The F/A-22 Raptor air dominance fighter program completed another key flight test goal on Nov. 5, with the successful missile interception of an unmanned drone while both aircraft and target were flying faster than the speed of sound.
Lockheed Martin has officially delivered the first production F/A-22 Raptor air dominance fighter to the U.S. Air Force. The formal acceptance documents for the aircraft were signed at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company facility here on October 23.
As a scheduled part of the F/A-22 program's ongoing developmental efforts, Lockheed Martin has successfully completed the modification and upgrade effort necessary for Raptor 08 to begin Dedicated Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (DIOT&E).
Raptor 11, the first F/A-22 Production Representative Test Vehicle (PRTV) to fly, conducted its maiden flight on September 16, 2002, from the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, GA.
The F-22 Raptor has for the first time successfully conducted a test flight while carrying external stores under its wings.
F-22 4003 became the first Raptor used to successfully fire a radar-guided AIM-120 missile while flying faster than the speed of sound.
The F-22 Raptor, now in production and continuing flight testing in California, continues to meet or exceed all technical performance parameters, Lockheed Martin president Dain Hancock confirmed during a press conference today conducted with U.S. Secretary of the Air Force James Roche.
Lockheed Martin has developed a new horizontal stabilator design for the F-22 Raptor that will save the program $1 million per aircraft shipset of two.
The F-22 Raptor team successfully completed a key phase of logistics testing and evaluation (LT&E) here this week - several days ahead of schedule. This is a major achievement in preparing for the U.S. Air Force to begin Dedicated Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (DIOT&E) next year.
The U.S. Air Force-led F-22 Combined Test Force at Edwards AFB, Calif., has surpassed the 2,000 flight test hours in just over 900 test missions since Raptor 4001 - "the Spirit of America" - first began flying on September 7, 1997.
The Lockheed Martin-led F-22 Raptor team surpassed another significant milestone in May with the successful completion of "first service-life" fatigue testing using a production quality, non-flyable Raptor airframe in a special ground-based laboratory located here.
The F-22 industry team has successfully completed all planned static testing of the F-22, demonstrating that the structural integrity of the airframe can withstand forces 50 percent higher than those expected in service life.
The F-22 Raptor industry team marked a milestone last week, as the newest version of the program's advanced integrated avionics software package - Block 3.1 - was successfully flown for the first time at the Air Force's Combined Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The F-22 Raptor industry team formally donated and officially dedicated a 1/10th-scale model of the air dominance fighter jet to the United States Air Force Academy on April 18.
The F-22 Raptor industry team today delivered to the U.S. Air Force Raptor 4009, the last flight test aircraft to be produced under the program's Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase contract.
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