{"id":56777,"date":"2024-08-11T23:17:48","date_gmt":"2024-08-11T21:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=56777"},"modified":"2025-08-11T01:44:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:44:04","slug":"a-flight-of-two-spanish-ef-18m-fighters-and-a-change-of-habits-with-scorpion-helmets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/08\/11\/a-flight-of-two-spanish-ef-18m-fighters-and-a-change-of-habits-with-scorpion-helmets\/","title":{"rendered":"A flight of two Spanish EF-18M fighters and a change of habits with Scorpion helmets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We've all seen movies about fighter planes where the pilots walk around the tarmac of an air base with their helmets on.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/09\/03\/the-characteristics-of-the-helmets-and-flight-equipment-of-the-spanish-ef-18-fighter-pilots\/\">The characteristics of the helmets and flight equipment of the Spanish EF-18 fighter pilots<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/03\/08\/hmds-and-women-pilots-an-absurd-controversy-about-the-weight-of-the-f-35-helmets\/\">HMDS and women pilots: an absurd controversy about the weight of the F-35 helmets<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>It seems that <strong>this habit is destined to disappear<\/strong>, and we can see why in another interesting video published today by the Youtube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> (to which I recommend you subscribe if you are an airplane fan). In this excellent video we see <strong>the moments before and after the flight of two Spanish EF-18M Hornet fighters from Wing 12<\/strong> (the C.15-13 \/ 12-01 and the C.15-60 \/ 12-18), from the Torrej\u00f3n de Ardoz Air Base, in Madrid. Stay tuned for the details:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Una Nueva Misio\u0301n F\/A-18 Hornet Ala 12 \/ 12-01 12-18\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ti8VbLEAdWg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are two details that caught my attention in this video. The first is <strong>the AN\/AAQ-28(V) LITENING target designator carried by the C.15-60 on its ventral mount<\/strong>. This system is used to track air and surface targets, both day and night, in clear weather or in adverse weather conditions. <strong>In Spain it is used by the EF-18 and Eurofighters of the Air Force and by the Harrier II Plus of the Navy.<\/strong> In this case, the aircraft was armed with two AIM-2000 IRIS-T air missiles on the marginal mounts of its wings, so the designator in this case would be used to track air targets.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53917029163_7291d394cb_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, we see that <strong>the pilot of the C.15-60 boards the plane without his helmet on and with a large black bag<\/strong>. From the shape, it can be deduced that the bag contains the flight helmet.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53917129844_8803b82491_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On his return from the flight, <strong>the C.15-60 pilot hands his helmet over to a member of the ground crew<\/strong>, who puts it away in a black bag. The reason for this procedure is clearly seen in the video: <strong>this pilot was wearing one of the new Scorpion helmets, a high-tech piece of equipment<\/strong> that provides the pilot with flight and combat information no matter where he is looking. <strong>This type of helmet has a full-colour HMD<\/strong> (Helmet-Mounted Display, it is the white piece in the image), which provides the pilot with information from the traditional HUD (Head-Up Display, the glass screen on the plane's instrument panel) through a glass panel in front of the right eye. <strong>This is a considerably expensive helmet<\/strong>, which is why it is treated with such care.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53917129859_537d5247e3_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once the Scorpion helmet has been delivered, <strong>the C.15-60 pilot leaves with his head uncovered and the C.15-13 pilot leaves with his HGU-55\/P helmet on<\/strong>. This last model of helmet, much cheaper than the Scorpion, <strong>was first used in the US Air Force in 1983 and arrived in Spain with the EF-18 in 1986<\/strong>, replacing the famous HGU-33 (which we have seen, among others, in films such as the first installment of \"Top Gun\"). Anyway, I had never seen images of this change of custom with the new Scorpion helmets. It is clear that with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> videos you always learn new things.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53917129854_235a7fe87c_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve all seen movies about fighter planes where the pilots walk around the tarmac of an air base with their helmets on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11546],"tags":[3546,20025,1239,20027,11875,17940],"class_list":["post-56777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-aviation","tag-ala-12","tag-hgu-55-helmet","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-ef-18-hornet","tag-scorpion-helmet","tag-spanish-air-force","tag-torrejon-de-ardoz-air-base"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}