F-22 Aircraft Database

During a touch-and-go began to oscillate violently for eight seconds before slamming back down onto the runway and slid several thousand feet trailing a shower of sparks. A resulting fire was quickly extinguished. The pilot was fine and never had to eject, but the aircraft was never to fly again and thus ended any test flights with any YF-22.

Took-off from Dobbins AFB, Georgia on a planned cross country ferry flight to Edwards AFB, California. Shortly after take-off and during rendezvous with two chase F-15s at 1335 hours the F-22 ingested a 8.5 pound Loon in its right engine. Surprisingly even though a lot of damage to the engine, the engine continued to operate normally.

Damage to the aircraft was to the intake and the engine itself. The engine could not be repaired.

Airframe was overstressed during tests with two external tanks. G-load limiter was exceeded when control was lost after the aircraft passed through the wake of an F-16. Maximum was to be 7.3 Gs but actually climbed to 11.7 Gs. Flight control software was found to be the problem. The aircraft landed safely but never flew again.

Crashed on take-off from Nellis AFB, Nevada at 15.40 hours. At the moment the wheels left the ground the aircraft began a series of un-commanded roll and pitch maneuvers that quickly became more violent. The pilot ejected moments before impact and the aircraft wreckage remained within Nellis AFB grounds.

Cause of the loss came about through a unique set of circumstances. The Flight Control System was inoperative at the time of the crash. A pilot must run the Initiate Built in Test (IBIT) on engine start in order to insure a fully functioning Flight Control System. The pilot shut down the engine for quick maintenance work and thought Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), which was running, would provide power for the Flight Control System. Believing the APU provided power to the Flight Control System, the pilot thought another IBIT after engine restart was unnecessary and taxied for his sortie. However the APU didn't provide continuous power and another IBIT should have been performed. Running the IBIT would not have corrected the issue but would have warned that the Flight Control System had a serious failure. As the engine shut down there was a power interruption that caused a catastrophic failure of the Flight Control System.

On October 20, 2005 at around 20.30 hours the aircraft was starting its engines for a night training mission. The right engine ingested a nose landing gear "remove before flight" safety pin/flag. Damage to the engine was $6.7 million but there was no damage to the rest of the aircraft. The pin was pulled out by ground crew during engine run which is not proper procedure as it should be pulled prior to engine start. Suction pulled it out of his hand.

Canopy stuck in the closed position trapping a pilot after a flight for several hours. Eventually the canopy had to be cut to rescue the pilot after all other options where exhausted. The aircraft was easily repaired.