In the movie *Top Gun* we see pilot Maverick with his offsider Goose.
The F-14 clearly needs a second man; but the A-4 does not, nor does the ~~Mig-28~~ *F-5E.*
The F-15 and F-18 comes in both one and two man variants, but I don’t think I’ve seen a two man F-16.
Modern MiG’s and Sukhoi’s seem to be one man fighters.
In: Technology
“Goose” is a Radar Intercept Officer, RIO. the thing about the Tomcat, and older aircraft like the F-4, was that the radar was so complex that a second crewmember was needed so that the pilot could concentrate on flying the aircraft. so basically, a RIO was for operating the radar and other systems the Tomcat used to detect enemy aircraft and give the pilot the information he needed.
there´s much more behind that, but this covers the basics. nowadays, many of the stuff that needed to be handled manually is now done automatically which is why you see two-seat fighter aircraft only when they do challenging stuff like air-to-ground operations (F-15E) or something like that. otherwise, trainer versions of said fighters like an F-16B or F/A-18B are also twin seat
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