Forum: F-22A Raptor

Memorial services for Lockheed Martin test pilot David “Cools” Cooley will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 30, at the Palmdale United Methodist Church, located at 39055 North 10th Street West. The internment (burial) will be private.

David, 49, served 21 years in the Air Force before joining Lockheed Martin as a test pilot in 2003. He began his flight career in 1983 with the F-111, first as an instructor pilot, flight commander and training officer, then as an operational test and evaluation pilot at McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif.

David became an Air Force test pilot after graduating from the Empire Test Pilots' School in the United Kingdom in 1993. He tested the F-15 and managed the U.S. Coast Guard's flight test program for the RU-38, a low-altitude surveillance aircraft. He also served as the assistant operations officer for the 445th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base.

From 1996 to 1998, David was branch chief of Air Combat Command's Operational Test and Evaluation Branch, where he also oversaw handling requirements and budget for aerial target drones.

David joined the F-117 Combined Test Force in 1998, where he conducted flight test and training and oversaw numerous combat improvement programs and classified programs. From 2001 to 2003, he served as vice commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards.

After joining Lockheed Martin in 2003, Cooley served as chief test pilot on the F-117 and flew F-16s in support of the F-22 flight test program. His last assignment was as an F-22 test pilot with the F-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards.

F-16.net Sponsor

So is the Raptor fleet grounded? I suspect we can glean the source of the crash depending on how the F-22 fleet is handled during the investigation.

nam11b wrote:

Aviation Week wrote:

Edwards F-22 Pilot Did Not Eject

"Some senior U.S. Air Force officials were notified yesterday that there was no pilot ejection from the F-22 that crashed near Edwards AFB Base.

The Lockheed Martin pilot was declared dead at the hospital which seemed to indicate he was killed after ejection, but officials at Edwards said that statement was simply a pro forma statement for the investigation. USAF officials said the report of no ejection came soon after the crash, but almost immediately a complete security blanket was dropped over the investigation and no more data has been revealed."

This really makes me wonder how he was recovered so quickly. Earlier reports indicated that law enforcement saw smoke in the area and were advised to stay away until SAR arrived. Maybe the cockpit broke away? Maybe he egressed? It will be a long time before we see official reports.

source: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... ot%20Eject

Gruesome... Yikes. The realities of the risks of flying...

If it was just a statement I can't fanthom him alive after the crash... depends on how fast he was going and at what angle he hit. Maybe the wheels got stuck and he was trying to put it down, but it flipped over or something, might explain that he didn't eject and how they got to him so quickly, if they knew what was going on and what he was gonna try to do, and where he was going to do it... Makes me wonder though.

There is some RUMIT right now that there is a large debris field. The implication is that combined with the radio distress call and no ejection may indicate a rapid in flight breakup of the jet. The F-22 obviously is a very unstable jet and there may be a configuration that causes the FCS to go on the fritz. Recall that the 2004 accident was caused by a power interruption and the pilot neglected to retest the built in tests of the VMS. AvWeek says they may be testing external loads beyond tanks and Slammers that are cleared now. I hope they find the cause and get a fix quickly; hopefully no restrictions for the guys & gals flying the jet now.

Good tail winds Cools, RIP.

BDF

The Antelope Valley press is reporting the Air Force has not grounded its fleet of operational F-22s following Wednesday's crash.
http://www.avpress.com/n/27/0327_s2.hts

It sounded like a sonic boom? There is a large debris field? Looks like what BDF says isn't far off the mark... It is strange to me they're not grounding the fleet. Granted, there have been no previous incidents since 2004 and the jet is new, but still... Looks like they know with very little uncertainty what went wrong. It's a shame... I just pray the family's doing ok.

If they were indeed testing new external loads, particularly asymmetrical external loads, they wouldn’t have any reason to ground the fleet as right now the fleet isn’t certified to carry anything other than bags and slammers. So the are unlikely to find themselves in the same situation.

BDF

What kind of maneuvers would they do in a typical certification? I suppose with Slammers they've tested them most of the way through the flight envelope but will they do 360 rolls (and other such maneuvers) with bags too?

skrip00 wrote:

What kind of work do these test pilots do? Try out new weapons? Or avionics upgrades?

Avionics some, mostly software ujpgrades however. Weapons integration maybe; however new weapons are tested at Eglin.

Tinito_16 wrote:

What kind of maneuvers would they do in a typical certification? I suppose with Slammers they've tested them most of the way through the flight envelope but will they do 360 rolls (and other such maneuvers) with bags too?

When new weapons are added, the uncertainly lies in the aero effects in flight regions near stall and other "bad" things. So you add the weapons and then incrementaly approach those areas with harsh maneuvering to see what happens. If bad things happen unexpectedly, we either reduce the flight envelope to not certify that loadout.

Let's see if he had just recently come off the tanker from a refueling...

Flight test with external stores is exactly the same as with a clean airplane. Flutter, aeroservoelasticity, stability and control (including high AoA), and structural loads are all tested, but only after extensive analysis shows it to be safe. But analysis is not perfect and problems sometimes arise, not always due to "harsh maneuvering". Some of the most critical testing is for flutter, involving straight and level flying, at extreme speeds.

After safe carriage envelopes are established, store separation tests are done. Those can also be hazardous.

Because the airplane was a flight test airplane, it was heavily instrumented, so the exact cause will be identified without a doubt.

flateric wrote:

Well said, Geogen...
My condolences from Russia.

Spacibo, flateric..

These birds of war
Prepare for man's best defense
Spaceship Earth sails by

] It is strange to me they're not grounding the fleet.

F-22 Japan-US joint training in Okinawa Prefecture continues, AFAIK.

the Nellis birds are still flying. BTW 2 of Nellis 's have been on loan to Edwards for the past couple months after having some upgrades done

Forum: F-22A Raptor

Edwards F-22 crashes