Chapter 416 Flight Simulator
It can be said that a test pilot is not only a pilot, but also an engineer and a technical personnel. Many faults are caused by test pilots proposing their own theories and then making improvements.
At the same time, test pilots also have a high-risk profession. In the world, any test flight of a third-generation aircraft carries the risk of a crash. The MiG-29, Su-27, F-15, and F-16 have all crashed and test pilots have died. Even the F-22 is no exception. Only China's J-10 has created a miracle without a crash.
Test pilots, death is always with you!
Historically, the first T-10S-1 crashed due to a fuel system failure, and Sukhoi's meritorious test pilot Ilyushin survived; the second T-10S-2 crashed due to a leading edge flap failure, and test pilot Alexander Komanov unfortunately died.
Now, the test flight of T-10 was relatively smooth, and no one was killed or injured. However, how could a brand new aircraft be given to General Andre to fly? Moreover, General Andre had not received any modification training!
The flight characteristics of the T-10 are different from those of the previous MiG-25 and MiG-31. Although General Andrei flew the MiG-25 quite well and piloted this interceptor as a fighter, this is, after all, a second-generation aircraft. The T-10 uses fly-by-wire operation. If there is no special training, it is easy to cause PIO (pilot induced oscillation). General Andrei cannot take this risk!
Andre really wanted to say that I was completely familiar with the characteristics of this aircraft, and I could even use it to perform a Cobra maneuver that would impress the whole world! No matter how good the actual combat performance was, at least it was quite fancy and exciting!
However, Andrei still held back. If he could fly this T-10S and fly it skillfully, would these people regard him as a monster? He should be patient. After it is finalized and equipped to the air defense force, he will naturally have the opportunity to fly it.
"General Andrei, if you want to fly now, you can go to the simulator and fly once," Simonov said.
Flight simulator! Ever since the Wright brothers invented the airplane, how to train pilots has always been a problem for aviation schools. Flight simulators began almost before the invention of airplanes, that is, in the early 19th century.
In 1910, British officer Arnold Sanders installed the fuselage of his own aircraft on a ground base through a universal bracket. When the wind blows, the fuselage rotates, and the crew manipulates the elevators and rudders and other moving parts to obtain aerodynamic responses similar to those in real flight. This can be said to be the earliest flight simulator, but this simple simulator can only be a static decoration if there is no strong and stable wind.
It was not until World War II that the emergence of electronic computers brought flight simulators into the electronic age. In 1941, the British Telecommunications Research Institute designed a simulation computer that could solve the equations of motion of aircraft. It was used in air intercept radar trainers to simulate the process of using radar to guide interception. When Bell Laboratories in the United States developed a combat flight trainer for the Navy's PBM-3 seaplane, it combined the front fuselage of the PBM-3 and its control devices, instruments and other equipment with electronic computing devices.
However, analog computers have never been able to overcome the cumulative errors and their accuracy is not very high. It was not until later times, with the rapid development of digital electronic computers, that flight simulators gradually began to truly assume their own mission.
Since the 1970s, new simulators with high-performance digital computers as the core have begun to enter the training systems of major aviation powers. These large simulators generally have complete cockpit equipment and their simulation control systems. They can perform six-degree-of-freedom movements with a large range, such as up and down, left and right, front and back, pitch, tilt and yaw. They are responsive and highly accurate, and can not only reflect normal attitude changes, but also simulate effects such as stall flutter and engine surge.
For example, in the early 1970s, the United States already had a practical spherical air combat simulator with a fixed cockpit. It provided a sense of overload through vibrating seats and inflatable anti-gravity suits, and the changes in the projected image gave the operator a large sense of movement, making it suitable for air combat tactics and aerobatic training.
And even now, the U.S. Air Force has been equipped with full-mission simulators for F-15 and F-16, which can be used not only for personnel training but also for research on tactical confrontation.
However, the Soviet Union lagged behind, and the reason was nothing but the level of electronic technology!
Although the Soviet Union was not backward in terms of large computers, and some of its supercomputers were even at the world's advanced level, flight simulation required more than just a computer system. A computer was only a processing device, and required various sensors and control circuits. The backwardness of the Soviet Union's microelectronics technology prevented them from building such advanced simulators.
But now, everything is different. With the island country's advanced electronic technology, the entire Soviet military industrial system is undergoing earth-shaking changes!
The Soviet Union's victory in the Far East was not only strategic, but also brought about an all-round improvement to the Soviet Union by acquiring the electronic technology of the island country! It can be said that even without the geographical advantage of the island country, it would be worthwhile to launch a war just to acquire the electronic industry of the island country!
Andrei followed Simonov to the large simulator and saw that the shape of the entire nose was the same as the test flight model. There was a round dome in front, which would display the computer-generated scene.
"General Andrei, may I first introduce you to the layout of the cockpit?" Simonov said.
Looking at the densely packed instruments, it is still a Soviet feature. Although the Soviet electronic technology has been greatly improved, it takes some time for designers to change their ideas. There is still a long way to go to realize the glass cockpit of the future.
However, this also has its advantages, which is that it is easy to get started. It can be said that as long as you have flown one type of fighter jet, the rest of the fighter jets are almost the same!
"No need." Andre said as he sat in. Since it was a simulator, he didn't need to wear a flight suit or a flight cap. He just sat in and tightened his seat belt, and Andre's flying experience began.
Think about the future, when training the Su-27, the focus was mainly on two-seater training, which was quite costly. With this simulator, a lot of flight costs can be saved. A flight in the sky costs over ten thousand yuan.