A ‘user-friendly’ jet fighter aircraft will add a lot to air power

I was chatting with an American aircraft maintenance expert, about seventy years old, who had devoted his life to the maintenance of some jet fighter aircraft. He had worked as an aircraft maintenance technician on F-105, F-111, A-10 and F-4 aircraft. He would list the most remarkable problems of the aircraft he worked on as follows; F-105 hydraulics and fuel, F-111 hydraulics and control, A-10 fuel, F-4 ‘of course hydraulics!...and control’... These aircraft remained in service for years in the US Air Force and some of them in the air forces of other countries, but all of them were known, remembered and will be remembered with these almost ‘chronic, system problems that remained as a stigma on them’, which attracted attention when they entered service and were their most prominent features until their exit from service.

What is and will be a user, i.e. ‘Flier and Aircraft Maintainer’ friendly jet fighter aircraft?

A pilot (pilot) friendly aircraft is an aircraft with excellent efficiency and safety of its systems in the air, which does not disappoint its user in the air, whose cockpit interior design is ‘ergonomic’, and whose user documentation is excellent. In the design of that aircraft, the opinions and suggestions of the pilots who will fly it must be taken into consideration.

An aircraft that is aircraft maintainer friendly is an aircraft with a low failure rate, i.e. high activity rate, excellent technical documentation, designed with the support of ergonomics science for easy access and operation of the aircraft maintainer to its systems, and the opinions and suggestions of the technicians who will maintain that aircraft regarding the maintainability of these systems in the design of these systems.

In other words, it is essential that the opinions, evaluations, suggestions and criticisms, in other words, the contributions of pilots and aircraft maintainers must be taken into consideration in the design of the aircraft, which is a set of systems, because they will keep that aircraft ready for war and fly it.

Prior to the delivery of the V-22 Osprey to the US Air Force, an aircraft maintenance officer (now a retired lieutenant general) who, together with his team of experts, inspected the aircraft maintenance facilities of this aircraft, was explaining that the batteries, which had to be checked frequently and replaced very quickly, had been placed in such a place in the back of the pilot's cockpit that; ‘we had to evacuate almost the entire cockpit in order to remove these batteries, which had to be checked every 25 flight hours and replaced with new charged batteries in about 100 hours, and this intensive evacuation of the cockpit was not even necessary during the depot level maintenance (the highest level maintenance of the aircraft)’.

‘As a result of our report, the location of the batteries was determined to be within easy reach of the aircraft maintainer and easy to assemble and disassemble. Systems and ergonomics engineers worked together with us, the aircraft maintainers, to determine this new location.’

I worked together with aircraft maintainers, engineers and pilots from 26 countries flying F-16, F-4, F-5, T-37, T-37, F-15, F-18, EF Typhoon, Tornado, Hawk, Alpha Jet, Mirage, C-130, mainly F-16. The first and most important feature that aircraft people/aircraft experts from these 26 countries unquestionably put forward in an aircraft was that this aircraft was ‘user friendly’.

A user-friendly jet fighter aircraft is the most resistant aircraft to the ‘intensity and frequency’ of the mission. It efficiently performs air-air and air-ground missions, ideally three sorties a day, and its activity rate, in other words, its combat readiness rate, is over 85 per cent. This high activity rate also minimises the replacement of parts due to malfunctions, which results in a very high economic contribution, and such an economic contribution makes both those who are engaged in its maintenance and those who have to find resources for this maintenance happy. As a result, such an aircraft is a friend not only to its flyers and maintainers, but also to those who have to allocate budgetary resources for its maintenance.

Aircraft design focuses on the integration of new technologies and systems in existing and advanced configurations. This includes new structural materials and manufacturing processes. In an aeroplane, it is essential to establish and ensure cost-effective, high-performance and efficient ‘complete system performance’. This is the secret.

This totality of air systems must be easy to learn, easy to use, easy to maintain and easy to maintain, not so difficult that it makes you vomit blood. The fact that the aircraft is complicated does not mean that this ease is not possible. If an aircraft is not user-friendly, it is not well designed.

It is also very possible for a user-friendly aircraft to be in demand by friendly and allied countries, in other words, to be sold in large numbers. Such aircraft have always been very popular, preferred and sold a lot.