F-22 Raptor Continues to Soar

Courtesy of US Air Force

Given the positive feedback the last time we discussed Lockheed Martin, I thought you would find this news very interesting.  The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has now surpassed more than 50,000 total flight hours in August while establishing new standards in capability and maturity.

“The F-22 continues to demonstrate the field performance vital to an operational weapon system,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-22 general manager. “The fleet reliability measures are ahead of plan and the force-on-force exercises have shown Raptors provide the capability to dominate airspace today and in the future.”

The Raptor’s stealth, integrated avionics, maneuverability and supercruise speed (1.5 times the speed of sound without afterburner) give the F-22 “first-look, first-shot, first-kill” capability. Lockheed Martin’s F-22 and F-35 aircraft deliver game changing 5th Generation capabilities designed to defeat current and future threats. Representing a quantum leap in air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities that provide an order of magnitude increase in operational effectiveness over legacy fighters, the F-22 and F-35 will dominate any foreseeable threat environment and ensure joint and combined operational flexibility for years to come.[1]

The F-22 is a fifth generation fighter that is considered a fourth-generation stealth aircraft by the USAF. Its dual afterburning Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofans incorporate thrust vectoring, but in the pitch axis only, with a range of ±20 degrees. The maximum thrust is classified, though most sources place it at about 35,000 lbf (156 kN) per engine. Maximum speed, without external weapons, is estimated to be Mach 1.82 in supercruise mode; as demonstrated by General John P. Jumper, former US Air Force Chief of Staff, when his Raptor exceeded Mach 1.7 without afterburners on 13 January 2005. With afterburners, it is “greater than Mach 2.0″ (1,317 mph, 2,120 km/h), according to Lockheed Martin; however, the Raptor can easily exceed its design speed limits, particularly at low altitudes, with max-speed alerts to help prevent the pilot from exceeding them. Former Lockheed Raptor chief test pilot Paul Metz stated that the Raptor has a fixed inlet; but while the absence of variable intake ramps may theoretically make speeds greater than Mach 2.0 unreachable, there is no evidence to prove this. Such ramps would be used to prevent engine surge resulting in a compressor stall, but the intake itself may be designed to prevent this. Metz has also stated that the F-22 has a top speed greater than 1,600 mph (Mach 2.42) and its climb rate is faster than the F-15 Eagle due to advances in engine technology, despite the F-15′s thrust-to-weight ratio of about 1.2:1, with the F-22 having a ratio closer to 1:1. The US Air Force claims that the F-22A cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter.