WEBVTT

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Hi , my name is Jessica Peterson . I'm

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a flight test engineer at Edwards Air

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Force Base where we do flight tests on

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new systems for the Air Force . Today

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I'm gonna talk to you about the

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automatic ground collision avoidance

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system , how we tested it and the lives

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that have been saved .

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Alright , so I want to talk to you a

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little bit about Edwards Air Force Base

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and the things that have been done

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there . Edwards is the premier location

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for flight test and we have a really

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rich history of things that have

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happened . A couple I want to highlight

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because they're related to some of the

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schools here in the antelope valley is

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joe walker . He was an X 15 pilot and

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he received his astronaut wings by

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taking the X 15 to very very high

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altitudes , joe walker middle school is

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named after him . The other X 15 pilot

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is Pete Knight . So Pete Knight still

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holds the record for the fastest manned

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flight in the X 15 . He went mach 6.72

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which is 6.72 times faster than the

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speed of sound . So both . Pretty

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amazing . Night . High school in East

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Palmdale is named after Pete night . So

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if any kids from joe walker or from

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high school are listening , you guys

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are going to a school that's named

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after historical legends . So a little

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bit of my background . I grew up in the

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antelope valley went to courts

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elementary , joe walker middle school

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and quartz Hill High school . In order

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to do my job I had to go and get

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engineering degrees . So I went to cal

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poly san luis Obispo and got an

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engineering degree in mechanical

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engineering . After that I decided that

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I wanted to get even more knowledge and

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I wanted to specialize in mechanical

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engineering and flight control systems .

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So I went and got a masters of science

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in mechanical engineering at the naval

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postgraduate school . I've been working

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at Edwards since 2005 and I've worked

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on a lot of different programs . One of

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them is the RQ four which is an

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unmanned vehicle that has the pilot on

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the ground flying with a mouse and

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keyboard . The other is the F 16 and

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the automatic systems . And that's what

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I'm gonna tell you about today . I got

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to go to test pilot school in 2017 and

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with that it has allowed me to fly in

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the backseat of many different

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airplanes . You can see a picture of me

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here with a T . 38 that has my name on

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the canopy rail which is pretty cool to

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have . Alright

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so what does it take to be a flight

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test engineer ? Well in addition to

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have the engineering degree , there's a

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lot of training that you have to do and

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so one of them is the altitude chamber .

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So if you're flying in an airplane up

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at say 30,000 ft , one of the things

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one of the issues that you have is that

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there isn't very much oxygen and so if

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the mask that you're wearing or the

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canopy doesn't work correctly , you're

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not gonna have enough oxygen . And so

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they train you how to identify if you

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don't have enough oxygen by putting you

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in a chamber on the ground where they

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start to remove the oxygen . The other

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thing type of training we do is called

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the center fuge . So everyone here I

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want you to think , have you ever been

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on a roller coaster and felt the force

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on your body on a roller coaster ? That

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same thing happens in an airplane . And

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so if the airplane is turning , you can

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pull what are called G forces . So nine

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Gs , which is what the F 16 can pull is

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nine times the force of gravity . Well ,

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the problem with that is that if you're

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pulling G forces it will pull the blood

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from your brain . And so you have to be

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trained on how to push that blood and

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keep it in your brain . It's called a G

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strain . I also had to learn survival .

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So if I have to eject from an airplane ,

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I have to know how to use my parachute

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and how to survive on the water or the

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land . All right , I'm

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gonna tell you about the automatic

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ground collision avoidance system , a

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system that I've been able to test and

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fly on for several years . One

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important thing to understand about the

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F 16 is that it has a low level mission ,

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meaning that the pilots will fly very

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close to the ground somewhere between

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200 to 500 ft , going very fast . They

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do this for terrain masking so that sir

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radars can't see them . It means they

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hide next to mountains and in the

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canyons . This can make it very

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challenging for a ground collision

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avoidance system because it has to

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allow the pilots to still fly close to

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the ground without getting in the way .

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So how does the automatic ground

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collision avoidance system work ? Well ,

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it performs an automatic recovery to

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avoid the ground when a collision is

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predicted , What this means is the

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system , the computer knows where the

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airplane is , what the flight path is ,

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so how it would look if the airplane

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does a recovery and where the terrain

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is , it knows Where the mountains are

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and where the Valleys are . And then it

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does a prediction that if the

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airplane's flight path will hit the

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mountain , that is when the computer

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will come on . We feel that this system

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back in 2014 and since then it has

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saved 12 pilots lives . I'm gonna show

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you one video of a pilot's life that

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was saved . So saving lives . Before we

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fielded the system , we did a study in

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12 years , there were 86 pilots , 156

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aircraft that related to $3.7 billion

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called-controlled

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flight into terrain or Collision with

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another airplane . The automatic ground

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collision avoidance system first tested

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on the F16 , which I got to work on and

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then put on other airplanes was

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projected to save 1-2 pilots per year .

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Since we fielded this system has been

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12 pilots lives that have been saved .

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So how do you safely test an automatic

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ground collision avoidance system

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without actually causing a collision ?

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The way that we did this is we put in

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something we call the terrain clearance

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buffer , meaning that we faked the

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computer to think that the terrain was

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higher than it actually was . This was

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important because we didn't want the

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airplane to hit the mountain if the

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system didn't work correctly . So

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now I'm gonna show you a test point

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what this looks like first . Let me

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talk you through the maneuver . So the

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pilot is going to start up at 43,000 ft .

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They're gonna roll the airplane

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inverted , pull very steep , nose low

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towards the ground and they're gonna

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try to get to 630 knots with the

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airplane almost vertical , going

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straight down And letting the nose fall .

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We expect the system to activate at

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33,000 ft and the computer to take

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control and maneuver away . Let's see

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what that looks like . So as an

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engineer , we would create a test card

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and this test card would tell the pilot ,

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not just the conditions like the

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altitude and the air speed , but also

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the computer settings . Remember how I

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talked about the terrain clearance

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buffer that would make it to the

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computer thought the terrain was higher

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for this test point . We put in a

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terrain clearance buffer of 6600 ft ,

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meaning the computer thought the

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terrain was higher than that . And so

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that's how we know when the computer is

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supposed to activate . So I'm gonna

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show you a heads up display of a test

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point and I'm gonna show you multiple

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heads up displays . So first let me

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talk through what you're gonna see when

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the airplane is starting at level .

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You're gonna see a flight path marker

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above the horizon . What that looks

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like is a flight path marker above a

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solid line . You're gonna see current G ,

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the airspeed , the altitude and in the

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height above the ground . The

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difference between the height above the

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ground and the altitude . In this case

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it's about 5500 ft . That is the height

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of the terrain . So the mountain below

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you . When the pilot

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starts to roll inverted what that will

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look like in the hud is a flight path

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marker will start moving to turn

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to go inverted . Once

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inverted , you will see the flight path

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marker below the horizon and here is

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10° nose low corresponding to this

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position . Next the

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airplane will get very steep , very

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nose low and you'll see auto G cast

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starting to think about activating .

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These are called the auto G cast .

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Chevron's when they touch is when the

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maneuver will occur

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at the auto G CASS activation . You'll

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see a break X . So the chevron's come

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together and the word fly up , you'll

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also hear a solid tone and the word fly

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up will be flashing when the

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maneuver is complete , the chevron's

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will go away and you'll see the flight

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path marker getting close to the

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horizon .

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Alright , so let's watch this test

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point and see how it works .

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451.45

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pulling no slow

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here you can see these very steep ,

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there's the auto details activation is

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now in the fall

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altitude altitude

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control . So

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maneuver complete good data . We look

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at data and then be able to clear him

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to the next condition . So that's a

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success . So testing doesn't always go

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as we expected . So now I'm gonna show

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you another condition where we tested

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and we found a system failure . So this

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is the same test point as before . But

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in this scenario the computer is not

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able to process the information and it

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fails . Meaning auto G cast isn't

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working . What you're going to hear on

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the radio is you're gonna hear the

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control room saying abort abort abort

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and then the pie having to manually fly

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the airplane because the computer isn't

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working . The other thing you'll see is

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in the heads up display the words NOg

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CASS . I want you to note that the

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pilot doesn't realize the system has

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failed because he's flying the airplane

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until after the control room calls the

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aboard aboard aboard . This means that

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we have good teamwork and one of the

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reasons that we use a control room for

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flight test . Let's watch the video . 6

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30 x 34 . What has

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happened

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again ? Pulling those low

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here ,

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altitude , altitude

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and that's where the pilot realizes the

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system has failed . So that also is a

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good test point . We found the failure

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and then we were able to go back in and

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fix the system so that would protect

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the pilots in all conditions . Alright ,

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now I'm gonna show you where this all

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comes together . So this is after the

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system was fielded and put on all the

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operational F 16 . There was a new

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pilot in training that was having a bad

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day , did not do a good G strain and

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passes out in the airplane as he has

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passed out . His airplane gets steeper

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and steeper , looking very similar to

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the test points that you just saw the

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airplane will do an automatic maneuver

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and recover the aircraft from the

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ground . Now , what I want you to

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listen for is on the radio , you're

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gonna hear the words recover recover

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and that is the pilot's wingman in

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another airplane yelling at him over

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the radio trying to save his life .

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Let's watch the video .

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So right here coloring five Gs , six Gs

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eight Gs , you hear his G strain and

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now he's passed out . The airplane is

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getting steeper and steeper faster .

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That was a sweet man

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after

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knock it off .

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You get yourself back .

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So you saw how auto G cast saved that

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pilots lives . We got to meet him

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afterwards actually he came to Edwards

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Air Force Base and he told us that when

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he woke up and heard that tone he

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thought it was the alarm going off in

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his bed . I want to close with showing

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you how hard it is to ride that line

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between being able to save pilots lives

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by not hitting the ground but still

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allowing them to do them a normal

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maneuver . This is called a straight

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run and this is where the pilot uses

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the nose of the airplane , the point at

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the ground so they can shoot bullets at

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things on the ground . In this maneuver ,

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the pilot needs to go all the way down

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to 90 ft above the ground and auto-G

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cast is not supposed to activate .

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You'll see in the video . The chevron's

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get very close with auto Gps thinking

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that it needs to activate but they

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never touch and the system never gets

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in the way and so that's the perfect

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balance between being nuisance free and

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preventing collisions here . You see

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the pilot turning in

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36 drive

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So all the way down to 90 ft . The

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system never activated .

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So in closing thoughts , it's been very

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rewarding . Working on the collision

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avoidance systems , you can see with

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engineering , how we learn about the

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system , put in different numbers to

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keep ourselves safe and then back up

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the pilot by watching parameters in the

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control room and in the aircraft . I

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hope you enjoyed learning about flight

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test and learning a little bit about

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collision avoidance . Thanks .