I finally found the time to take a look at this video that was posted over at Lex’s. Good comments on this post (as usual at Lex’s) too.
WOW! I never understood what the USAF was so excited about with this jet. I mean it’s just a next gen stealth fighter, right. Boy was I off. If this is just a one generational step the future is going to be very interesting. The future is going to very interesting anyway. Aerodynamics as I know it has changed dramaticlly. We knew with the Harrier that vectored thrust allowed us to do a lot of VSTOL stuff, and some unusual in flight manuvering but it was seriously tricky.
Raptor though, it can be fast, it can be slow, and I know that while he says that the aircraft never departs controlled flight…it sure looks like it does. Listen to the manuvering speeds that the pilot is working with in some of these vertical manuvers. Also check out the turn and loop radii on this bird. It would be really cool to see those manuvers in a wind tunnel smoke stream. Laminar flow….NOT.
Cool stuff. The USAF has good reason to want some more of these.
F-22 Raptor All Out Demo / Pilot Major “Max” Moga Describes Eac – video powered by Metacafe