Quote:
Originally Posted by sammyg2
If I'm not mistaken, the F-16 went into production in '76 and was inherently unstable and fly-by-wire kept it pointing the right way.
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Correct. First "fly by wire" fighter. On top of making an inherently unstable design actually fly, it was touted as being able to save itself from pilot inputs that might damage the airframe, to keep pilots from asking it to do something it couldn't do.
Chuck Yeager panned that idea when he pointed out that a good number of WWII fighter pilots were still with us
because they asked their airplanes to "do something it couldn't do". Just this once... pretty please...