F-22 crashes, 1 dead

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:18 am

MARCH 26, 2009

F-22 Fighter Jet Crashes on Test Flight in California

By AUGUST COLE

An Air Force F-22 Raptor, the service's most advanced and expensive fighter, crashed Wednesday morning in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, killing the pilot.

The pilot, David Cooley, 49, worked for Lockheed Martin Corp., the plane's manufacturer. He was a 21-year veteran of the Air Force and had been with Lockheed since 2003. The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Air Force.

The plane was on a test flight and went down at 10 a.m. about 35 miles northeast of the base. Lockheed and the Air Force jointly test the F-22.

It is the second time an F-22 has crashed. In December 2004, an F-22 crashed at Edwards during a test flight, with the pilot safely ejecting, according to the Air Force.

The twin-engine jet is generally regarded as the world's dominant fighter because of its maneuverability, speed and advanced electronics systems. It is designed to be able to sneak into another country's airspace and attack other planes, as well as ground targets. The plane's sensors also give it an edge that other fighters lack. Boeing Co. is a major subcontractor. United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney makes the plane's engines.

The F-22 became combat-ready for the Air Force at the end of 2007.

Though it has flown overseas, it has not conducted missions over Iraq or Afghanistan and has been criticized by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for not being useful in current combat missions against insurgents.

The Pentagon is currently weighing whether to continue production of the plane past the 183 aircraft planned and a decision is expected next month with the 2010 budget. The Air Force badly wants additional jets, but has not publicly detailed how many more. So far, the Air Force has 134 F-22s. The cost per aircraft is $143 million.

Damn, heads are going to roll over this.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:28 am

Eject?

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:36 pm

Presumably he didn't have time.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:59 pm

Have to happen damn quick not to have time.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:26 pm

Maybe there was a problem with the ejection system?

All we know is that the guy died. How is unknown.

Post by **Teaos** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:40 pm

We know how, his plane crashed, we don't know why.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:16 am

I read on another forum that his unit was testing the Raptor's ability to carry external loads at high speed, so this guy was likely flying at Mach 2+ with bombs and missiles on the exterior.

If that's true, then anything that went wrong would happen extremely quickly and be very violent. Little chance for him to make it out.

Post by **Tsukiyumi** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:54 pm

Yeah, if something went wrong at speeds like that, the plane would probably just tear apart. Ouch.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:20 pm

Teaos wrote:Have to happen damn quick not to have time.

As has been said, the plane might have broken up rather than suffering some initial damge for a while; also, he was only 35 miles out witha full load, so he might not have had enough altitude to allow time for an ejection.

BTW, didn't anyone else hear someone whisper "V-22" when they read this?

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:59 pm

V-22?

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:09 pm

V-22 Osprey. An aircraft with a pretty shoddy safety record.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:17 pm

Oh, yeah. I'd heard of those things. Didn't recognise the number, though.

Nickswitz · Post by **Nickswitz** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:26 pm

That's because they always call it the Osprey, and the V-22 was like a death wish waiting to happen.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:28 pm

Mikey wrote:
As has been said, the plane might have broken up rather than suffering some initial damge for a while; also, he was only 35 miles out witha full load, so he might not have had enough altitude to allow time for an ejection.

BTW, didn't anyone else hear someone whisper "V-22" when they read this?

No, I heard a bunch of dead Marines screaming it.

I'll throw in a loss of the flight computer, the F-22 is unstable without computer control and that will lead to a crash fairly quickly.

Post by **Mikey** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:00 am

Rochey wrote:Oh, yeah. I'd heard of those things. Didn't recognise the number, though.

It had a miserable enough record in development and prototype testing that it's almost miraculous the project was allowed to continue.

F-22 crashes, 1 dead

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