Posted on 03/06/2006 4:51:13 PM PST by MARKUSPRIME
March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The 94th Fighter Squadron, famous for its historic "Hat in the Ring" insignia and legendary aviator Eddy Rickenbacker, began receiving F-22 Raptors from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT - News) today. The two 5th Generation stealthy, air dominance fighters are assigned to the second operational squadron in the U.S. Air Force.
ADVERTISEMENT The two Raptors will join F-22s flying today as part of the 1st Fighter Wing's 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va. Lockheed Martin has completed final assembly on 71 of the 107 fighters now on contract, and 63 have been delivered.
"This is another great milestone in the history of the F-22 Program," said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President and F-22 Program General Manager. "The F-22 will dominate airspace anywhere around the globe, around the clock, and survive in contested airspace better than any other aircraft in the world.
I have been thinking about it and I would guess the radar could calculate it by interpolation between speed, distance and turning. I guess that must be displayed somewhere on the screen.
OK, I just re-read it and it is the F-18 which had pulled 7.6 g's. Yeah, I am stupid.
FR's "Pukin Dog" ain't a back alley drunk! (At least, I don't think so).
I'm stunned that comment in the news release made it past censors.
It is somewhat hard to explain, because part of it is the relative rates and angles to what your own airplane is doing. You are not looking at the displays except through the HUD. You let your ass tell you what your plane is doing while you watch the other guy. After awhile, you can just look at a guy and know. There are visual clues like that big-ass vapor that the Hornet and Viper throw from their wing roots under G because of their wing extensions, and other craft throw vapor too, just not so consistantly. My old bird had the biggest giveaway because my wings would be moving up as I got slow.(we would take them off the computer to trick Air Force guys) You could see if a guy is plowing, lots of deflection, not a lot of movement, and a few other things. Look at the Raptor in the picture, he's clean, no vapor, you can see no deflection in the control surfaces. The Raptor has big-ass surfaces. When the Raptor brakes, it deflects its ailerons, and turns its rudders out. If it was accelerating, I'd be looking for some burner out back. So its easy to see he's just cruising in the photo.
Does that help?
I envy you :)
Thanks!
Disappear?!?! The only thing bigger than you is the carrier you floated in on. My pee-wee radar can see your flying metal trash heap half a world away. It can see each bolt as it falls off your rusting fuselage. The only reason your sleeping RIO will wake up would be when he hears the dried up squibs in your Aim-54's misfiring. The next sound he'll hear is my kill call as my -120's fired from far far away (roughly the range you become visible on my radar) time out somewhere near your canopy.
And then...And then...hey. I'm out of beer. Whose round is it anyway!
Sigh. I sometimes I wish I never gave up drinking or the Viper. Did I tell you about my last landing at Hong Kong?
You fly 22's?
No. I flew F-16's until just a few months ago. Now I fly big, ugly FedEx MD-11's.
Regards, and wishing I could have been your GIB.
Did we ever put a Raptor and Tomcat in a fight?
Yes, you explained it well. It actually makes sense. Like you said, I can see how a person would eventually just sense what the other one is doing by all those tell tale clues.
Yeah, you told me about your Hong Kong crosswind magic.
I recall in his book, Chuck Yeager said something like "The better pilot will win even in an inferior plane." I wonder if we are approaching the point where the better plane will win assuming the pilots are at least competent.
Raptor would own you because of radar? Or is it really that much better?
IMHO The Tomcat was the best fighter aircraft ever produced. (Once they got the engines right)
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