>>What sort of control problems would re-configuring in an atmosphere
>>in-flight cause?

>Besides hitting the ground like a lawn-dart?

>Training. Every pilot knows that there are certain things you can and
>can't do at certain speeds or altitudes-or they should know anyway.
>Like Antiledo and Pieter suggested, the thrusters and computer control
>are the way to go, but any pilot who wants to subject a craft to
>stresses like that at Mach3 isn't all that bright...

>Ted wrote in message <36f2fe59.12777...@news.erols.com>...
>>On 19 Mar 1999 16:51:48 GMT, "Bobby Barton" <talo...@badsector.com>
>>wrote:

>>>What sort of control problems would re-configuring in an atmosphere
>>>in-flight cause?

>>Besides hitting the ground like a lawn-dart?

>Why would he have to do that? The battloid has thrusters, and the Guardian
>does VTOL hovering. With a Harrier, there's a maneuver called "viffing"
>where the plane switches from forward thrust to reverse and hover, allowing
>the enemy to overshoot him.

>Switching to guardian and especially guardian could have an aerobraking
>effect.

>>>That's got to cause incredible drag.  How could a pilot
>>>control his A/C in an instance like that?  Obviously, the faster you go,
>>>the worse the problem.  So what could solve this problem?

>>Training. Every pilot knows that there are certain things you can and
>>can't do at certain speeds or altitudes-or they should know anyway.
>>Like Antiledo and Pieter suggested, the thrusters and computer control
>>are the way to go, but any pilot who wants to subject a craft to
>>stresses like that at Mach3 isn't all that bright...

>Well, the advanced computers on the veritech could have control law software
>to deal with that. An aircraft like the F16 is so maneuvrable because it's
>aerodynamically unstable, which is something that can be exploited for
>agility.

>>>--
>>>Bobby Barton
>>>talo...@badsector.com