Human Interface: What (almost) every button in an F-15C fighter’s cockpit does
"Pilot episode" is particularly appropriate here, because we're kicking off the series with a look at a McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle, one of the world's most famous air superiority fighters. Col. Themely has about 3,400 hours piloting high-performance jet fighters and about 1,100 hours specifically in F-15Cs, and her last post was commanding the Air Force's 80th Flying Training Wing.
As I found out firsthand a few years ago in the Navy's F/A-18 simulator at NAS Oceana, a fourth-generation jet fighter like the F-15C is typically equipped with a mish-mash of '70s- and '80s-era screens and buttons, with other more current-looking '00s-era controls shoehorned into the corners. Our California ANG F-15C is no exception, and Col. Themely spends a lot of the video explaining the physical controls in the cockpit—switches and levers that actuate functions that on a more modern fifth-generation fighter might instead be primarily accessed via touchscreen.
