XBradTC

Modern jet fighters today all, to one degree or another, rely on fly by wire technology to interpret the pilot’s control inputs, and move flight control surfaces to produce the desired maneuver. The most well known example of this is the F-16 Fighting Falcon. 

But earlier generations of jets, such as the F-4 Phantom, had a direct linkage (boosted via hydraulics) from the control column to the flight control surfaces.

The aerodynamic forces upon an aircraft can cause planes to do things you might not intuitively expect, particularly at high angles of attack, or AoA. AoA is, very roughly, the angular difference between the mean chord of the wing, and the relative wind acting upon the aircraft.

A well known example of this was rolling the Phantom at high AoA. You’d think that you’d simply move the stick to one side to produce a roll in that direction. And at low AoA, that would be true. But at high AoA, moving the control stick to the left would actually generate a roll to the right. Roll authority at high angles of attack in the Phantom was normally exercised by using the rudder pedals. 

That’s easy enough to understand reading here on a page. But having to seamlessly transition from one way of flying to another while in a swirling dogfight was a real challenge. I had once former Phantom pilot tell me he spent his first tour learning to fly the Phantom, and it wasn’t really until his second that he became proficient at fighting it.