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Comment by joez | Hacker News Reader

> eliminating the pilot enables maneuvers that would turn a pilot to jelly

I think this is a common misperception. I believe the operational risk is that manuevers above 6g (varying on pilot and G-suit) reduces blood flow to the brain (by forcing it into the legs) and cause a blackout. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-LOC Blackouts, even for a few seconds, can be devastating in the middle of a dogfight. I believe there is software in modern fighter jets for just when pilots blackout but I can't find it on google right now.

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I didn't interpret evgen's comment as literally turning a pilot to jelly. (Hrmm, there's an interesting visual.) For practical purposes, a pilot that's blacked out = jelly.

Oh, I was responding in general. Most articles, the one (linked included) talk about physical limitations about human pilots. I always thought it was something more gory until I found out about blackouts a few years ago.

There is also a Redout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redout, but for the purpose of this discussion the difference is merely a curiosity.

The big difference is that redout happens at substantially lower G force, partially because there is no way to use skeletal muscles to fight it. This is partially why both the Immelman and the Split S use a "climb" to effect their vertical movement.

Specifically, at negative G-forces.

I think what kwantam meant by lower G-forces is that an experienced pilot can use abdominal/extremity muscles and a fancy flight suit to take around 9G before losing consciousness, but redout will hit at around -3G and there is not much you can do about it. A maneuver that you could easily do in normal flight becomes impossible to sustain if you are inverted, for example.

It's probably 20 years old by now and I think I taped it back then (with very poor reception!), but Nova did a great episode called "Top Gun and beyond" about the limitations of human pilots in fighter aircraft.

It's got to exist on the web somewhere :-)

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/21/arts/tv-reviews-top-gun-an...

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