Word: piloting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...radar-intercept officer (RIO), seated behind the lead Tomcat pilot, armed his plane's short-range Sidewinder missiles and its longer-range Sparrow rockets. Outmanned and outgunned in their less maneuverable Floggers, the lone Libyan pilots had to fly their planes, watch their radars and handle their weapons without airborne help...
...noon the trailing Tomcat flying in the wing position locked its radar on one of the Floggers. In numerous past skirmishes, Libyan pilots had reported any such radar targeting to their ground controller, who had always told them to break off and head home. This time, U.S. authorities insisted, the pilot did not send any such alarm...
...older brother, Fred Trump Jr., rebelled against carrying on the family business. He became an airline pilot, took to drink and died of alcoholism in 1981 at the age of 43. "He was a really wonderful guy who didn't particularly like this business," says Trump. "It was a sad thing. It is something I have never been able to figure out. It was one of the most difficult things I've had to deal with...
Former fighter pilot Steve Corris, now a California lawyer, considers the Libyan pilots "idiots" for repeatedly facing the Tomcats head-on, since "that is an indication of hostile intention." Equally unfriendly was the Libyan pursuit of the U.S. jets at varying altitudes. Modern combat, Corris notes, "isn't like old-fashioned dogfighting." The distances are much greater, and the targets may be seen only on radar. "Everything happens very fast." Pilots called the Mediterranean incident a "knife fight" because the jets clashed at unusually close quarters...
...some of the old tactics remain valid. "Pilots still like to have the sun at their back," explains Kurt Schroeder, the chief test pilot of Grumman Corp., which makes the Tomcat. "The speeds and altitudes, turning radius and weapons have changed dramatically, but the basic maneuvers are still very similar to World War I." So too is a pilot's need for fast thinking. "Aviation by its very nature frequently requires very quick assessments, judgments and actions," says Schroeder. "And the penalty for making the wrong decision is severe...