How do Smoke Pods (Smoke Generators) work?

Could anybody please explain how the smoke pods in the F-18 work? I've read somewhere that they are activated by pressing "S" on the keyboard, but that doesn't work for me. I'm talking about the official smoke generators for the F-18, not the smokewinder mod.

If the question is how to operate them, the default keybind isn't 'S' but LCtrl+T.

As to how they work... no idea. Movies used to mix vegetable oil into the exhausts to get some smoke, so I guess it's something similar, just with slightly fancier chemicals. Don't breath this!

The Question was about how to operate the Smoke Generators. So if I get you right, it's only mounting the Smoke Generators at the rightmost pylon, and pressing LCTRL + T ? Or is there more to make them work, like master arm on, AA mode, selecting a specific "weapon" with the weapon selector switch?

I'm not sure about Master Arm but otherwise it's just mount, press key and have fun.

Oh, and you need to be in the air for it to work, it's not working on the ground by default.

OK LCTRL + T isn't bound to anything by default in my F/A-18. Could you please tell me the name of the action that triggers the smoke from the control menu? I've searched for "smoke" or the german translation "rauch" (I'm playing with german GUI) but can't find anything that matches.

EDIT: Found it. I had to map a key-command or joystick button manually. The german translation is a bit strange, as it translates to "Fog" not "Smoke".