Home » Air » F-22 Debut Thrills; Why Did It Fly

F-22 Debut Thrills; Why Did It Fly

By Colin Clark Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 2:07 am
Posted in Air, International

The maiden flight of the F-22 at the Farnborough Air Show sent my stomach soaring a few times. The plane pulled some really cool stunts like flying straight up and then sliding straight back down in a tightly controlled and very slow vertical descent on Monday afternoon. Another maneuver that drew appreciative comments was the very slow forward flight achieved by holding the plane at about a 30 degree angle and seemingly crawling across the sky.

The pilot executed incredibly sharp turns, sideways slips and other aerodynamically challenging moves. But there the Air Force provided no story behind the plane’s unveiling. The service left unanswered the question — why show the plane off, other than to demonstrate that the plane can fly without crashing and pull some neat stunts.

As one jaded air show veteran (who loves missiles) noted, flying vertically and then slipping down in a controlled descent doesn’t do much but make you a much easier target. It may demonstrate how reliable and powerful your engine is, but the U.S. apparently has no plans to demonstrate the plane’s effectiveness in a wartime setting any time soon. Three separate requests from the Air Force to send the plane to the Iraqi theater have been rejected.

The Air Force had a great opportunity to deliver a clear statement about American airpower by wrapping the plane’s appearance up in a compelling story. What we got were some amazing aerobatics that left few of the air show cognoscenti I spoke with very impressed. Of course, it’s pretty hard to demonstrate stealth or sensors during an air show flyover. But it still seems as if the Air Force and OSD could have used the opportunity to sell the world on the F-22 and what it may mean for the American military.

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	NRM July 16th, 2008 at 1:29 pm First — trying to “sell the world on the F-22″ is a non-starter. There is no export F-22 and it would be folly to give away the crown jewels anytime soon. Even if you wanted to do that, the F-22’s advantages are not the kind of thing that would translate well to an airshow setting, and most likely a fair amount of the good stuff is probably classified anyway. Instead they basically chose to one-up the acrobatics routines Sukhois have been legendary for, which makes perfect sense. It shows off our engineering talents, it makes great airshow spectacle, and it doesn’t play any of our wartime cards. It’s so fashionable for people to thumb their noses at the US these days that it’s not worth wasting effort trying to gain approval anyhow.
	WWM July 17th, 2008 at 9:19 am Maybe you need to change your list of “air show cognoscenti”!
	donald aubuchon July 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am When you take a new fighter to an airshow. You dont want to show everything a fighter can do. That would lose our edge on advanced technology we have on the foreign nations.
	Mohammad July 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am All the enemy needs to know is that lasat year a single one F-22 aircraft shot down fifteen F-15s in mock combat…not a easy task. Astonished (& dead) Eagle pilots never even saw it on their radar screens. That says more than any Englishman (with one too many pints in his belly,)could ever say. Thank you, America !
	CAPT. P. ERIC AUGUST July 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am THE F-22 IS THE HIGHEST ACHIEVMENT OF THE USA TECH WORLD, BUT THE OTHER COUNTRIES THAT ARE WAITING TO BRING US DOWN ARE BUILDING 1000 PLANES TO ONE OF OURS! THE BEST PLANE IN THE WORLD IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PILOT & THE TRAINING HE RECEIVES! 100 MIG –29’S TO ONE F-22 IS AN EASY JOB! THE BAD GUYS WILL WIN IN THE END! LOOK AT WHAT WE DID IN WW-2, WE OUT BUILT ALL THE OTHERS WITH NUMBERS & TRAINING. SOMONE HAS FORGOT THAT NUMBERS OUTDO BEST EQUIPMENT 10 TO 1 EVERY TIME!
	livvinit2damachs July 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am I’ve been working at the farnborough airshow for two seasons now. The F-22 put on a simply fantastic show and was greatly appreciated by all who saw it. The team of US airmen which organised the display were professional and I’m pretty sure this is likely to be the best display at FI08. I am curious however as to why they chose to exhibit the raptor on the first trade day. If they’re not trying to sell it, why exhibit it on a day when only trade customers are there? Why not fly on the public days and wow the paying public? However, I must say that the aerobatic routine and manouvreability of the Raptor, although amazing, simply wasn’t as good as the MiG 29 OVT from FI06. The F-22 is a much more powerful aircraft, but I’m sorry to say, the Russians can still do things that you can’t!
	machgunier July 17th, 2008 at 11:49 am This is a sorry excuse of a story as there is absolutely no reason to impress the world as they already know the US military has no other that comes anywhere close to us as long as armchair brass like old Wesley Clark are kept out of the way where they cannot impeded or implement any further damage to our troops. BTW, Clark’s actual field performance is comprised of just one month and is highlighted by his leading his squad into a lethal ambush, after which brass wisely limited Clark to desk duty.
	ron Garant July 17th, 2008 at 12:14 pm The F-22 has never been anything but a show boat for the AF to demonstrate their ability to dipose of tax dollars on expensive toys that have no real purpose in the real world that we now live in.
	Tom D July 18th, 2008 at 12:38 pm We demonstrated the oooh/aaah side of the fighter’s capability. Let the world wonder what it can do for real!
	Carl Meurer July 18th, 2008 at 2:25 pm Did the F-15 have a real purpose in the world when it first flew? Yes, we all know it did. It can’t fly forever! Any replacement had to be better than any plane out there. The F-22 is very, very expencive yes, but since it can down 15 of a plane that is undefeateted in real aerial combat. Its got my vote. Don’t think that if it came down to it. Auotmotive plants would be turned into fighter production and GM, Ford and Dodge would all be proud to build raptors. The F-22 Raptor will have its time to shine. I’m glad its on our side.
	LC July 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm The F-22 is necessary to meet the threat of a near-peer or peer emerging world power. You think perhaps China might be interested in challenging us in the next ten years over Taiwan or perhaps try to push us completely out of Asia? Russia? India? All of these countries are developing fifth generation fighters more advanced than our F-16s and F-15s. The F-22 and F-35 are needed to maintain our edge in air superiority. The problem lies in the cost. While I say we need these, we also need to be looking at more UAVs, which are cheaper and can do many of the Global Strike missions much more effectively than a manned aircraft.
	TLC July 19th, 2008 at 6:31 am You are right when jet aircraft performing “tail slide” and “harrier”, it does not mean much in the fight. So let them talk and wait until they have to fight. They’ll run to the hill with their tail tug between the legs. The Europeans is good at this. And this is the “real world”. BTW: If you are or you are not impressed with the F22, wait until you see the F35 JSF!
	SLK July 19th, 2008 at 6:51 am The F-22 is not meant to be an airshow trick pony. Nor is it designed for traditional dogfighting. This airframe claims and keeps the high ground, The F-22 may well be the last of the manned fighters. However, it is going to be around for a long, long time. My money is on its taking a couple of decades to even come close to its avionics.
	MrSatyre July 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pm Re: CAPT. P. ERIC AUGUST “THE F-22 IS THE HIGHEST ACHIEVMENT OF THE USA TECH WORLD, BUT THE OTHER COUNTRIES THAT ARE WAITING TO BRING US DOWN ARE BUILDING 1000 PLANES TO ONE OF OURS! THE BEST PLANE IN THE WORLD IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PILOT & THE TRAINING HE RECEIVES! 100 MIG –29′S TO ONE F-22 IS AN EASY JOB! THE BAD GUYS WILL WIN IN THE END! LOOK AT WHAT WE DID IN WW-2, WE OUT BUILT ALL THE OTHERS WITH NUMBERS & TRAINING. SOMONE HAS FORGOT THAT NUMBERS OUTDO BEST EQUIPMENT 10 TO 1 EVERY TIME!” You are right, of course, about sheer numbers making the winning argument, but the Russians have clearly been quite limited in their production capabilities in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even Sukhoi has commented that they will probably only manufacture 200+ Su-35 PAK FAs by that models’ production end date of 2020 (at around 20 per year), and most of those will be parceled out to various foreign nations, not to just one. At least at this time, it seems highly unlikely that a squadron of F-22’s would be facing 100x’s their number of older or future generation Russian fighters in combat any time in the foreseeable future.
	LC July 20th, 2008 at 6:48 pm If numbers alone were the determining factor in power, the Chinese and Indians would have us beat. Technology is the great equalizer.
	Radarnav July 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 am The F-22 is an absolutely superb airplane. I was involved with its development when it was called the ATF. To all the skeptics of this fine fighter, it clearly exceeds its over-arching military requirement: “First Look, First Shot, First Kill. To all the budget weanies looking to shutdown its production, I am looking for the quantative analysis that answers this question: “What is the number of F-22s needed to absolutely ensure air dominance over any future combat zone?” We Americans are forgetting that our soliders and Marines have been victorious in part due the complete air domaniance over every battlefield since WWII. Not having enough air superiority fighters to ensure this complete dominance is a sure way to disrupt ground combat.
	Aegis July 23rd, 2008 at 9:50 am Our friend Radarnav seems to have forgotten Korea and even more importantly Vietnam where sandal clad peasants rendered air superiority irrelevant. Now another conflict where again sandal clad insurgents using improvised weapons have held off a technologically superior force enjoying unlimited air superiority, spy satellites, etc., for over six years. And from a cave in Afghanistan a 9/11 strike launched deep into the hearts and minds of America by, again, sandal clad fighters, that penetrated multi-billion dollar defenses, intel networks, etc., of a country enjoying air superiority over its own frontiers and airspace. And in Afghanistan, after six years of fighting off a technologically superior force enjoying, again, unlimited air superiority, the insurgency is actually growing in that country. Now, lets see, where do we deploy the F-22? Over which battlefield will it provide force projection, air superiority? Which hovel will it attack? Which cave will it seek out? How many of the Taliban’s air force fighters will it engage in combat? Or Bin Laden’s bombers will it shoot from the skies? Or Chavez’s cocaine laden mini-subs coming ashore in the Caribbean? (Where drugs are, terror networks are not far behind). The answer to the question of how many F-22s are needed to assure air dominance over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and Somalia is “irrelevant.”
	Cole July 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 am “The answer to the question of how many F-22s are needed to assure air dominance over the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and Somalia is “irrelevant.”” Not irrelevant. It just assumes incorrectly that only F-22s will assure air dominance. This, of course, neglects the multitude of mult-service and allied F-35s, Patriots, Ground-based AMRAAM, Theater High Altitude Air Defense, Aegis Standard Missiles.… Some nations may purchase a few of the very best Russian/Chinese aircraft. No threat nations beyond the U.S. and its allies will be able to afford the quantities of stealth aircraft (and anti-stealth air defenses) and fuel to feed them for training and daily ops like the West can. 187 to 220 F-22s would be more than enough with our expected F-35 fleets.
	kingkn8 July 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm Korea and Vietnam were along time ago. When can do close airsupport from a distance. I have started a petition for Conrad, Dorgan, and Pomeroy, get behind the F-22.I live in ND, and I hope we get this pushed down thier throats to get them on board with at least 175 raptors. High gas prices come and go, the economy crashes from time to time, but we need OUR DEFENSE ALL THE TIME.