All USAF, US Navy, and US Army cockpits must be able to accomodate aircrew from as small as a 40th percentile female (5 ft 2 in.), to a 95th percentile male (6ft 5 in.).  For some procurements, the US Army may go as small as a 5th percentile female. There are many many other anthropmetric measurements for each of these percentiles, like ...

The AIM-54 is no more.  Even though the Tomcat (the only platform able to carry it) lives on (at least for awhile), the Phoenix missile has been retired as of September '04. The Navy has been arguing internally for many years about the decision to retire the Tomcat and replace it with the Super Hornet.  It was a painful decision. ...

The AIM9X is a very different missile from the Sidewinder's predecessors.  The only thing in common is the rocket motor and the aircraft interface.  Everything else has changed.The seeker is far far superior with a very high field of regard and much higher field of view than previous Sidewinders, permitting very high off bore-sight ...

All aviation mishap categories have gone down EXCEPT ''controlled flight into terrain''. Radar, air traffic controllers, transponders, mode C transponders, TCAS and other systems prevent collisions with other aircraft, but they do not prevent collisions with the terrain. An EGPWS does that. Or tries to.

It looks different because the pictures you've seen include the conformal fuel tanks.  These are large blisters along the fuselage above the wing intended to increase internal fuel volume.  The base of the vertical fin also has a large blister which houses new avionics, and most aircraft in the sries have the new ''big mouth'' ...

Without getting into a lot of details, lets just say I have a lot of current experience in the F/A-18C.  NAS Lemoore (the Navy's west coast master jet base and its largest) has a few operational F/A-18E/F squadrons now.  Every single pilot I know still flying F/A-18C/D wants to fly the new Super Hornet.  We all lust for it.Many lust ...

This is a common occurance.When flying transonic and low supersonic, the aircraft creates a powerful pressure wave (technically several waves, but one is predominant).  It's like the bow wave a boat makes in the water.  The area immediately behind the wave is a low presssure area.  If the air is moist (high humidity) the moisture ...

>>''The oxygen hose from the helmet hooks up to a hose in the jet.''<<Technically, the pilot's oxygen connection is attached to the ejection seat and the ejection seat get its oxygen from the jet.  In the event of an ejection, the seat is equipped with a small oxygen bottle good for 5 to 10 minutes and it automatically switches to ...

>>''No need to drop your load in  a BVR engagement. I am just talking about a visual fight.''<<That's what I was talking about also.  If an early F-16 is armed with a Sparrow and the fight for whatever reason goes visual, he has to dump his Sparrow?  Sounds like a bad way to do business to me.  But again, I'm ...

>>''The C-17. A ''heavy.'' It flies a 6 degree glidepath on final (normal aircraft fly 2.5 - 3 degree glidepaths). It can land and stop at 300,000 lbs gross weight in 3,000 feet.''<<Ummmm, no.  The C-17 can land and stop on a 3000 foot runway at max landing weight, 585,000 lbs.  That's over a quarter million pounds ...