Pilot: Raptor rules the sky passing tests flawlessly

Valley Press ^ | February 21, 2004 | ALLISON GATLIN

[thoughtomator]

All it needs now is a mission!

[demlosers]

Fergione said. So far, 25 of the aircraft have been built, with 19 more planned for production or modification this year.

Enough for the first F22 fighter squadron.

[freebilly]

[VOA]

"Into the blue"
(and the bad guys can't see it!)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"Their performance tells the tale; the Raptor really does rule the skies," Fergione said. "We are so far from a fair fight it is incredible."

I never was a fan of "fair fights" when it might get one of our guys killed.

So I approve whole heartedly.

[bogdanPolska12]

USAF Rules!

[Mr Rogers]

Don't doubt it is pretty good - supercruise + stealth will make it formidable. But I wouldn't trust a Lockheed pilot talking about a Lockheed product - my experience has been a string of Lockheed lies.

[demlosers]

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[CyberAnt]

Weird looking.

[El Gran Salseron]

How does it achieve supersonic speed without afterburners?

[Fee]

A lot of people do not realize that foreign countries have good technical knowledge of electronics and software. It is a matter of time that they can create a reasonable ECM backed by large numbers of reasonably good aircrafts (SU-29, SU-30, Mirage 2000, Rafale) can challenge our F-15, F-16 and F/A-18's. We need something that is a quantum leap over current aircraft technologies. The F-22 is one of the solutions, now we need to find a way to mass produce it at reasonable cost. I hope we are not stupid and greedy to sell them to any country overseas. This is a technology we keep to ourselves just like the B-2 and F-117.

[Pukin Dog]

Big-ass engines and not much drag.

[GeronL]

Believe it or not the plane that lost out to the F-22, which was called the F-23, was even cooler looking. It didn't have both vertical and horizontal tails, it had one set that did the job of both. The USAF thought it was too radical a change (as if the F-22 wasn't!)

The F-22 is a wonderful fighter!! I'm glad it won, but lets not let the YF-23 Black Widow II be forgotten... =o)

Only 2 were built (stored at Edwards AFB)

---

The F-22 is the winner of course....

[Redleg Duke]

Tom Dachel is "deeply saddened".

[aruanan]

How does it achieve supersonic speed without afterburners?

More stringent CAFE standards.

[Redleg Duke]

By going real fast!

[Wingy]

Big engines,,,uhh REALLY BIG Engines. Big engines go fast.

Got it now?

[Pukin Dog]

The Black Widow lost because their team was cheap. They decided to leave off the vectored thrust until production, because they had such a superior design. Their aircraft had more stealth, better range and was faster than the F-22. Unfortunetly for them, the F-22 had it's vectoring working and was more manuverable and had better high-alpha stability. That competition could have come out very differently, had the F-23 come to the party fully dressed.