
Qatar's F-15s Will Feature New 'Low Profile' Heads Up Display and New Cockpit - ExcelSaga
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19731/qatars-f-15s-will-feature-new-low-profile-heads-up-display-and-new-cockpit
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bri3d
Do any pilots want to chime in about the utility/value of touchscreen UIs vs.
tactile controls in planes? As a non-pilot I don't really want to comment, but
I know they're controversial and I personally find them obnoxious in cars.

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jacquesm
Not a pilot but like you I can't stand them cars. Tactile means I can keep my
eyes on the road, which is the only thing that matters while driving. I found
myself glancing at the screen before touching it and got rid of the
touchscreen only device that was in my car and replaced it with something that
has the major functions under a button. And I don't use it for navigation, I
have a dedicated device for that I've placed on the right of the rear view
mirror.

Airplanes have to deal with turbulence and I really would not want to change
any critical settings on a touch screen while being bounced around, I remember
when I still had the bloody touchscreen device in the car I mis-touched and I
had no idea how to get back to where it was before, it took a stop at a gas
station to reset the interface. In general I think the obsession with getting
rid of knobs and buttons is a bad thing.

I'd love it if there was a general prohibition on touch screens in cars, I'm
pretty sure that it is a safety issue. Any device that requires that you take
your eyes of the road in a vehicle is a bad device.

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mkempe
I agree. Even with force feedback I don't think these interfaces will ever be
as good as physical knobs, buttons, and sliders. "Good" in the sense that they
can be reached, perceived, and manipulated with our senses completely without
eyesight. For instance I recently drove a Volvo V90 (every control on a large
flat screen) and the climate control for seat heating was tiny and slow to
update -- I had to take my eyes off the road to find it, aim at the specific
setting I wanted, _and_ wait to see whether the setting had changed as
intended; by contrast in my current Volvo V60 there are physical buttons that
I press (without aiming because I know exactly where each one is) and they
instantly change the settings as desired.

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domevent
Could haptic feedback be “granular” enough to mimic specific shapes of knobs
and switches?

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pasbesoin
Introduce vibration. Physical controls give you a topology to orient to. A
flat screen doesn't.

Every control becomes an exercise in sustained hand-eye coordination.

Talk about your distracted driving -- or flying.

Can haptic feedback really help with that? (Serious question: I haven't had
the opportunity.)

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mkempe
That's one crucial aspect of the problem. My fingers can navigate across
physical controls, simply using my sense of touch, without triggering any of
them until I exert sufficient pressure. Could this be emulated in theory with
haptic feedback? possibly, but nobody is offering such flat-screen UIs at the
moment.

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digi_owl
One reason i actually liked resistive screens, because i could rest my fingers
on it without triggering anything.

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azernik
Touchscreen provided by (drumroll) Elbit! The _Israeli_ military electronics
company.

Qatar has always had a weird diplomatic position for an Arab state.

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tomcooks
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Qatar_relatio...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Qatar_relations)

Qatar seems to have good diplomatic relations with that country, since the 90s

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azernik
Yeah. And at the same time is considered a major Hamas supporter.

And is a close US ally, and hosts the Taliban's exiled leadership.

And is a GCC member, and maintains friendly ties with Iran. (Though the KSA
has lost patience with that lately.)

Qatar excels at playing both sides.

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StavrosK
I guess we've kind of lost the war on pointing out that it actually stands for
"Head-Up Display"...

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olympus
Moot point, because a fighter pilot will never say "head." That and the word
"box" are strictly prohibited.

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ReverseCold
Interesting, why?

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tomcooks
Apparently you are not supposed to say anything rude or even mildly sexually
related on the PA, according to [0]

No idea about "box" tho, is that even remotely sexual (not an english native)?

[0]([http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4224](http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4224))

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grzm
[http://urbandictionary.com](http://urbandictionary.com) is often helpful if
you suspect there's something you might be missing. Even as a native speaker,
I find it useful. I'm not always hip to the yout patois.

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justinator
Why does Qatar need 72 F-15s?

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rdl
They've managed to piss off Saudi Arabia/the rest of the GCC, _and_ they are
between the GCC and Iran. It's conceivable they could be fighting Iran, GCC,
or both. There's an argument that having a lot of capability will deter actual
aggression. 72 F-15s are a bargain compared to an actual war.

It's also a way to buy closer relationship with the US.

I'd feel a lot worse about any other country spending money on potentially
needless arms; Qatar is solidly in the "we have extra money" range as a
government.

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Sevrene
Am I the only one that thought you were saying Qatar pissed off GNU Compiler
Collection? I should learn more history / geopolitics.

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asadlionpk
Happens. A common mistake today's AI would probably make. But we humans have
strong value for the CONTEXT.

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kalkut
When I saw GCC, I asked Google Assistant what it was and it actually made the
"mistake"

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John_KZ
Is the "low profile" HUD any different than typical ones? Also why do they mix
up the HMD? Is the HMD going to replace HUD by using some kind of parallax-
free motion-compensating technology? I'm confused by the article.

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gaius
Makes sense to upgrade a proven design rather than risk everything on the F35.

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engi_nerd
The F-15 is indeed a proven design, but against modern integrated air defense
systems it is going to have a really, really hard time without extensive
support from other platforms (EA-18G for protective jamming as just one
example). And even then the crew of an F-15 may find themselves in a situation
they can't survive. Even if F-35 isn't the answer, 4th generation aircraft
have serious survivability issues.

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fazilakhtar
OTA updates are going to be brutal XD

