The Navigator in Military Aviation
 

The present and future role of the Air Navigator in military aviation, as well as his career profile, need to be looked at afresh. He has a place in the cockpit of modern combat aircraft; and may have an important role to play in the operation of UAV's in the future.

VN, is that an incontrovertible fact or a provocative staff college question to which you are hoping we will advance arguments for or against?

Personally I 'd rather have the extra 100kg of fuel.

Standby - standby

Mostafa, you forgot the ancilliary costs too.

The weight of the bang seat, instruments, cabling, coffee holders, ingress/egress, extra canopy etc. Call it an extra 300-400kg at least.

The fuel tank and feeds would reduce the gain but not too much.

One neat solution, Swordfish-style, would be to retain the cockpit space but denuded of all the ancilliaries, and put a fuel tank there. If, later on, you wanted extra space for a passenger or whatever, then you could remove the tank.

Didn't the Saab Lansen have the capability of carrying two passengers by replacing the bang seat in a ferry mode?:}

VN, if i were you I'd get on the internet and pay someone top dollar to write your essay for you. I am assuming that you can't be bothered to do the research and legwork yourself, that is.

While there are many people on this forum who will be suitably qualified, well-read and experienced to get you an A+ (or Excellent) grade for your assignment, you are more likely to get pages of banter (which will be highly entertaining for the majority of us but little use to you).

Another solution is to write the 'kin essay yourself. Much more satisfying.

BL

100kg for a Nav?????????

BL. Am too long in the tooth for assignments. Have done some work This was to test the waters. Distinctly chilly ....

VN, yup. Two crew is one thing, pilot/nav something else again.

For Weasel operations I guess it would be distinctly advantageous to have an operator as well as a pilot.

For UAV work I believe they already have a 2-man concept but getting the UAV from A to B would not require a navigator.

You're welcome to the fuel MOSTAFA, and I'll stay in the crewroom, playing cards and drinking coffee.

Being ancient, I always thought the Nav carried the imprest, and was therefore the most valuable member of the crew. :}

Jo Bling, my radar, could run the imprest, a 4 man, 5 man, 6 man and 7 man kitty simultaneously know exactly how much wonga was in each and consume a chateaubriand for 2 for 1!

Unless you had a copilot :)

Navs have another use too, especially if you are a senior officer. You can do the arrival, meet and greet with the brass, leaving the hired help to see to the horses.

"You're welcome to the fuel MOSTAFA, and I'll stay in the crewroom, playing cards and drinking coffee"

Enjoy!

VN

Have a look at the following to see the USAF's take on Navs, WSOs and EWOs (now all known as Combat Systems Officers or CSOs):

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Mag...07/0807cso.pdf

They also use CSOs with FAA Instr Rating (on top of a PPL) to fly MQ-9 as pilots.

They are far more forward leaning towards their "back seaters" than we are at present; that said we used to be more forward leaning than the USAF in the past!

F-18F and EF-18G will keep a lot of RIOs/EWOs for the USN well into the 21st Century.

The RAF's future for Navs (WSOs) is rather bleak with a published plan to lose them all off of their aircraft by 2025 bar Nimrod MRA4.

Finally, my view point has been that a Nav is worth 3-400kgs if they prevent boy-wonder in the front from spearing in - something most navs can say they have achieved at least once in their flying careers (at that point they are worth their weight in gold!).

LJ

Well I survived so may be I did. Lake Garda was a potential. Then an F4, short on fuel for the tanker; only thing was he didn't know he was in front of the tanker. Kept 'em safe other times.

The concept of the navigator being involved in merely the business of getting from A to B - particularly in military operations - is badly outdated.

Crew room (Lossie ?) many years ago and the talk turned to single crew operations.

Guy in corner .… "I think that single crew operations are a great idea. I just don’t know who is going to land the plane afterwards". :)

Time to resurect the old gag - "what do you get if you cross a navigator with an air traffic controller? - A bad letdown at the wrong airfield".

Or, "What do you get if you cross a Navigator with a Gorilla?"

Answer: "A thick Gorilla"!

[b]Or[/] why does th nav carry bananas in his nav bag?

To feed the monkey with the stick.