Fighterpilots. Men vs Women.

[Viggen]

Ok, lets stir it up in the bee´s nest. 

Women have an advantage when it comes to multitasking and properly  understanding alot of the informationflow , both from the aircraft and the surrounding enviorment etc etc...
This is something that is a necessity in todays modern fighters. So would women of today be better at dogfighting/aircombat then men?

Many airforces has just recently allowed female pilots, but not many of them allow the female pilots to participate in real combat. They get the same training, fly the same aircraft. They do equally well as their male co-workers in combat exercises. (I think that Israel is the only country with an airforce that have females flying at the frontline, doing real combat).

We have discussed many times about what makes a good fighterpilot, but now i take it a step further. Men vs Women! 

[Globetrotter]

I heard that their generally smaller body helps. i.e.: shorter distance from heart to brain reduces the possibilities of g-loc

Men, on the other hand, are more probably experienced in combat in some airforces? Due to the recent incorporation of the females to aviation. I mean, it's not that men are more likely to aqquire experience, just that some of them have a while flying in the front line. Like in Israel's case.

[Webmaster]

USAF has women flying frontline recently. Remember KC, Kim Campbell, aka  Killer Chick, who brought back the shot up A-10 during OIF. She'd flown combat sorties over Afghanistan in OEF before that. She joined in 1993, when female pilots were accepted into the USAF.

I know that most female fighter pilots are probably in the ANG, but I think those few females on the active duty F-16, F-15E, B-2 (yup) have not been sitting still lately. I think I've also seen a female RAF pilot in a photo in some sandy place, I think she was a Harrier pilot in Afghanistan, but not sure.

I believe the Netherlands has at least one female F-16 and one Apache pilot who've been deployed.

Sure, it's still a men's world, but I think there are more females around than you might think.

On the question regarding men vs women, the thing about g-loc is true, but a well-trained short guy might even be better. I don't know about the better multi-tasking, still haven't seen any good scientific proof of that.  Regarding training/experience, the guys flying today, even in Israel, won't be around in 10 years, then they maybe have instructed the next generation, and whether they've trained a female or male doesn't matter. It all depends on the person. And besides that combat experience is only really valuable when it is used in training. Having one super experieced pilot is great, but it's better to have ten non-experienced pilots fully prepared for combat. Because that one guy might eventually get very nervous on his 100th flight, or get lazy and too courageous, or have a bad wingman that screws the mission up anyway.

[Viggen]

Too bad we dont have a female member who could help us out to understand the otherside a bit better...

"I don't know about the better multi-tasking, still haven't seen any good scientific proof of that. " Scientific proof?? Spend a day with a woman at her work.  LOL    I dont know how often you read about multitasking and how it differs between the sexes. But its a well known fact that women are better at multitasking. I even think the US Airforce mentioned it  when studying theire  femalepilots.

Anyhow, males do have one strong card to play, and that is strenght. Physically strong, to put it in other words. This is a important part of being a pilot, due to the g-forces that affects the human body. We all know how it works...But i always thought that the airforces looked for the combined package in person, for him/her to become a succesful pilot. Ok, men can learn/train to become better at multitasking and females can always exercise to become stronger.

Why arent there any more female fighterpilots and why are we so afraid of sending them into battle? Sweden has no female pilots in the military.  They cant even apply as a pilot in the airforce here.

[Raptor]

Can't really help you guys here. SG has so few pilots in Singapore itself that those few fighter pilot women make quite the impact.

I've always been excellent at multi-tasking. (Never understood why everyone else can't do it-must have inherited the knack for being a control freak and multi-tasker from my mum)

Physically wise... let's just say i've wrestled someone on the rugby team and won... He started it. 

Really, i don't see the competition. The women sit in the control tower and boss around, and the men grumble into the frontline. Maybe i could ask a friend. Hang on a while. Hey Cobra, isn't there a Jasmin or whatever callsign she's using these days in A00. Not that anyone really likes her...

[Eldorado82]

PILOTESSES (hope i've spelled the word right)
well we have some in the army. i know 2 of them personally...here in IAF i think that the women are little stronger on the studying level- whether if its studing in ground studies physics and things like thath or whether in flight. on the physical side they are a little weaker but not all of them. most are very physically developed.
there is real strong willing to show the "boys" that they, the "girls" can make about the same thing. so the "girls" doing all the best in order to show that there is no gender discrimination in subject of flight
we have 2 fighter pilots
1 cargo navigator
1 cargo pilot
1 or 2 heli pilots (i'm not sure about the quantities, can't remember exactly.)

basing on my experience i can tell that they are about the same level, the "boys" and "girls". the girls try to outstand them men just to show them that THEY CAN!

[Eldorado82]

seems like no one interests in this topic huh? :'(

[F-111 C/C]

Women fighter pilots in the U.S. services have grown immensely in the last 4-5 years. Even the Thunderbirds and Snowbirds demonstration teams have now or in the past had a women on the team. There's a handful of women flying F-15s, F-16s and F-18s now too. As far as Transport aircraft, there have been many women pilots for a lot of years.

[Eldorado82]

Where are pilot women there always would be a spirit of discrimination. most of the ladies or should i call them girs- 18 years old that gone trough all the pilot course and all the advanced training afther the inaugurationn were trying to show their best that everybody would understand that they are at equalto/better than men. Main implication for a women pilots is the fact that they sign a paper, think in the end of the course, that thy must not get pregnant for the next 9 years (thats the number of years mandatory for the pilots here). so the flight career sometimes comes on account of a family. To my opinion to start with kids at age of 30 at least is too late for a nowadays woman.

[tigershark]

I always thought they "women" have been sort of kept out the main stream fighter world in the US Armed Forces in general.  I thought studies released show they have quicker reflexes and multi task better?  Do men handle G's better I don't know if upper body strength plays a factor? 

[Cheetah C]

The SAAF has only one woman fighter pilot, rank Captain. Yip, down here it's still a man's world!! However, I believe she should soon be a Gripen instuctor pilot...

[Raptor]

Welcome to the forum, Cheetah (not sure if i've seen you around before) 

Hmm tigershark i think the Gs has more to do with the heart and lungs going strong than actual upper body strength (although that counts alot more in a dogfight than actually staying alive)