I apologize. There is a way...but no one is ever going to do it, train to it, etc. The F18 is moving in a similar direction. The capability to turn the system off will exist, but we aren't going to the ship that way. That being said, the point still stands that the first option would be to divert. The second option would be to try something that isn't trained to (landing manually) versus ejecting alongside. Assuming your plane is so broken it can't land, trying to land it manually sounds like the worst of the options.
There was a failure mode in the F-18C where you could manually control the stabs in case of a total electrical failure (mech reversion). Landing on the boat like that would have been less desirable than ejecting alongside.
To be clear, no one is advocating that the computer should do all the work. What is being said is that almost always the flight control system is only stable with the computers running it. Remove the flight control computers and the ability to control a severely degraded fly by wire system enough to land on the ship becomes a coin flip at best and that's being optimistic. So far the system has proven capable through every feasible combination of failed control surfaces, hydraulic systems, and (in the F18) single engine scenarios.
To be more to the point, the chances of such a scenario occurring are so infinitely small it has been determined that the risk and cost of training to manual landings may be greater than the risk of not doing so.
In any case, thanks for clearing that up.
There was a failure mode in the F-18C where you could manually control the stabs in case of a total electrical failure (mech reversion). Landing on the boat like that would have been less desirable than ejecting alongside.
To be clear, no one is advocating that the computer should do all the work. What is being said is that almost always the flight control system is only stable with the computers running it. Remove the flight control computers and the ability to control a severely degraded fly by wire system enough to land on the ship becomes a coin flip at best and that's being optimistic. So far the system has proven capable through every feasible combination of failed control surfaces, hydraulic systems, and (in the F18) single engine scenarios.
To be more to the point, the chances of such a scenario occurring are so infinitely small it has been determined that the risk and cost of training to manual landings may be greater than the risk of not doing so.
In any case, thanks for clearing that up.
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