Most fighter pilots (probably) started out in a Cessna 150/152, a Cessna 172, a Piper PA-28, or perhaps a more modern training aircraft such as a Cirrus. Especially with a 150/152, the pilot would be well aware of how little power they have and how careful they have to be with energy management. (I’ve never flown a 150/152 as a pilot, but I’m told it’s an excellent trainer because of its limitation. I learned to fly in a 172, which I’m told is easier to fly.)
Here’s the thing: My mom worked at Gibbs Flying Service at MYF. Gibbs got a lot of business from Navy pilots at (then-)NAS Miramar. She said the instructors said the F-4 pilots needed more instruction in light planes than beginning students. The Phantom drivers were well into their careers and were used to flying high-performance fighters. They needed to be reminded of the limitations of a 100 horsepower (or 150 horsepower) Cessna.
Yes, but you could figure out how to use a slide rule to save your life.
btw neither slide rules nor their replacement, the shirt-pocket scientific calculator were ever meant to adequately substitute for general-purpose digital computers or comprehensive engineering design and simulation suites. They just save you the use of tables of mathematical functions. Even today I would think it would take someone little time to figure out how a slide rule or pocket calculator works, rather more time to pick up how to effectively use Ansys, Octave, and custom CFD code written in Fortran.
Would a WWI pilot even see anything on a jet fighter that he would recognize as an engine? Correct me if I’m wrong, but jet engines (and turbine engines) weren’t invented until after WWI.
The basic principle of jet propulsion dates back to the aeolipile, 2000 years ago. Using various forms of rocket jets for flight was speculated upon, and some prototypes may have actually been built, going back 500 years or so. The first patent for a turbine engine was filed in 1791. In the early 1900s, there were a number of experimental jet engine designs that made it to the stage of stationary prototypes.
I don’t think a World War I pilot would necessarily recognize that the F-111 was using a turbine jet engine, but it seems plausible to me that they might. At the least, I’d imagine that they would recognize from those huge exhaust outlets that it was some form of jet plane (even if they thought it was a rocket jet rather than an air-breathing turbine jet engine).
I keep thinking about The Twilight Zone episode ‘The Last Flight’, where a WWI Royal Flying Corps pilot lands his Nieuport at a USAF base in France in 1959. He sees an F-100 and comments, ‘I had no idea you Americans were so advanced.’
The emphasis for someone in the military flight training is on current aircraft, and what the pilot is/will be flying.
Heck, that’s even true of most general aviation pilots in my experience - I’m more the exception than the rule. Most people spend their time and money on other things than ancient airplanes.
That’s because I sought them out. At one point I was driving 140 miles round trip for lessons for my tailwheel sign-off that would allow me to fly those older airplanes on my own. There aren’t that many replica, much less authentic, airplanes from 1945 and earlier. I know of exactly two Stearman biplanes available for rent in the continental US, otherwise if you want to fly them you have to buy one for yourself.
I very much had to exert extra effort to seek out and fly those airplanes. The average pilot - particularly if he has an interest in flying for the military or airlines - is not going to spend the time and effort that I did.
Not many aircraft are left from before 1925 or so because, by our standards, they were poorly designed, hard to fly, and not very capable.
Personally, I doubt that. There’s a few that would, but they are unlikely to be military pilots whose flying time largely involves worktime. I do know former military pilots who wound up flying older airplanes, but that’s something they did AFTER their service time.
Hmm… I have most of my GA time in 150’s. I never found them that much different to fly. On the other hand, I’m on the small side so I have an advantage there. A C172 can certainly carry more weight. Outside of that, though, I found them about the same to fly with the caveat that the C150, being a lighter aircraft, has more trouble with crosswinds and gusts. But that’s almost always the case - the smaller the aircraft the more trouble with those, and the heavier the aircraft the better it handles higher winds.
Jet engines came in right around the end of WWII and a common comment from the Allied pilots (because the Germans got jets first) was that they couldn’t figure out how the things flew because they couldn’t see a prop.
So it’s possible that the WWI pilot would not recognize a jet engine… but knowing it’s a powered aircraft likely could figure out those nacelles house some sort of motive power even if they didn’t understand it.
He had some light-aircraft experience, had taken notes on how to start and stop the jet engine and apply the brakes, but no radio, no ejector seat, and no cockpit canopy (!). It looks like by design the pilot couldn’t see the ground when landing, he landed nose-high, dragged the tail, lost the drag-chute, burned out the brakes, stopped before the end of the runway – and survived the experience.
The plane in the movie in question, BTW, wasn’t an F-111; externally it was a Tornado. Internally it wasn’t really any real life plane at all, that was just set up for cinematic convenience.
I do not for an instant think a WWI pilot could fly a modern jet. It’s ridiculous.
The basic concept of jet propulsion actually dates back millennia, to the steam-powered aeolipile. Rockets were pretty common, and had been used in combat in Western militaries for a couple of centuries. There were experiments with jet aircraft engines going on in the 1910s. A WWI pilot might not recognize that the engines were air-breathing jets or understand how exactly they worked, but they’d almost certainly recognize that it was some sort of rocket/jet plane.
I took a friend since childhood for a helicopter ride. He was confident that he could fly the helicopter (I can’t remember if we were in an R-22 or a Schweizer 300CBi) because he played a helicopter computer game all the time. I had to tell him that if I croaked in-flight, he’d be dead too. There’s no way he could fly a helicopter.
(This is the guy who put his leg out the door as I was lifting off, pushing down on the collective. To give you an idea of his personality, imagine Donald Trump but without any money.)
Since this thread was originally active I actually saw a short clip from the movie in question. It brings up another problem. The WWI pilot gets into the jet and then takes off and flies straight through a cloud. At night.
Blind flying (without reference to a visible horizon) was only invented in 1929 and didn’t become widespread until later than that. It takes a lot of training to fly when you can’t see the ground. Even though the jet has all the instruments Mr. 1918 hasn’t a chance. The usual quote for this is “178 seconds to live”
Hey! My first time in a helicopter (on a sightseeing trip), the pilot let me fly the whole way back including part of the approach. I did pretty well! Not so hard!
Until he also let me try to hover. Yeah, I’d probably die.
Lots of copies of the video, but, as usual, no copyright information. And more than one version of the text and graphics. I’d like to know who wrote and directed the original version.
