F-14 on the History Channel's "Modern Marvels"

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:14:13 GMT, "Doug \"Woody\" and Erin Beal"
wrote:

Question 1:
Do you know whether the 10.7 PROM that's becoming the standard on the
F/A-18A+/C/D and was introduced on E/F an ancestor or cousin of any of the
technology on the HARV?

Flew it for the first time yesterday. It sure makes some unnatural things
possible in the Hornet.

I don't think they're direct descendants, because the HARV was mostly
about thrust vectoring and aerodynamics, but I'm pretty sure they're
at least kissing cousins. What they learned flying at higher alpha,
with HARV and ACTIVE (aka SMTP) and X-31 and MATV, has, I believe,
been translated into new ideas on how to fly airplanes. A lot of the
deal with HARV was the idea of carefree maneuvering throughout the
envelope, without having to worry about flight limits. I don't want
to get into the F-16 vs F-18 approaches discussion again, but I think
the new F-18 FCS has addressed that issue.

Question 2:
What's Fast Eddie doing these days?

Fast Eddie is in Texas, at JSC, where he's flying T-38s. He turns 55
this month and will retire on 3 Jan 04. They've bought a
fifth-wheeler and are going to return to SoCal via Florida and
Kentucky in January and February. They might stop by and see us in
Palm Desert on their way to San Diego. If so, I'll make Ed say a few
words in person.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer