When most people imagine cutting-edge fighter jet innovation, they picture pilots pulling Gs, classified hangars, and secret test ranges in the desert. What they don’t usually picture is the team of engineers behind the jet — the architects of the systems that keep those pilots alive when things go wrong.
In Episode 167 of the Talk4 Podcast, I sat down with Jessica “Sting” Peterson, a flight-test engineer, TPS instructor, and PhD candidate who helped bring to life one of the most important aviation safety breakthroughs of the modern era:
Auto-GCAS — the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, now credited with saving more than 13 pilots.
Sting’s path wasn’t typical. She didn’t grow up dreaming of fighter jets or flight test — in fact, her motivation for pursuing engineering at university was simply that engineers got good jobs. But what started as a pragmatic choice turned into a career defined by innovation, mentorship, and life-saving impact.
From First Jet Flight… to 9G Reality
Most pilots start in a small Cessna or Piper. Sting started in an F-16.
She describes how overwhelming her early flights were — the claustrophobic helmet and mask, the smells of the oxygen system, the heavy G-suit squeezing your legs, and the physical shock of high roll rates and rapid manoeuvring. Her first sortie was testing air collision avoidance — diving nose-to-nose at another fighter so the system could command an automatic escape.
She got sick. But she stayed in the fight.
Later, in the centrifuge, she experienced a full 9G profile — the human limit tested in a controlled environment before flight. She explains how mastering G forces isn’t about fitness in the way most people think: marathon runners actually perform worse. What matters is technique, timing, breathing, and learning to think under stress.
That theme recurs throughout every part of her work.
Building the System That Takes the Jet From the Pilot
Auto-GCAS is extraordinary for one reason:
It is the first combat system authorised to override a fighter pilot mid-flight.
Before this tech existed, the US Air Force lost 1–2 F-16 pilots per year from controlled flight into terrain (at night, in IMC, during G-LOC events, or while task saturated in combat). A warning system wasn’t enough — an unconscious pilot cannot respond.
So the system had to fly for them.
But saying “just pull up automatically” is easy. Engineering it is not. To save a pilot, Auto-GCAS needs:
-
An exceptionally accurate navigation solution
-
A detailed, high-fidelity terrain database
-
Real-time trajectory prediction at high refresh rates
-
A flight computer trusted to command the jet
It also had to be nuisance-free. If it triggered too often, pilots would disable it. In other words: it had to be invisible until the one moment it mattered.
How Do You Test ‘Don’t Crash’ Tech… Without Crashing?
This was one of the most fascinating parts of the discussion — you cannot flight-test a system designed to prevent hitting the ground by actually hitting the ground.
So the test team had to invent an entirely new safety playbook, including:
✅ Artificially “raising” the terrain to trigger Auto-GCAS early
✅ A four-second safety buffer to allow human override
✅ External spotters on the range to visually confirm recovery
✅ Simulator runs and hardware-in-loop rehearsals
✅ Strict “1G planning” — all decisions made before airborne
It’s a case study in risk management: deliberate, disciplined, engineering-led safety.
The First Save — and the Moment Everything Changed
Just weeks after the system was fielded, it saved a pilot strafe-running in combat. He had 8 seconds left.
Later saves included a G-LOC recovery you can now find on YouTube, where the pilot wakes up thinking he’s in bed and an alarm is sounding. Sting describes the emotional moment when they received a letter from a pilot whose life was saved — his wife was pregnant at the time.
That was the moment the program turned from “technical achievement” to human legacy.
The Future: VISTA, AI, and Engine-Out Survivability
Today, Sting is finishing her PhD while still supporting the Air Force part-time. Her research focuses on real-time engine-out performance modelling — a project with major implications for general aviation and fighters alike.
If a single-engine jet loses thrust, the survivability window shrinks dramatically. Her work helps pilots understand exactlywhat their aircraft can still do in those moments — and which landing options are actually reachable.
She also spoke about VISTA — the unique F-16 “flying testbed” used for autonomy and AI development. It’s the sandbox where tomorrow’s dogfighting algorithms are being trained safely, overseen by human flight-test crews.
Why Human Pilots Still Matter
Even as AI advances, Sting believes pilots are nowhere near being replaced. The reason is not technical — it’s cognitive.
Computers optimise.
Humans adapt.
A human can fuse context, mission intent, emotion, judgement, and creativity in ways automation cannot replicate. The future is not AI vs pilot, but AI + pilot — collaboration.
Mentoring the Next Generation
A major thread throughout Sting’s career is outreach — not polished marketing, but real exposure to real engineers doing real work. During one event, she helped plan a flyover of 50 local schools — but more importantly, she and her team spoke in classrooms first, humanising the profession behind the aircraft.
“Grow where you’re planted.”
It’s the principle she teaches — opportunity compounds when you do small things with excellence.
Final Thoughts
This conversation is more than engineering — it’s legacy.
It’s proof that safe skies aren’t a product of luck, but of disciplined innovation and people like Sting who choose to solve the problems most will never see.
