Don't let this episode's title scare you off! There's sexy, and then there's important, and on rare occasion you get a combination of the two, but true military aviation enthusiasts understand that middle category is where most subjects in this niche exist, including the systems that make these amazing aircraft not just flyable, but controllable.
On this episode, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel David "Divot" Kern joins us to describe the theory, considerations, and cutting edge capabilities of flight control systems, including digital and analog flybywire systems. A former test pilot, Divot literally wrote the book on this amazing tech.
Listener questions addressed on this episode include whether the A37 Dragonfly will ever be featured on the show, what the stickers are on the inside of an A10 Thunderbolt II canopy, whether Air Force UPT pilots can select the U2 Dragon Lady straight out of UPT, what happens to a pilot after an atfault mishap, and propeller nomenclature.
Episode artwork by Janek Krause. Bumper music by Jaime Lopez / announcements by Clint Bell.