Thanks, Ed, I knew you'd come through. Ah, dum**** RADAR operators in
the back of big airplanes don't really like numbers, either, but once
you get engineers involved who know better than the people that have to
use the systems...
Don

Ed Rasimus wrote:
On 19 Jun 2006 07:50:02 -0700, "Don McIntyre" wrote:

While reading through Hans-Heiri Stapfer's "Walk Around MiG-21 Fishbed
Part 1" (Squadron-Signal), he makes mention of a temperature probe
mounted low on the nose on an MiG-21F-13. Why would a radar rangefinder
need to know the OAT?

Dunno about MiGs, but every high performance tactical aircraft I ever
dealt with had an OAT input to the Central Air Data Computer (or
whatever it was called on a particular system.) Air temp is a
component of density and that is a factor that impacts range of a
weapon.

Since dum**** fighter drivers don't like numbers the presentation on
the radar screen would be little lines indicating min and max ranges.
When the radar gets a range, the computer whiz-bang calculates how far
the gizmo can get at the current density altitude.


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