F-22s fly again — briefly

F-22s fly again — briefly

By Philip Ewing Monday, August 29th, 2011 8:13 am
Posted in Air

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, Air Force officials decided: Commanders temporarily lifted the grounding of the F-22 Raptors to permit the super-jets to escape from Langley Air Force Base, Va., on Friday before the arrival of Hurricane Irene, according to Air Force Magazine’s Daily Report. Pilots ferried their airplanes to Grissom Air Reserve Base, Ind., well inland and safe from the storm. When commanders at Langley decide it’s safe for them to return, the F-22s will be authorized to fly back. Then the grounding will go back into effect. Langley’s 1st Fighter Wing has about 40 Raptors.

Friday’s flight authorization only applied to Langley’s F-22s; the rest of the Air Force’s fleet stayed grounded.

The F-22s have been grounded since May after Air Force officials discovered problems with their onboard oxygen generating systems, which may have been poisoning fighter pilots with contaminated breathing air. Although the Air Force says the Raptors would be available in case of a major national emergency, units’ day-to-day training regimen has ground to a halt. Pilots can’t get time in the air, crews can only fix a stationary jet so many times, and everyone in the Raptor business is losing their currency amid the grounding.


Air Force officials say they’ll let the F-22s fly again for good when they’ve come up with a permanent fix for the problems with their onboard oxygen systems. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Raptor pilots who flew out of Langley on Friday had speed, altitude or other restrictions to keep on the safe side of known operating margins; before the grounding, the Air Force ordered Raptor pilots to keep below 25,000 feet after an F-22 crashed last year in Alaska.

Join the Conversation

the architect August 29th, 2011 at 11:02 am

Are the shelters for the best fighter planes in the World not wind-proof?

AFRet05 August 29th, 2011 at 11:10 am

No, at least not stateside. In Europe they would be in hardened shelters (Tab-Vees). I guess they flew with the “windows” open. ;->

David August 29th, 2011 at 2:44 pm

Tidal surge may have been a concern as well.

Tenn Slim August 29th, 2011 at 10:55 pm

Has anyone heard or read about the status of the F22 OBOGS problem. The DOD Tech, and DOD Buzz all mention the grounding status, but no word on the problem fix.
I cannot imagine a fix taking this long.
OBOGS, + the Software Diagnosis should not take this long to determine the cause. OPSEC be D>… the F22s need to be in the sky.
end
Semper FI

pfcem August 30th, 2011 at 12:09 am

Kind of hard to fix a problem when you are unable to replicate the problem (EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE TRYING).

Io205 August 30th, 2011 at 4:53 am

I’m not a mechanic. But there must be oxygen systems that works. Why is it so hard to revise them for the raptors, unless off course it’s all software.….….….

leo August 30th, 2011 at 7:56 am

It will fly againg as soon as the F-35 program is 100% secure and there is no chance of its cancelation

weatherby375 August 30th, 2011 at 11:28 am

They are not windproof,. and not flood proof.

Ready for Issue August 30th, 2011 at 12:03 pm

They seem to have classified / compartmented this issue and what they are doing to fix it.

the architect August 30th, 2011 at 12:25 pm

True. Is it really sooo difficult for all those Boeing and Lockheed Martin researchers to install a large, provisional oxygen bottle in the F-22s’ internal weapons bays (lest somebody forgets: Most warplanes in History never had “OBOGS”, only oxygen bottles for all their pilots and crew members!) and connect it by air hose to the pilot’s oxygen mask? The F-22s have been grounded now for 5 months straight because of this irritatingly trivial problem, even turning their pilots – formerly “the best of the best” – into the U.S. Airforce’s WORST pilots because of lack of training!

How many radical conversions would Sir Arthur Travers Harris have made in 5 months time of Lancaster bombers and Mosquito fighter-bombers, etc., etc., entirely without any computer geniuses around him?

naser samadi September 5th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

hi only

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