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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: obrien@netcom.com (No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB)
Subject: Re: Strange case of the upside-down military jets
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 01:28:02 GMT

Thanks to Joe Chew, I was alerted to this thread. I just don't have time anymore to keep up with AFU.

Several quibbles: the F-111B was the USNavy version, never sold. FB-111A.

Neither the aardvark nor the phantom was fly-by-wire. (except perhaps test versions)

The F-16 simulation 'flip' was discovered so early in testing that it would be hard to claim it was a serious error.

However, the first F-16 to fly below sea level (in Death Valley) _did_ experience a halt in the Fire Control Computer, probably due to a divide-by-zero. But the Fire Control Computer (FCC) is NOT the Flight Control Computer (FLCC) and there isn't much danger if it halts and resets. Substantially less danger, in fact, if you should happen to have been someone it wanted to drop a bomb on.

Source: I worked for General Dynamics from 1982 to 1989, doing avionics software for F-111's, F-16's, and the never-built A-12.

Bob O'Bob
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