPS and smart bombs now. But it does revive the argument about pilot necessity for the future. I still believe that a human is required for ultimate decision making, but I’m sure as hell glad we don’t have to use manned bombs to do surgical strikes now.

My two cents for today.

Thanks for the response. Just because the Rhino can only do 7.5 are you saying that they couldn’t build it to more? Are you telling me that it is impossible to build an aircraft that can pull 10+ G’s? I’m not sure I agree with that.

If there is an aerodynamic limit, why can missiles pull many many more. I flew a T-34 in primary 20 years ago that had pulled 12. I find it hard to believe your argument that 7.5 is an absolute structural limit.

Is this a field in which you are well versed?

Thanks,

Nose

PS I’m not pushing UAV technology. Just not sure I buy your premise.

There are a lot of people pushing UAV technology who have NO idea of just how complicated these matters really are, or how complex the interrelationships really get.

And I wouldn’t get too worked up. People forget that while elecronics may be able to take 10 Gs, the airframe can’t generate it

Huh? What airframe? Why not. Please explain ’cause I’ve heard differently. Very Differently.

Thanks
N