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The Gripen is the only fourth generation fighter in operational service
today, flying digitally in the face of claims by others to be equally advanced. "To understand the meaning of a fourth generation aircraft you must have an idea of the earlier generations," says Maj. Gen. Staffan Nasstrom, Chief of Sweden's Air Force Materiel Command. First-generation aircraft are early jets, including the MiG-15, F-86 Sabre, and the Vampire. Second-generation jets used analog systems to integrate their weapons and avionics systems; they include the F-5, MiG-21 and Sweden's Draken. Third-generation fighters were designed with numerous separate digital systems that perform their own dedicated tasks but rely on a number of computers to link them together to achieve functionality. They include the F-16, MiG-29, F-18 Hornet and Mirage 2000-5, and they can be updated only on a system-by-system add-on basis. Fourth-generation fighters are designed from the outset as a single digital unit with a fully integrated computerized infrastructure utilizing a common database. This means that sensors, weapons, control surfaces, input devices and displays can be used as information providers and information carriers in an endless number of combinations. These aircraft can readily be upgraded as a complete weapons, flight control and avionics system to keep pace with advancing technology; they include the F-22, Rafale, JSF, Eurofighter-and the Gripen. "A third-generation aircraft has its limits in the infrastructure with separate systems and only to a limited extent can it make use of future technological development. In other words, these aircraft grow a bit older every day," said Nasstrom. The Gripen can adapt readily to future landmarks in the areas of sensors, weapons and computers. It will--you can say--remain young for a long period of time." |
MAJ. GEN. STAFFAN NASSTROM, CHIEF OF SWEDISH AIR FORCE MATERIEL COMMAND
Pedals Could Do Far More Than Steer
Fighter pilots of the future might even use the rudder pedals!
No, it won't mean back to the Piper Cub for stick-and-rudder flying training, but this revolutionary concept could make the rudder pedals do more than just steer the nosewheel, as they do in modern jets--if they do anything at all.
"The pilot could fire a missile with his left foot while his hands are busy on other controls," Maj. Gen. Staffan Nasstrom, Chief of Swedish Air Force Materiel Command, told Show News. He is pushing for Sweden to explore using all available controls to their full potential in the fourth-generation, digitally-integrated JAS Gripen, which to date is the only truly modern next-generation fighter in operational service.
"Typical for a fourth generation combat aircraft are the digital infrastructure and common database that allow control surfaces, levers and other equipment simultaneously to serve as sensors, information carriers and control inputs," he said. They can be made to perform multiple functions, but while the aircraft's systems and controls have been integrated by computer, neither the pilot's capabilities-nor the rudder pedals-have been brought fully into the loop.
"The most interesting challenge in a fourth-generation combat aircraft is to combine the inherent, flexible and close-to-unlimited technical potential with the best characteristics and abilities of man into the optimal air combat system," Nasstrom said. "Man's unique abilities include combining signals from the different senses of seeing, feeling and hearing and then in an unbeatable way using his brain to calculate and convert the result into movement and speech."
Today's pilot is only half used; he sits there with his feet flat on the floor. Training him to do something useful with those appendages should be no more difficult than changing gear in a car. "In both car driving and flying you use all your senses and control the vehicle with the aid of your head," Nasstrom pointed out.
The ability to develop cost-effective air combat systems in the future will therefore not be primarily dependent on mastering different areas of technology, but on designing them to incorporate man's abilities to the full, he believes. And that could mean asking a pilot to put his foot in it!
By John Morris
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