The Swedes are on the cutting edge of fighter aircraft simulation. They have a flight simulator which actually gives the pilot the feel of flying a jet in combat. The Swedish air force flies the JAS 39 GRIPEN. Their simulator consists of a Gripen cockpit and three screens for visual display. So far this is less fancy than some U.S. simulators, but there is one more wrinkle. The whole cockpit etc. is mounted on the end of a centrifuge and is fully gimbaled. This means that when a pilot moves his controls for a 9G turn, the simulator hits him with 9Gs. This makes for a much more realistic flight experience. If the pilot rolls, he feels the roll. An elaborate system of computers is designed to make the pilot feel every move just as if he is in a real Gripen. Pilots have to wear G-suits and face the same risk of blacking out due to high Gs as they would in real flight. This is a whole new level of realism in flight simulation. The Swedes built the whole system to be “a simulator with a centrifuge” not a centrifuge with a simulator added. In a remotely related development, the U.S. Air Force has discovered that pilots of cargo planes need combat training and they are using simulations. It seems that C-17 cargo planes flying in Afghanistan and Iraq are often targets of enemy missiles. As a reaction, the U.S. Air Force has developed a program on combat flying C-17s. It includes 300 hours of academics and 25 flights, a total of 125 hours flying time. Many of the flights include simulated attacks. While the attacks are simulated, the scenarios are based on actual experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bibliography Hughes, David. “C-17 Combat Training” Aviation Week and Space Technology, January 5, 2004, pp. 50-56. Scott, William B. “Pulling Gs on Earth,” Aviation Week and Space Technology, January 5, 2004, pp. 46-48. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior # 146 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com