Forum: General F-35 Forum

Good grief, reading Wired's comments makes for excellent comic relief Laughing

F-16.net Sponsor

The comic (and sad) part is that people actually believe that Wired is a good source for aviation news/information.

Sufa Viper.

That was...bizarre.
The Wired guy seems to be unable to let go of his grudge even as he is forced to offer grudging respect.

count_to_10 wrote:

That was...bizarre.
The Wired guy seems to be unable to let go of his grudge even as he is forced to offer grudging respect.

As 1st503rdSgt. said, Spencer Ackerman is a hardcore military hipster who obsesses over drones and thinks manned aircraft are all inherently Cold War dinosaurs. I'd imagine this sentiment extends to the Navy's 6th gen F/A-XX too.

tacf-x wrote:

count_to_10 wrote:

That was...bizarre.
The Wired guy seems to be unable to let go of his grudge even as he is forced to offer grudging respect.

As 1st503rdSgt. said, Spencer Ackerman is a hardcore military hipster who obsesses over drones and thinks manned aircraft are all inherently Cold War dinosaurs. I'd imagine this sentiment extends to the Navy's 6th gen F/A-XX too.

What's a hipster?? Question

Better yet, what is a "military hipster"?

southernphantom wrote:

tacf-x wrote:

count_to_10 wrote:

That was...bizarre.
The Wired guy seems to be unable to let go of his grudge even as he is forced to offer grudging respect.

As 1st503rdSgt. said, Spencer Ackerman is a hardcore military hipster who obsesses over drones and thinks manned aircraft are all inherently Cold War dinosaurs. I'd imagine this sentiment extends to the Navy's 6th gen F/A-XX too.

What's a hipster?? Question

count_to_10 wrote:

Better yet, what is a "military hipster"?

I believe I specified just plane "hipster."

That's the rough idea anyways.

Looking for quotes about how 'awesome' the F-35 pilots think the HMDS II is, this quote about the PCD Panoramic Cockpit Display stood out for the 'olds':

F-35 Procurement Troubles Don’t Dampen Pilots’ Enthusiasm 24 Feb 2012 by Sandra Erwin

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... amp;ID=689

GO HERE for some more of that article:
http://www.f-16.net/index.php?name=PNph ... win#217683
FOUND HERE:
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... amp;ID=689

"...For the instructors of the 33rd wing, the most exciting part of the job so far has been witnessing the exhilaration that new pilots experience aboard the F-35, says Tomassetti. “It’s an airplane for the iPod generation,” he says. “It has touch screens, it has voice activation.” Aviators who have flown other combat jets are struck not so much by what is in the F-35 cockpit but by what is not in there. “There’s not a lot of knobs, dials, switches, all the stuff you find in every airplane I’ve ever flown in my life.” Display screens show 14 different windows of information at the same time. “It’s a little overwhelming to someone of my era of flying,” he says. “When I get in the cockpit I have displays with two or three things.” Younger pilots are far more comfortable with an onslaught of data. “They have all 14 windows up & they are processing all that information.”

That's a very weird contrast to draw. Having multiple things up & running on electronic screens isn't fundamentally different from having multiple things fixed in place to look at or push or flip, which is how gages, buttons, and switches were in earlier cockpits. For that matter, the number of fixed devices could easily exceed 14. How is the newer way more likely to lead to some kind of brain overload? Because it's on computer screens? What makes computer screens supposedly inherently harder to deal with than the equivalent or even greater amount of information & interaction from devices that aren't computer screens?

This reminds me of some convenience stores near me with food sections (deli sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, salads) with touch screens for customers to place their orders on. Each option on these things is a big easy-to-see button with both a text label and a picture together, like a picture of a tomato or some tomato slices with the word "tomato" or "tomatoes" at the bottom of the button. Occasionally I see someone standing there staring at a screen, as bewildered as if it were an engine room interface from an alien starship, as fearful and awestruck as if it were a hallowed or cursed relic from the gods. I don't work there, but they ask me for help, and their questions reveal a lack of comprehension of esoteric concepts like pushing a button on a touch screen. (I try to just let it slide when they seem to think it requires 25 pounds of pressure and 3 seconds of contact to make a button work, because the alternative turns out to be either jabbing at it and pulling 15" back as fast as possible like the pickles on the screen are going to jump out and bite their fingers, or trying to pet the screen like a cat, or hovering a finger a millimeter or two away from the screen apparently wanting to actually touch it but thinking that that would shatter it... and in any case, at least they have the concept of a touch screen down, which is the first step in the right direction.) If not much changes on the screen after they push a button, they stare at it and wait for something to happen and start thinking something's gone wrong so they need to keep pressing the same button to get it to do something... but if anything DOES happen/change on the screen, they gasp in shock and horror, put their hands up as if to surrender to the screen, and ask something like "Where did everything go?" or "What did I do now?". After several minutes taking them step-by-step through this intricate, arduous, five-second task, having to explain every pixel of the screen each step of the way and getting sidetracked constantly by questions about how to do stuff that isn't even on the screen yet/anymore or has nothing to do with this store's food choices at all, just when I might think I'm finally done, they discover yet another amazing new wonder of the world to gape at with their eyes and mouth wide open: a tiny slip of something called "paper" coming out of the slot below the screen, all by itself! With WORDS and NUMBERS on it! It describes their order and its price and says in big bold capital letters "Please take this ticket to the cashier", which of course leads them straight to the obvious next question: "What do I do with this now?".

But I had always hoped these people didn't represent the mentality of pilots.

I find your self-service food analogy equally weird. But hi-tech analogies are weird for those not familiar with the devices. Perhaps the drooling fast fooders were having a low sugar attack. Let us hope the equilibrium of the F-35 pilots is not disturbed by their computers nagging them. PUSH THE PHREaKIN BUTTon.

See attached PDF.

Here is an oldie but good goldie I presume from the good folks at COED NONE: Rolling Eyes

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/images/m ... 7_9967.JPG

WOW? My brain would snap. Fugget about holding a paper strip map before my eyes at 200 feet dodging the terrain (perhaps why TFR was invented). Does not look as though this article is online - yes it is - just slow dialup connection.

The New Front Office by John Kent 15 June 2006

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/f35_arti ... item_id=35

"...The forest of toggle switches in previous fighter cockpits has been wiped clean from the F-35's interior landscape, with most of their functions moved to the touch screen. A few switches still sprout here and there, but the overall cockpit ambience is one of simplicity and calm, almost to the point of aeronautical feng shui...." [HUH?]

Forum: General F-35 Forum

F-35 Mock-Up/Sim pic