Old Guard vs New Technology
Some of the posts belie an attitude toward technology improvements that I've seen/listened to before. Anecdote that follows seems to apply, unfortunately, to some of these posts.
In Feb 1974 there was a UTTAS Briefing Visit to US Army units in Europe. The idea was to brief on the two competing UTTAS designs and get feedback. An Army Major gave the brief and then I and the Boeing Ch Pilot, Frank Duke, answered questions. First place we went to ( Wertheim? ) was illuminating. After the brief on the Army UTTAS requirements and the two designs, the audience erupted with questions. Most came from the CWO-3's and -4's the " old breed " with multiple Vietnam tours. There were many comments about the " new " design features they would be seeing, and the majority comment from the old guys was that they didn't need any of that " stuff ". So Frank and I spent a lot of time explaining why etc etc. It was obvious that none of the younger pilots got to speak. WOPA out in force, I guessed ( Warrant Officers Protective Assn. ). Sorry, Nick.
Anyhow, after the brief broke up, a very young WO-1 came up to Frank and I, looked over his shoulder, and said, " Look, I just want to pass along that I can use all the help I can get, and this new aircraft looks great ".
Kinda like your message, SAS?
Last edited by JohnDixson; 14th Oct 2015 at 16:39.
Reason: typo and date correction.