The ROC Air Force is expected to have 207 F-16V fighters (officially known as F-16AM/BM), making it the air force with the largest number of this advanced fighter in the world. However, cultivating more qualified F-16V pilots is a more difficult and long-term task than refitting and purchasing fighter jets. It is necessary to minimize various potential factors that may cause accidents. The Republic of China Air Force F-16A fighter plane hit a mountain in Wufen Mountain, Ruifang District, New Taipei City on June 4, 2018. Pilot Major Wu Yanting was killed in the line of duty. On January 11, 2022, another F-16V fighter plane was at the shooting range near the Chiayi base. During ground attack training, dive into the sea at a large angle. Two unfortunate incidents, many experts say, if the F-16 fighter aircraft is equipped with the "Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System" (Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, Auto GCAS), this tragedy should be avoided.
But few people get to the bottom of why only the F-16 fighter needs this system? The key to the F-16's excellent dogfighting performance: Inherently unstable design Fighters with excellent fighting performance such as the F-16 are all designed for negative stability. This means that the general aircraft has static stability (place the center of gravity of the aircraft before the center of lift), the pilot does not need to control much, and the aircraft will basically Shadow Making return to straight and level flight by itself, but this will greatly limit the maneuverability of the aircraft. The design of the F-16 is the opposite.
To keep the aircraft in an unstable state at any time, it is necessary to continuously adjust the various airfoils to maintain the flight attitude. However, this is not done by the traditional control system that relies on the hydraulic connection of the rudder surface. Therefore, it was changed to "Fly-by-wire": The pilot's control input is converted into an electrical signal through an IC, processed by a computer or an electronic controller, and then transmitted to the control interface through a cable. More about this source textSource text required for additional translation information Send feedback Side panels