AFA 2021: US Air Force seeks more VISTA flight hours following upgrade programme

The US Air Force Test Pilot School's X-62A Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft (VISTA). The USAF is replacing the aircraft's VISTA Simulation System and adding the System for Autonomous Control of Simulation to support autonomy testing for the AFRL's Skyborg programme. (US Air Force)

The US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) wants to fly its X-62A Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft (VISTA) around 150 hours per year once it returns to flight following an upgrade programme.

Chris Cotting, TPS director of research, told Janes on 10 September – ahead of the Air Force Association's (AFA's) annual convention – that the VISTA, formerly designated NF-16D, has not flown much in the past year because it has been down for maintenance and upgrades. The USAF is replacing the VISTA Simulation System (VSS) and adding the System for Autonomous Control of Simulation (SACS) to support autonomy testing for the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL's) Skyborg Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation (AAAx) programme.

The VISTA is a flying simulator that all USAF TPS student pilots fly, allowing them to fly one aircraft while being exposed to multiple platforms. The VISTA also gives student pilots the opportunity to practice testing aircraft with dangerously poor flying qualities.

Cotting said one of these is pilot-induced oscillations (PIOs), which are sustained or uncontrollable oscillations resulting from a pilot's efforts to control an aircraft. Larry Stutzriem, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies director of research and a retired USAF pilot, told Janes on 17 September that PIOs result from a pilot making a series of corrections in opposite directions that aggravate the attitude and the movement of an aircraft. The results can be catastrophic.