And this is why virtual reality indistinguishable from the real thing is a very bad idea! Perhaps there is no base reality at all? ;)

*squints her eyes and cackles... but what really is reality?

Vix

Nice right hook.

*smiles too...

by the way Marm - went to a model train show today and enjoyed it a lot...

Vix

Good-oh!

And this is why you have real meat-based pilots test real metallic aircraft - to make sure that the designers didn't drop the two in their calculations.

annnnnndddddd how many meat based pilots failed to bail out?

Vix

I'm sure quite a few did, trying to bring the plane under control up to the last moment.

You really had me on this one. At the beginning, I had the impression that the design engineer was the AI and the test pilot was flesh & blood. Great job.

*smiles very big.... ty ty ty that does make me feel good...

Vix

You got my head spinning a bit with all the twists.

exponentially?

*giggles madly...

Vix

wish he had that, cuz like everything else Generals don't study combat, they are financial managers....so are program managers....

...also look into why that f35 crashed in texas....

OK I've had a look, I assume there's something out of the ordinary regarding it?

oh, a crappy state logic, as 1. the pilot has no authority over throttle setting, all done with the computer, and the logic said when the wheels touch, the lift fan disengages and the louvers close, but he bounced back up, and the logic said " oh we're flying so I need to set the throttle to 100%" and so it did and pitched the nose into the tarmac and spun around and the pilot had to eject. as the software had no way for those 2 logic states to know about eachother

Ah OK thanks, not the first time a plane has crashed because the pilot has been over-ruled by the flight-systems programming.

and there you have it...

Vix

Airbuss, Boeing, all of them... I personally loved the Russian jet that blew the pilot out of the bottom when he ejected... needless to say if he did it on landing, he was history. I have always wondered if that was on purpose.

Vix

Wasn't only the Russians I'm fairly sure the early B-52 and Vulcan bombers had something like that as well, they were originally designed to operate at high-altitude where it would have mostly fine, when they moved to low-level attacks due to increasingly heavy air-defences, well it wasn't so useful! I'm curious what particular jet you mean though, I need to add that one to my 'obscure Cold War facts' folder ;)

Something I found interesting was the problem they had with the F-111 bomber, it had swing-wings and therefore both a throttle and a similar control to move the wings forward and back. Of course the throttle is pushed forward to increase speed and pull back to slow down, but do you design the wing-control to move the wings out as its pushed forward and pull in as its pulled back, seems logical, but that means its the opposite of the throttle as in you push forward and slow down and pull-back to speed up, or do you make it the same as the throttle as in forward-fast and backward-slow, but then the wings aren't doing what you expect.

Unfortunately at least one pilot was killed for that very reason, he was getting into trouble on landing and pushed the wing-control forward to speed up but of course opened the wings, slowed down and crashed. I believe they made the throttle and wing-control operate in the same fashion for that reason.

That would be the TU-22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKoHMXggEHU&t=837s

This particular youtube presentation is very good.

Unfortunately not all aircraft are what they appear. The Bac-111 had the same problem from too much weight on the tail from the engines, as the TU-22, and when I was at Pan Am III (long story) we almost put a B-727 on it's tail while removing the interior, beginning with the first class section in the front - moving it aft to take it out the aft stairwell.

I was standing near the front of the aircraft talking to one of their only good mechanics when we saw the nose strut begin to extend, and suddenly the tire was off the ground. This fellow was severely over weight and that probably turned the tide, because he immediately threw himself around the nose strut and hugged it for all he was worth. We then yelled quite loudly for the interior guys to bring the forward galley back forward again.

Vix

Ah thanks V! Yes that was not a particularly successful bomber in general. Of course then you had the Tu-22 / Tu-22M / Tu-26 shenanigans when the designations got all confused. And oh dear, well at least it was on the ground and not in the air when it had balance problems!

*laughs... that was how I met my wife - computer dating before computers were even around - except for the punch card machines...

Vix

Back in '96 I did a presentation to a computer class about the word 'cyberspace' and how it wasn't the same as 'the internet'. The nerd in me has always balked at misuse of sci-fi terms for real world stuff.

Anyway, I was explaining how "REAL" cyberspace would work and how, once the interface was as good at simulating reality as your own senses, you would never truly know if you had left it. I don't know if I helped reduce the incorrect use of that word, but I definitely made an impression.

Good stuff, V!

*smiles so very big... I know when I watched the movie 'Ready Player One', I could see the system they were using eventually getting here...

thanks much Wire...

Vix

This sounds like the pilot of a Black Mirror episode, and I LOVE IT!!

Now I'm just hoping the virtual test pilot can use his right hook a little more often. This is why false realities are a really bad idea for our reality, and should only stay in fiction.

well thank you so very much... and welcome to my world...

Vix

I'm sitting here at 30 past midnight listening to Respighi's "Fountains of Rome". I'm going to send you some PR stuff from the earlier days of NASA (1962) and a book of "Exploring Space With a Camera". I think you'll find them interesting. I've (we've) been cleaning out our library and trying to figure out why I'm keeping what I'm (we're) keeping what we are.

*chuckles... you're keeping it because you're human. When you look at something like that, it brings back a memory, anchoring it so it won't float away. I've got a few of those myself.

and thanks...

Vix

They're in the mail with a bonus I think you'll like.

And this is why I take comfort in the concept of the fourth wall, it can't hit back (often, anyway.)

*smiles and gives a hug…

And thanks for the read…

Vix

A good reason to to keep the real world and the virtual world separate and clearly defined from one another.

Very much so…

Vix