MSNBC wrote:EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - An F-22 Raptor jet fighter crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California, Air Force officials said.
Rescue crews were en route to the crash site and the status of the pilot was not immediately known, said Air Force Maj. David Small at the Pentagon.
The two-engine jet, which was on a test mission, crashed six miles north of the base on Harbor Dry Lakebed, Small said. The plane is flown by a single pilot.
The $140 million supersonic F-22 is the force's new top-of-the-line fighter. The U.S. military has committed to 183 of the jets, down from a plan in the 1980s to build 750.
Phone messages left with the base's public affairs office were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Isn't this the jet that gets jammed by random RF signals, or no?
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Any EW or sensor system can pick up interference from random RF signals. I think the recent story about specific F-22 RF interference problems convered something that's already been addressed.
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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.
The article says it crashed during a test flight. Possibly something related to it was the cause? Of course, until more information comes out, I don't think anyone can really say what might've happened.
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.
Didn't one crash at Nellis as well a few years ago?
Didn't one crash at Nellis as well a few years ago?
That was one of the YF-22 prototypes, which was in many ways a substantially different aircraft than the production model.
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The accidental loss rate for the F-16, an aircraft which was a comparable step forward in avionics (for its time), averaged 12 per year between 1989 and 1998. Granted that's a single engine aircraft but even still the accident rate for the F-22 is very low for a new fighter.
Intensity of employment matters. Once the F-22 starts being intensively employed, quite a few of them would fall.
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AMT wrote:Still, if it wasn't RF, what could have caused it? Little high for a bird to hit it...
Actually.... no. Although rare, there have been birdstrikes at 30,000+ feet. Probably more likely to happen over the Himalayas (there's a species of goose with a migration route over Mt. Everest) it's not inconceivable for it to happen over Edwards Air Force Base. Admittedly, other causes are more likely.
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Starglider wrote:The accidental loss rate for the F-16, an aircraft which was a comparable step forward in avionics (for its time), averaged 12 per year between 1989 and 1998. Granted that's a single engine aircraft but even still the accident rate for the F-22 is very low for a new fighter.
The fact that the primary contractor for the F-16 was purposely concealing vital safety information about known engineering flaws didn't help. If they'd leveled sooner, the attrition rate may have been much less.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
However, there was indeed a crash of an F-22 at Nellis in 2004, with the pilot ejecting safely:
Posted 12/21/2004 12:51 AM
Pilot ejects before stealth fighter crashes
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The pilot of a stealth fighter managed to eject Monday afternoon shortly before the plane crashed at Nellis Air Force Base.
The pilot was taken to a nearby hospital, Air Force officials said. His name and condition were not released.
A huge plume of black smoke could be seen near one of the runways on the base near Las Vegas after the Raptor F/A-22 went down.
The aircraft, considered the Air Force's premier fighter, was assigned to the 422 Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis. The accident was under investigation.
Monday's was the second crash involving a fighter in about six weeks at Nellis. An F-18 went down Nov. 9 about 15 miles north of the base. The pilot of that aircraft also managed to eject.
