Raptor goes down, killing pilot

[-DeaDLocK-]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7964577.stm

Apparently the Raptor has "better reliability and maintainability than any fighter aircraft in history".

Maintainability, perhaps, but reliability? Given that the plane hasn't been around for very long, and hasn't yet performed a single live mission in the field, well, saying it has better reliability than any other fighter in history is a bit of a longshot, wouldn't you say?

RIP David Cooley.

[scorp]

Could have hit a bird, flown into a mountain, who knows, hardly the planes fault if that is the case. More info please.

[Airbag]

scorp said:

Could have hit a bird, flown into a mountain, who knows, hardly the planes fault if that is the case. More info please.

Still, it's a valid criticism that labeling a plane that's never flown a sortie the most reliable in history is daft.

[Eric Mc]

Most military aircraft are lost when NOT performing active service. Some quite famous aircraft have served their entire lives withoit firing a gun or dropping a bomb in anger. A good example is the English Electric Lightning in RAF service. Quite a few Lightnings were lost in service - all due to accidents of one sort or other.
The Luftwaffe's F-104 Starfighters had a very poor safety record - and were never used in action.

The F-22 has actually been flying for 20 years - and indeed, one of the test aircraft WAS lost in a landing accident.

[s3fella]

Pilot initially reported as missing, then Lockheed stated he had been killed.......


Sounds like they found him and shot him for crashing their plane!!!

[G'kar]

s3fella said:

Pilot initially reported as missing, then Lockheed stated he had been killed.......


Sounds like they found him and shot him for crashing their plane!!!

Hilarious.

[Eric Mc]

Was this a company test flight or a normal USAF operational flight?

Just read the link - it looks like it was a test flight rather than a "normal" training mission.

I wonder was this the pilot who demonstrated the F-22 at last year's Farnborough Air Show?

(Just checked - it wasn't).

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 26th March 11:17