Headline July 11th, 2012 / ''Virtually Impossible!'

"Virtually Impossible!"

Eurofighter's flying performance is only the tip of the iceberg -the rest comes from what's in the cockpit, via the human machine interface. With information coming in about enemies from radar, infra-red, passive receivers and data links from the ground, plus AWACS, the early warning aircraft, the trickiest part of flying a modern fighter is turning all this information into something meaningful. 

But EuroFighter's computer does most of the processing for you before displaying it on the screen. ''It gets presented as a God's eye view of the world,'' says Craig Penrice, the Test Pilot of the Eurofighter. This filters out irrelevant information which could distract the pilot, allowing him or her to concentrate on prioritised threats of the mission. But before you could imagine a hands on familiarization you have to have a thorough understanding of the Eurofighter's ''interface''.


So ready are we for your test ride!!? Hahaha! Climbing in to the cockpit, your first impression is how uncluttered it all is, with surprisingly small number of push-buttons, whose legends change according to what task you are performing, and three colour screens. 

The first you do is plug in your ''brick'', a portable hard disk storing your voice-print, mission details, and Codes. For, indeed, the Eurofighter responds to voice commands. ''The only thing you can't do by voice are fire weapons, drop bombs or physically manoeuvre the plane.'' And if you are doing a bad job it will tell you! 

If you get too low, the plane will give the warning: ''Pull up!'' It uses a female voice because we apparently pay more attention to them. 

Press a couple of buttons and the left hand screen comes up with a checklist of procedures, presented like a TV autocue. There are five phases of flight and the display changes accordingly. For example the plane would know that the engine has started up and the next you want to do is take off. So it'll tell you to take the parking break off. 

Another key Eurofighter feature is HOTAS: hands on throttle and stick. Forget the buttons, you can control anything on the plane with the aid of 10 switches on the top of the flight stick and 13 on the throttle. Which takes a bit of learning. But, mind you after a couple of simulated missions, you will be happily using the flight stick's cursor hat to eliminate threat. And I hope it is "bad and expensive education!" Hahaha! 

Eurofighter helpfully displays enemies in order, according to the threat they pose, and once you have selected the appropriate weapon, you just cycle through them with your cursor, merely double clicking away. Just like launching windows programs, playing a rather static video game. 

Example, well try your dab hand 'Space Invaders or Command and Conquer.'' Well folks this is how we plan to build a better world! Hahaha! 

Thanks to !WOW! For the mission! Best for you all!

Good night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless