Jubilee flypast

[stevebrodie]

Did anyone else notice the F35 on the right of the tanker having to put a lot of input into the horizontal stabs, same again when 4 with a voyager. Then a couple of tiffies were working hard in the 70. If they were closest to the centre could say its turbulence, but even one of the reds had the same issue. Maybe some turbulent air from the buildings below

[cg_341]

Looked like a fairly strong crosswind as one of the Hercs was well out of position looking at the head on footage!

[FGR2]

Haven’t seen the footage, there was a fair breeze at times along the Thames though.

[baggy]

Flew over me at Colchester Noticed the exact same thing. I just assumed modern self correcting flight controls. Probably no pilot input. Would I be right in assuming that if it wasn’t for a microchip these planes wouldn’t fly anyway

[CJS]

If it wasn't for a lot of things (pilot, wings etc...). Pretty sure there have been complex computers on aircraft now for a while that are needed for the aircraft to fly. In the Typhoon for example, there's a computer directly behind the cockpit. I'm no expert, but I'm guessing the plane's going nowhere if that shuts down!

[Archer]

It will go somewhere.... I suspect down!

[capercaillie]

Flew over me at Colchester Noticed the exact same thing. I just assumed modern self correcting flight controls. Probably no pilot input. Would I be right in assuming that if it wasn’t for a microchip these planes wouldn’t fly anyway

Not sure about a microchip, but if you put a whole potato up the exhaust they don't start apparently!

[hunterxf382]

Certainly with Tornado (which I worked on), they had multiple onboard computers to control flight in what essentially is an unstable airframe. Main one; a secondary Back-Up; and a third Emergency one which had limited functions just to get down safely....
By designing an airframe to be naturally unstable - which the Americans did way back on the F-16; you get far more responsive control output as the computer takes many more inputs from sensors than the pilot could absorb and make decisions on, which then gives you a highly maneuverable aircraft which 'thinks' at an astonishing speed. I know technology marched on from the Tornado days, no doubt with the current equipment there would be the capability of much more. Pretty daunting stuff to work with - testing being complex to say the least