Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!amdcad!military From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Can the backseater in f-18's bring it home? Message-ID: <1991Apr23.054309.25177@amd.com> Date: 18 Apr 91 22:49:15 GMT Sender: military@amd.com Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Lines: 55 Approved: military@amd.com From: Mary Shafer Hanhwe N. Kim writes: > I have a question about the 2-seater planes the US navy likes: > Can the guy in the back seat bring the plane home if the pilot > is incapacitated in any way? No. If it has a back seat and is operational, it cannot be flown from the back seat. Just to explain the slightly evasive working in that sentence, there are two kinds of F-18 two-seaters. The F-18B has no controls in the back seat. The TF-18A, however, does have controls in the back seat, although you can't do everything back there. You can't, for example, shut down the engines. The catch is that there were no production TF-18s built. There were three preproduction TF-18As built and we (Dryden) have one of them. I don't know where the others are. So, in real life or the Navy (you pick), the F-18 cannot be flown from the back seat. The F-14 is the same. > And generalizing from there, why are 2-seaters considered more > survivable? By whom? The two-seaters are regarded as more effective in the high workload tasks. Good examples of this are the F-4 Wild Weasel, with the F-4 being selected because it was a two-seater. The F-15E is also a two-seater, with the air-to-ground task regarded as a very high-workload task. (I'd better add that there are other considerations, before the nitpickers start pointing at the F-117. Who knows, it might be a lot better with a WSO.) You also have twice as many people looking for the enemy. But better at surviving battle damage--no. In fact, the two-seat versions of the F-15, F-16, and F-18 are more departure prone, particularly with a centerline store. And we all know that the F-14 has a nasty departure problem, as did the F-4. > Recently in Korea, the air force reversed an earlier decision to > get f-18's and got f-16's instead. In the previous debates, it was > argued that pilots liked the f-18 better because of its higher > survivability due to its being a 2-seater. The F-18B is a two-seater, but the A is a single seater. The F-16B and D are two-seaters, the A and C are single seaters. You can order either style in either plane. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot