HARRIER CRASH - video

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:19:12 +0100, "Paul Sengupta"
wrote:

Strange, you'd think the lever thing would be instinctive to a Harrier
pilot, especially one as experienced as a display pilot.

Paul

Stop me if I've posted this before. . .No, nevermind. This is usenet.

Mid-1960s. The F-111-to-be, then the TFX, is in flight test at
Edwards.

Crash. Investigation. Findings and correction:

The test plane had a control for the throttle and another for sweeping
the wings back and forth. The function of the sweep control was
obvious to the meanest intelligence. Push it forward and the wings
would sweep forward; pull it back and the wings swept back.

An "oh ****" waiting to happen, especially to an experienced test
pilot.

I think it's a true story. I know I heard it at Garrett, where I was
fiddling with test reports on the TFX aileron actuators. I think I
heard it confirmed by friends at AFFTC-Edwards, but that was a long
time ago.

The part I'm not clear about was whether Grumman put the little wings
that duplicated the deployment of the real wings onto the control
before they changed the direction it moved or after.

Don