Forum: F-22A Raptor

Okay, first off I need to say two things: one I have seen a lot of airshows in the last 30 years and two, it takes a lot to impress me with planes anymore. I can remember being awed by the F-15 in 1978 but since then it has been less awe and more appreciation of the planes and pilots who fly them. Anyway, I got my first taste of an F-22 at Elmendorf today. In short, once again I was in AWE! The plane took off, climbed at an 80 degree climb till he ran out of smash, then bunted the nose over ever so nice to fly straight. Then while the F-15 did its demo, he sat behind the base doing these crazy high alpha turns to burn gas. It was an incredible display of power. I could not watch the Eagle perform, my eyes were glued to the Raptor. He just sat up there doing these impossible little turns and banks with his nose pointed higher than a plane should have been pointed.

The heritage flight had the Raptor, Eagle, Warthog, and P-51 come by in a nice formation. A beautiful sight, to be sure.

For all of you guys and gals that are in the military, a big thanks from this "civie" who got to see some wonderful flying today. It is appreciated!

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Indeed Occamsrasr the F-22 is a delight to hear and watch while in the air but even on the ground I bet about 1.000.000.000 : 1 - Yes this much ! - that if it was to be parked next to any fighter today that it will be the Emperor of Attention.

In the UK it seems from the relevant press that the 'usual suspects' i.e the Russians attempted once again to do what they have done about dozens of times in the past i.e show-off with 'Super Cobras' etc.

This time it has fallen to RSK-Mig to show Russia's achievements with the Mig-29M OVT which has shown off the 'usual' things it can do....

I wonder what will it have to take for the Russians to understand that by nice RIAT and Farnborough showings you don't establish yourself as an authority in the area of military aviation let alone get sales which is what they are after so desperately....

You do this by designing constructing and supporting the operations of fighter jets that have true OPERATIONAL-PRACTICAL potential with today's as well as future operational scenarios and conditions.

The F-22 doesn't need really even to put its wheels off the ground to have people understand that it is The Kick-A$$ fighter jet with capital 'K' and 'A' .

Because by virtue of all the three key elements that I mentioned just above - Innovative Design, Top Quality Built and Effective Operational Philosophy - it established it self already as the yard stick by which everyone else has to be compared if a claim for a competitive new fighter aircraft is made.

Nevertheless, it is nice to see the best men and women show with the Raptor to the American people that their most hard earned funds are not wasted as some ignorant people with other suspicious intentions want to declare but are most efficiently being put into use so that when the bad moment comes enemy's butt will be kicked mercilessly.

I don't have unfortunately any pics or vids from recent demos apart from the ones that we all more or less must have already downloaded relatively recently from www.semperapollo.com but here are a couple of other nice pics of our beloved gray friend for all to share from www.airliners.net.

I bet that most of us in these boards have very exciting night dreams by simply seeing someone sitting in a Raptor.... I DO !!!!

TS Cheers

Very true. In spite of all that, seeing the Raptor do the cobra effortlessly (and who knows what we haven't seen) sure gets me aroused!! Drool

Can't wait to see the Raptor give the Russian fighters a taste of their own medicine at RIAT 2008. Hopefully that display will show what the Raptor can truly do.

Forum: F-22A Raptor

F-22 at Elmendorf Open House