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SEEMEFIRST
11/17/2010 10:37am
11/17/2010 10:37am
Edited Date/Time
1/25/2012 11:09pm
Not good...
An Air Force pilot and his stealth fighter assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska went missing Tuesday evening. The F-22 Raptor was on a routine training mission when it lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time.
A search and rescue mission is underway.
The pilot and his $143 million dollar aircraft fly out of the the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
The F-22 is the military's newest and most technologically advanced fighter. It's a one-man, stealth supercruiser designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The Air Force has 137 of them in its fleet.
An Air Force pilot and his stealth fighter assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska went missing Tuesday evening. The F-22 Raptor was on a routine training mission when it lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time.
A search and rescue mission is underway.
The pilot and his $143 million dollar aircraft fly out of the the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
The F-22 is the military's newest and most technologically advanced fighter. It's a one-man, stealth supercruiser designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The Air Force has 137 of them in its fleet.
The Shop
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/17/air-force-fighter-jet-missing-alas…
did see some flight control software errors.
When its 110 on the desert floor, at 40,000 feet, its about 40-60 Below zero. I think most jets are designed for the cold.
here was no indication whether the pilot ejected, a military spokesman said. Searchers found no sign of the pilot at the crash site.
The searchers were on the ground at the site from 1 or 2 p.m. until dark.
No indication whether he ejected? Either the seat was there or it wasn't. What other indications do they need?
Pit Row
It doesn't sound good.
As I recall, rain was the big factor early on. if they haven't worked that out yet I'd be very surprised.
But at a normal econ cruise it can actually have the opposite effect, aerodynamic cooling. I don't know what de or anti ice capabilities a fighter jet has, but with low temps like that any visible moisture (clouds) will instantly stick to the airframe can cause contamination and change the basic shape of the wing, add weight, freeze up control surfaces, gear doors, indication... Not saying that's what happened here, but it's something to think about. Fuel can freeze too, if there's water contamination in the fuel it can freeze first and cause blockages. Hyd. systems can get sluggish, engines can operate at lower than optimum temperature, the pitot static system can get iced up and provide extremely disorienting information.
But, yeah. Airplanes don't like the cold, and with a super high tech composite airplane like the F22 I can only see the problems compounded. It could've been anything but with the issues that airplane has had I wouldn't rule out even the simplest of problems.
J/K, that A/C was acting on it's own, that guy kicked it's computers ass! Cat saved a bunch of stuff.
This is an example of a 12,000 ft maneuver attempted at 11,500'. Same shit happened at the fighter factory where I worked, and a weekend warrior got to fly a 16 into CAFB and lawn darted between the runways... He didn't get out.
It's not that the aircraft or the computer were at fault. The way to fix it, actually, is to let go of the controls altogether (which is easier if you're not 10' off the ground, of course) and let the plane straighten out on its own.
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