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From: Paul J. Adam
Date: 26 Jul 2001
Time: 05:27:47
Here I have to disagree, strongly.
Nostalgia for the golden age where men were men and machines knew their place seems misplaced, when you compare the crash rates. In 1997, the US Navy had 1.97 Class-A mishaps per 100,000 flying hours: in 1955, the rate was nearly twenty times as high, with 38.18 Class A mishaps per 100,000 hours. Perhaps all that high-tech gadgetry is helping the pilots keep their planes in the air? And perhaps the increased reporting, is because military aircraft crashes are now considered unusual enough to be newsworthy, instead of routine "so what?" items?
The F-15/Blackhawk incident isn't easily blamed on technology, either. The Eagle pilots flew by, and visually identified the helicopters... as Hinds. The UH-60s were fitted with stub wings and external fuel tanks, and the F-15 crews' recognition pictures apparently didn't show that variant. But the Mi-24 has similar, very characteristic stub wings... they saw what they wanted to see, called the contacts hostile, killed them.
Of course, without the AWACS, nobody would have seen *any* helicopters, friendly or enemy...
The hard part is, getting the best out of the technology so that it *helps* rather than *hinders*.
-- Paul