Posted on 02/28/2012 7:26:07 PM PST by U-238
American pilots at an Alaskan military base have reported a sudden spike of incidents in which they experienced an apparent lack of oxygen while flying the nation's most sophisticated fighter jets -- a mysterious, recurring problem that already caused the $77.4 billion fighter jet fleet to sit idle on the tarmac for months last year.
In at least three incidents in the last two weeks, pilots of the $143 million-a-pop stealth F-22 Raptors at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson reported the "hypoxia-like" symptoms, leading the base to ground their F-22s for a day for "review," Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Regina Winchester told ABC News.
"In each case, appropriate procedures were applied," Winchester said, and the planes went back in the air the day after the temporary halt. An additional case of a pilot experiencing hypoxia-like symptoms also popped up at Virginia's Joint Base Langley-Eustis earlier this month, another Air Force spokesperson, Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The same problem has occurred in the F-35. And yet many think a few of these horribly expensive fighters is superior to a much larger fleet of Gen 4 fighters.
Hopefully we won't have to find out.
The problem will be fixed soon. I have no worries about it.
I’m a big fan of the F-22, but their problem with the their ventilation system is criminal. To save weight, they made a complicated system to bring in ventilation rather than having oxygen tanks. Now, this system is balky and causing pilots to pass out and possibly caused an earlier crash. The plane is useless until this problem is fixed.
Yup.....just like the F-35 helmets...quick fix.
It takes time. But they get it fixed.
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