Category Archives: Fighter Pilot

US Navy Bans Smoking on Subs Starting January 1st

US Navy submariners may have to work on their New Years resolution a little harder this year if they’re smokers.  As of January 1st, the Navy will no longer allow smoking on submarines, as it announced earlier this year.  Submarines are typically out of port for months at a time, and the submariners lack some of the ‘chemical assistance’ other Sailors might have:

Although many Sailors rely on prescription medication to help them quit — Zyban and Chantix are two popular options — they aren’t available for submariners, because psychotropic drugs are forbidden for the 11,600 Sailors assigned to subs.

The crews think their surface brethren Read more

Navy Uses Magnets to Launch Fighter

FoxNews caught up to the previous article here on the 18 December launch of a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the EMALS.  The EMALS is an electromagnetic launch system designed to replace the steam driven systems currently in operation.  Interestingly, the article notes

Newer, heavier and faster aircraft will require more force to catapult from the carrier decks than steam-powered systems can supply. Electromagnets will be able to deliver, and allow for smooth acceleration at both high and low speeds, increasing the carrier’s ability to launch aircraft, the Navy said in a press release.

Presumably, that’s a reference to the F-35, the only substantial new aircraft slated to enter naval service in the reasonable future.

The article contains a link to the Navy’s somewhat slow YouTube video of the launch.

Study: Fighter Pilots are Smarter

The University College London conducted a study comparing the brains of Royal Air Force fighter pilots with non-fighter pilots of “similar intelligence.”

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found the pilots’ brains were more likely than the controls to have enhanced responses to both relevant and irrelevant stimuli…

Senior author Masud Husain said…”We were interested in the pilots because they’re often operating at the limits of human cognitive capability — they are an expert group making precision choices at high speed.”

So fighter pilots are smart.  Science proves it.

And they have the egos to match…

Join the Navy, See the World: Cricket

One of the oft-cited reasons for joining the US military is that it allows a person to see parts of the world they never would have otherwise.  They get to experience cultures and see sights few Americans do.  Such motivations have driven tours of Biblical lands by Soldiers deployed to the Middle East, trips to the Black Madonna in the Balkans, and even a paid hajj in the US Navy.

With all that culture in mind, Reuters recently published this:  Read more

X-47B UCAV Preparing for First Flight

The Military Times reports the X-47B, designed to demonstrate the capabilities of an unmanned strike aircraft, is preparing to conduct its first flight. The test aircraft has been conducting taxi tests at Edwards AFB, CA.

Though it is currently two years behind schedule, if it is successful the experimental aircraft would ultimately represent the first time an armed UAV operated off a naval carrier.

It is unclear if the X-47B, or its progeny, are intended to be entirely autonomous or remotely piloted to some degree.

New Catapult to Launch Navy Aircraft

The aura of steam is as expected on the deck of a Navy carrier as is the smell of jet fuel.  The steam catapult has been launching aircraft from Naval aircraft carriers for decades.

The Electro-magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) of the new Gerald R. Ford class carriers hopes to change that.

The EMALS system would be the first new launch system since the Navy replaced hydraulic catapults with steam-powered systems in the 1950s. An electro-magnetic system has numerous advantages over steam. EMALS, which involves energizing a series of electro-magnets, is less stressful on aircraft and can launch a wider range of aircraft.

Of course, the entire concept is predicated on electromagnetic fields, so one wonders what kind of interference such a system will have not only on the ship on which it is installed, but also the aircraft its launching.

The EMALS successfully “launched” an F/A-18E Super Hornet on December 18th from a modified runway in New Jersey.  Though the Hornet wasn’t tossed precariously over the water as with other carrier-based launches, it presumably reached its required launch speed at the specified distance.

1 … 66 67 68 69 70 … 104