U.S. Air Force builds Super Cars

At least the Charger has a yoke for steering. I wonder how hard/easy it is to steer with the stick in the Mustang?

There's one in the Mustang too, Mark. It's retractable. The joystick is probably in the wrong position if it was for directional control.

I found it more alarming that the Mustang apparently lacks seat belts and airbags given all those sharp edges, but at least it has a glass roof if those are ejection seats. :-)

The Air Force, according to B/Gen Balan R. Ayyer, head of recruiting has accomplished their recruiting goals for 2011. These cars appear to be mockups of aircraft glass cockpits for recruiters to use probably mostly at college campuses where the AF looks for people to meet the manifold technical challenges facing the service. The sidestick controller in the Mustang probably came from some AF airplane. Side stick controllers rather than yokes are used in several Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft and are placed so that the pilot can rest an elbow while using one. There is one on the left of the pilot and the right of the co-pilot. They take some getting used to but most pilots like them. As a former AF pilot who trained in WW II aircraft, the T-6, B-25, B-29 and flew Constellations and some later aircraft I marvel at what is going on today. If you got the Mustang up to over a hundred miles an hour and pulled back on the controller it probably would not fly so although these may be good recruiting tools and they may simulate flight on the screens the thrill just ain't there. I think the AF recruiting budget has gone up a lot since I used to fly the head of recruiting around in Convair 440 years ago but it looks like it is paying off in some unbelievably high quality people.

Michael. Those are not ejection seats. Most ejection seats have a canopy penetrator on them and there are many documented incidents where crew members have ejected through the canopy.

I'm sure this is a great way to spend American tax payer money.

Simon, I thought the cars were a great idea for the intended purpose.

The Air Force took advantage of popular culture to have the pair of cars built by a team of talented young Air Force members in collaboration with Galpin Auto Sports headed by Mad Mike who every teenager knows from Pimp My Ride on MTV. What better way to appeal to young men?

I imagine the cars are probably made to "mostly functional" specs. intended primarily as show cars, although odd that the new Camaro wasn't included. Probably because the project planning was in place before the car's release in 2009.

I would have been really disappointed had it been a pair of bikes built instead by Senior and Junior Teutuls.

Dick, what I find amazing these days is the fully digital cockpits given the hostile environment it must operate in with 100% reliability, even with multiple redundancy.

My mistake in the original post: the second car is a modified Dodge Challenger. Not a Charger.

Michael, if the EMP is that close it would fry the computer and all the circuit boards anyway. It's far easier to induce stray signals into analog systems since they are very low voltage. With digital you can send information via PWM or keyed signals to reduce interference and noise.

As to wires over cables for control surfaces, that's a question I'd love to hear Dick's take on. I'm with you, Michael. Even if I lost Nav and everything else I want to know I can at least steer to turn the shiny side up before I punched out.

Michael. Did you see the small and tumbled mechanical back-up attitude indicator in the Mustang. That AI has an electro-mechanical gyro in it that is independent of all the glass in the cockpit. Airspeed, as evidenced in the South Atlantic loss of control is also critical and that is driven by air data which is sourced by impact air to an external pitot tubes and to neutral static ports. There is also a ram air driven airspeed indicator and a pressure (through the static ports) altimeter for backup. They will get you home.

There is no such thing as 100 per cent reliability, however, five nines is design criteria that we used in the FAA for critical flight functions. Also important is integrity of critical functions. When things go bad they have to fail safe. In other words when they fail systems have to fail passively with warning instead of leading you astray or backing up through the system to affect other systems. Accuracy of data is also important and when it strays the pilot has to be warned and our criteria was under seven seconds. These displays through Flight Management Systems take information from Navaids, Air Data systems, engine and aircraft system sensors, environmental systems like pressurization, etc. I could go on. But this is why we have to recruit smart people.

If you want to add the cost of the Thunderbirds to the recruiting cost it is then quite substantial. As an 8000 hour former Air Force pilot I understand how exciting seeing these guys fly their airplanes is to kids who get turned on to the Air Force and then, ultimately, many of them turn up in an Air Force uniform. I spent twenty years in the Air Force and I would have paid them to let my fly their airplanes. They paid me, instead. What a privilege. Others can debate the need for the Air Force and what the budget should be and how many pilots and airplanes we should have. But as long as we have an Air Force with the sophistication that is required to do today's job we will need those excited kids to join up. If a Mustang or Challenger will challenge potential recruits then, in the long run, it will save recruiting costs, the need for bonuses and prevent the AF from lowering standards and incurring the resulting costs.