On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 07:24:32 -0700, Phormer Phighter Phlyer
wrote:




Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

For Ed-I'm reading 'To Hanoi and back, the USAF and North VietNam,
1966-1973, Wayne Thompson, and in the first chapter he mentions that the
late model F-4E had a rudimentary fly by wire back up for pitch control,
for emergencies when PC-1/2 were gone...ever heard of this?

First, Wayne's book may be one of the best ever done on the air war in
the North. It's an excellent addition to anyone's serious history of
the period.

No, I never heard of a system like that in the F-4E. I was flying the
F-4 through 1977 and it hadn't been mentioned by that time. (I left
the E-model in July of '73, however, so shouldn't be considered an
absolute final word on the question.)

But, there was a system on the F-105--installed in '67 for emergency
recovery from bad-guy land. When engaged, the system positioned the
slab at an approximation of a 350 knot angle of attack. Pitch was then
controlled by throttle--advance throttle, speed builds, nose rises;
reduce throttle, speed drops, nose falls to return to trimmed
airspeed. Roll was controlled by a "rudimentary fly-by-wire"--when the
recovery system was engaged, the ailerons were locked in neutral and
roll control was done by a toggle switch that provided differential
trailing edge flap movement (the F-105 flaps were electrical, not
hydraulically actuated!)

I mention the loss of Wayne Fullam in the final chapter of When
Thunder Rolled as related to the system. His last reported radio call
was "how do you get the nose up?"


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com