"John B. Slocomb" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 26 Aug 2014 16:27:26 -0500, Richard
wrote:

On 8/26/2014 8:31 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

It was a test of the terrain following radar and linked auto-pilot
system and at the time was, perhaps, the only airplane in the
world
that had the capability.



And that has to be the scariest roller-coaster ride ever made.

It was quite an accomplishment at the time and the Detachment
Commander had the A.C. give a little talk about the ride. I remember
him saying that when approaching the Rocky Mountains at Mach 1+ and
100 feet up in the air it was damned hard to keep his hands off the
controls and rely on the autopilot to pitch up at the right time :-)

Shortly after this flight there was a big mod carried out on the
terrain following radar and autopilot as it worked too well and
pulled
too many G's on pitch up so the system was modified to pitch up much
earlier and more gently.
--
Cheers,

John B.


Ddn't they make it look further ahead instead of climbing over every
boulder?