Yeah, I'd be a little bitter about that. "Oh, hey, we ran that thing you did through the simulator, and guess what? The whole plane came apart, just like happened to you."
"Oh, really?" I'd say, and right after that I suspect I'd commit a major felony on his person.
I've flown '60s vintage simulators. It's easy enough to get the canned responses out of them, but it's not straightforward to get predictive results a priori.
A main frame of the time could do estimates, but without knowing what the inputs were that the pilots of this particular mission encountered, it's difficult to load them in. Via punch card or mag tape. Or adapting canned scenarios to approximate the pilots' flight profile at the time of their event.
The SR-71 sim would have been a bit horsier than the ones I flew, but it still would have been run with '60s vintage computers. I'm not surprised they flew the profile live, by design, before they could do a detailed sim of the profile.
That's a heck of a story.
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit surprising they did not fly the configuration in the simulator first- he was a lucky man.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'd be a little bitter about that. "Oh, hey, we ran that thing you did through the simulator, and guess what? The whole plane came apart, just like happened to you."
ReplyDelete"Oh, really?" I'd say, and right after that I suspect I'd commit a major felony on his person.
Being a cynical sort, I am surprised they did not do it simply to ensure the aircraft survival- that is an expensive bird to risk.
ReplyDelete1966. Simulators weren't that good in those days. Computers weren't that good in those days.
ReplyDeleteKick the tires, light the fire, first one in the air is lead, and brief on guard.
Eric Hines
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Pilot, they had multiple simulator runs after the inflight blowup- all of which had the same results-the aircraft came apart.
I've flown '60s vintage simulators. It's easy enough to get the canned responses out of them, but it's not straightforward to get predictive results a priori.
ReplyDeleteA main frame of the time could do estimates, but without knowing what the inputs were that the pilots of this particular mission encountered, it's difficult to load them in. Via punch card or mag tape. Or adapting canned scenarios to approximate the pilots' flight profile at the time of their event.
The SR-71 sim would have been a bit horsier than the ones I flew, but it still would have been run with '60s vintage computers. I'm not surprised they flew the profile live, by design, before they could do a detailed sim of the profile.
Eric Hines