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Report: Pilot disoriented before crash
Valley Press on ^ | Saturday, August 1, 2009. | ALLISON GATLIN

Posted on 08/03/2009 8:23:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin

EDWARDS AFB - A veteran Lockheed Martin test pilot died in an F-22A crash after nearly losing consciousness during a high-speed, high-g test maneuver, according to an Air Force accident investigation report released Friday.

The $140 million jet, assigned to Edward Air Force Base's 412th Flight Test Wing, crashed during a mission to test the effects of carrying weapons on the aircraft's performance. These tests involved a series of high-speed, high-performance maneuvers in which the pilot experienced several times the force of gravity.

The accident investigation concluded that Cooley experienced such disorientation brought on by the high g-forces, and recovered too late - a matter of seconds - to safely right the aircraft as it was headed down in an almost vertical dive, the report said.

The crash occurred after Cooley successfully completed the first two of the planned test maneuvers, which required inverting the airplane and flying the lower half of a loop, pulling up and righting the airplane.

On the third test maneuver, however, he failed to recover at the same point and continued in a 83-degree downward dive. According to the report, a "weak roll to wings level was started at (about 16,300 feet) but at this point, with the extreme nose down attitude, the roll was simply a pirouette around the vertical axis with little effect on arresting the descent rate."

By the time the aircraft was about 5,000 feet above the ground, Cooley had the wings level, but it was still heading down roughly at a 50 degree-angle.

Cooley ejected at approximately 3,900 feet above the ground and at Mach 1.3, or 880 mph, according to the report. This was about 170 mph above the maximum speed design limits for the ejection seat.

(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...


TOPICS: US: California
KEYWORDS: aerospace; aerospacevalley; allisongatlin; antelopevalley; davidcooley; edwardsafb; f22; lockheedmartin; planecrash
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To: straps

Seats that can protect a pilot through super sonic ejection are never installed on fighters and never have been. If you want to see what one looks like google up the seats the XB-70 used. The are big and bulky. While you are at it look up how one nearly killed the one pilot that got out when the second XB-70 crashed.

You don’t arrest engineers for designing exactly what they are told to design.


21 posted on 08/04/2009 4:47:05 AM PDT by TalonDJ
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Thank you!


22 posted on 08/04/2009 4:54:19 AM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: Rennes Templar
How do the creators explain accelerating to Warp Speed in a few seconds on Star Wars?

They bend space-time?

23 posted on 08/04/2009 6:54:36 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine (Is /sarc really necessary?)
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To: ghannonf18

Just curious ... how old was he? Is there an age factor involved, as in, when you get older is it more difficult to work through that kind of maneuver (said by a guy who has trouble on a merry-go-round)?


24 posted on 08/04/2009 7:08:27 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: r9etb

49


25 posted on 08/04/2009 7:09:42 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: BenLurkin
3,900 feet above the ground and at Mach 1.3, or 880 mph

880mph is 1290 feet per second. At a 50 degree down angle he's looking at about 6 seconds to impact. Pretty much doomed. God speed. Prayers to his family.

26 posted on 08/04/2009 7:19:24 AM PDT by Malsua
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To: BenLurkin

/bkmark


27 posted on 08/05/2009 5:37:43 AM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace
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To: RicocheT

Third place soon, if he and Sec. Gates keep to their plans to deconstruct, demilitarize, and unilaterly disarm the US.


28 posted on 08/05/2009 3:37:20 PM PDT by PIF
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To: Rennes Templar

artificial gravity.


29 posted on 08/05/2009 3:37:56 PM PDT by PIF
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To: straps

I’m surprised you didn’t say they should build the plane the way they build the blackboxes, so it would survive.

Duh.


30 posted on 08/05/2009 3:46:14 PM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (I can spell just fine, thanks, it's my typing that sucks.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
Don’t forget the flux capacitor.

Or the oscillation overthruster.

31 posted on 08/05/2009 4:20:08 PM PDT by Lizavetta (In Communism everything is free. But there isn't any of it.)
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To: shibumi

SO what your saying is folks in the Falcon don’t move, but the matter universe moves, thus no G-forces.


32 posted on 08/05/2009 5:53:15 PM PDT by Rennes Templar (Jim Thompson for POTUS)
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To: Lizavetta

And the interociter. Can’t forget the interociter.


33 posted on 08/05/2009 8:59:43 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Crazy is the new sane.)
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To: Slings and Arrows; Lizavetta; Rennes Templar
Never an interociter around when you really need one!



But maybe this guy knows where it is.....


34 posted on 08/05/2009 11:34:49 PM PDT by shibumi (" ..... then we will fight in the shade.")
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To: Rennes Templar; Salamander

Actually I’m more inclined to believe the Frank Herbert version - that the physical universe is mutable and directly affected by the force of augmented human thought, thus enabling mutated humans to negate the physical space between objects, such as stars and planets.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion, the thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning, it is by will alone I set my mind in motion.....


35 posted on 08/05/2009 11:40:10 PM PDT by shibumi (" ..... then we will fight in the shade.")
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To: shibumi

Simple.

They had an infinite improbability drive....and a towel.

42.


36 posted on 08/05/2009 11:52:04 PM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away..............)
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To: shibumi
Never an interociter around when you really need one!

Really? I use mine to make hot cocoa.

37 posted on 08/06/2009 12:34:04 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Crazy is the new sane.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
I'll take mine with whipped cream and a double shot of espresso.


38 posted on 08/06/2009 12:46:33 AM PDT by shibumi (" ..... then we will fight in the shade.")
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To: straps

Wow. So many obvious errors, yet so little time to correct them.

Ejecting at 700+ knots is pretty much fatal, and it has nothing whatever to do with the design of the ejection system.


39 posted on 08/06/2009 12:58:48 AM PDT by Ramius (Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
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To: BenLurkin

After Seafair, the Blue Angels left Boeing field in Seattle Monday about noon.

I didn’t know it was going to happen, but I was sitting on my porch about 12:15, when all hell broke loose.

Directly over my house heading SSW, elv 700-900 feet!
Beautiful!


40 posted on 08/06/2009 1:03:22 AM PDT by djf (The "racism" spiel is a crutch, those who unashamedly lean on it, cripples!)
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