SSgtC
ACCESS: Top Secret
- Joined
- 13 July 2020
- Messages
- 1,126
- Reaction score
- 2,527
Not necessarily. The Crusader III was equipped with a very sophisticated autopilot and avionics suite for the era. In its intended mission as a fleet defense interceptor, pilot workload would have been relatively low. Once airborne, the autopilot could maintain heading and altitude, and could even be adjusted without having to disengage it. The way it was envisioned to work was, once airborne and under the direction of the E-1 or E-2, the pilot would engage the autopilot and devote himself to operating the radar and weapons systems.We know that in 1959, three years after the Sparrow II was canned, the single-seat Crusader III lost to the Phantom because (among other reasons) its lone pilot would have been overwhelmed with a) piloting the aircraft and b) handling SARH Sparrow III without a RIO in the back.
For the avionics, once a target was selected on the radar, the computer would slave the radar to that target and keep it locked as long as it was within 60 degrees of the aircraft centerline. Now, this was the procedure that was to be used for defending against Soviet bombers, and in that scenario, pilot workload is manageable. The workload problem won't rear its ugly head until you're trying to use a Sparrow in a dogfight. At that point, yeah, the RIO becomes invaluable.