F-22 Raptor :Specification

MANUFACTURERS:Lockheed martin aeronautics boeing integrated defense systems
CREW: 1

WEIGHTS:
Length: 62 ft 1 in (18.90 m)
Wingspan: 44 ft 6 in (13.56 m)
Height: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
Wing area: 840 ft² (78.04 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A?05.92 root, NACA 64A?04.29 tip
Empty weight: 31,670 lb (14,365 kg)
Loaded weight: 55,352 lb (25,107 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 80,000 lb (36,288 kg)
Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 Pitch vectoring turbofans, 35,000 lb (155.7 kN) each

PERFORMANCE:

Maximum speed: ≈Mach 2.42 (1,600 mph, 2,575 km/h) at high altitude
Cruise speed: >Mach 1.72 (1,140 mph, 1,825 km/h) at high altitude
Ferry range: 2,000 mi (1,738 nm, 3,219 km)
Service ceiling: 65,000 ft (19,812 m)
Rate of climb: classified (not publicly available)
Wing loading: 66 lb/ft² (322 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 1.26
Maximum g-load: -3/+9.5 g
Armament:Guns: 1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A2 Vulcan gatling gun in starboard wing root, 480 rounds
Air to air loadout:
6× AIM-120 AMRAAM
2× AIM-9 Sidewinder
Air to ground loadout:
2× AIM-120 AMRAAM and
2× AIM-9 Sidewinder and one of the following:
2× 1,000 lb JDAM or2× Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMDs) or8× 250 lb GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs
Avionics Radar: 125-150 miles (200-240 km) against 1 m² targets (estimated range).

F-22 Raptor :Overview

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a stealth fighter aircraft. It was originally envisioned as an air superiority fighter for use against the Soviet Air Force, but is equipped for ground attack, electronic warfare and signals intelligence roles as well. Faced with a protracted development period, the prototype aircraft was designated YF-22 and, as F-22 Raptor during the three years before formally entering United States Air Force service in December 2005 as the F-22 A. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and is responsible for the majority of the airframe, weapon systems and final assembly of the F-22 Raptor. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems provides the wings, aft fuselage and avionics integration.

The YF-22 was a developmental aircraft that led to the to F-22 Raptor ; however, there are significant differences between the YF-22 and the F-22 Raptor. Relocation of cockpit, structural changes, and many other smaller changes exist between the two types.The two are sometimes confused in pictures, often at angles where it is difficult to see certain features. For example, there are some F-22 with pitot booms which some think are only found on the YF-22 (such as pictured at end of article). The YF-22 was originally given the unofficial name "Lightning II" by Lockheed, which persisted until the mid-1990s. For a short while, the plane was also dubbed "SuperStar" and "Rapier". The F-35 later received the Lightning II name on July 7, 2006.

The prototype YF-22 won a fly-off competition against the Northrop/McDonnell-Douglas YF-23 for the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract. In April 1992, during flight testing after contract award, the first YF-22 prototype crashed while landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The test pilot, Tom Morgenfeld, was not injured and the cause of the crash was found to be a flight control software error that allowed and created a pilot-induced oscillation.

F-22 Raptor :Characteristics

The dual afterburning Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofans incorporate thrust vectoring. Thrust vectoring is in the pitch axis only, with a range of ±20 degrees. The maximum thrust is classified, though most sources place it at about 35,000 lbf (156 kN) per engine. Maximum speed is estimated to be Mach 1.72 in supercruise mode and without external weapons; with afterburners, it is "greater than Mach 2.0" (2,120 km/h), according to Lockheed Martin. The F-22 Raptor can easily exceed its design speed limits, particularly at low altitudes; max-speed alerts help prevent the pilot from exceeding the limits. General John P. Jumper, former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, flew the Raptor faster than Mach 1.7 without afterburners on January 13, 2005. The absence of variable intake ramps may make speeds greater than Mach 2.0 unreachable, but there is no evidence to prove this. Such ramps would be used to prevent engine surge, but the intake itself may be designed to prevent this. Former Lockheed Raptor chief test pilot Paul Metz stated that the Raptor has a fixed inlet. Metz has also stated that the F-22 has a top speed greater than 1600 mph (Mach 2.42) and its climb rate is faster than the F-15 Eagle due to advances in engine technology, despite the F-15's thrust-to-weight ratio of about 1.2:1, with the F-22 having a ratio closer to 1:1.

The true top-speed of the F-22 Raptor is largely unknown, as engine power is only one factor. The ability of the airframe to withstand the stress and heat from friction is a key factor, especially in an aircraft using as many polymers as the F-22. However, while some aircraft are faster on paper, the internal carriage of its standard combat load allows the aircraft to reach comparatively higher performance with a heavy load over other modern aircraft due to its lack of drag from external stores. It is one of a handful of aircraft that can sustain supersonic flight without the use of afterburner augmented thrust. The fuel usage from using afterburner greatly reduces flight time.

The F-22 is highly maneuverable, at both supersonic and subsonic speeds. The usage of the F-22's thrust vectoring nozzles allows the aircraft to turn tightly, and perform extremely high alpha maneuvers such as the J-Turn (or Herbst maneuver), Pugachev's Cobra, and the Kulbit, though the J-Turn is more useful in combat.The F-22 is also capable of maintaining a constant angle of attack of over 60°. Cruise altitude is a huge factor in performance. During June, 2006 exercises in Alaska, F-22 pilots routinely attributed their altitude advantage as major factor in an unblemished kill ratio. Avionics include Raytheon and Northrop Grumman AN/APG-77 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, possibly the most capable radar in active service, with both long-range target acquisition and low probability of interception of its own signals by enemy aircraft.

Avionics The AN/APG-77 AESA radar, designed for air-superiority and strike operations, features a low-observable, active-aperture, electronically-scanned array that can track multiple targets in all kinds of weather. The AN/APG-77 changes frequencies more than 1,000 times per second to reduce the chance of being intercepted. The radar can also focus its emissions to overload enemy sensors, giving the plane an electronic-attack capability. The radar’s information is processed by the two Raytheon-built Common Integrated Processor (CIP)s. Each CIP operates at 10.5 billion instructions per second and has 300 megabytes of memory. Information can be gathered from the radar and other onboard and offboard systems, filtered by the CIP, and offered in easy-to-digest ways on several cockpit displays, enabling the pilot to remain on top of complicated situations. The Raptor’s software is composed of over 1.7 million lines of code, most of which concerns processing data from the radar.The radar has a range of 125-150 miles, though planned upgrades will allow a range of 250 miles or more in narrow beams.

The F-22 Raptor has several unique functions for an aircraft of its size and role. For instance, it has threat detection and identification capability along the lines of that available on the RC-135 Rivet Joint. While the F-22's equipment isn't as powerful or sophisticated, because of its stealth, it is typically hundreds of miles closer to the battlefield, which often compensates for the reduced capability. The F-22 is capable of functioning as a "mini-AWACS." Though reduced in capability compared to dedicated airframes such as the E-3 Sentry, as with its threat identification capability, the F-22's forward presence is often of benefit. The system allows the F-22 to designate targets for cooperating F-15's and F-16's, and even determine if two friendly aircraft are targeting the same aircraft, thus enabling one of them to choose a different aircraft. It is often able to identify targets hundreds of times faster than accompanying dedicated AWACS. The F-22's low probability of intercept radar is being given a high-bandwidth data transmission capability, to allow it to be used in a "broadband" role to permit high-speed relaying of data between friendly transmitters and receivers in the area. The F-22 can already pass data to other F-22's, resulting in considerably reduced radio "chatter."

Armament A F-22 releases a JDAM from its internal bay while flying at supersonic speed A F-22 releases a JDAM from its internal bay while flying at supersonic speed The Raptor is designed to carry air-to-air missiles in internal bays to avoid disrupting its stealth capability. Launching missiles requires opening the weapons bay doors for less than a second, as the missiles are pushed clear of the airframe by hydraulic arms. The plane can also carry bombs such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and the new Small-Diameter Bomb (SDB.) It can carry weapons on four external hardpoints, but this vastly decreases the plane’s stealthiness, maneuverability, speed and range. The Raptor carries an M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon, also with a trap door, in the right wing root. The M61A2 is a last ditch weapon, and carries only 480 rounds, enough ammunition for approximately five seconds of sustained fire. Despite this, the F-22 Raptor has been able to use its gun in dogfighting without being detected, which can be necessary when missiles are depleted.

There have been some design studies of the possibility of placing a laser weapon, possibly derived from the THEL program, inside the weapons bay. As other air forces upgrade capabilities in the areas of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions, one key aspect of the Raptor must be kept in mind. Its very high sustained cruise speeds, and operational altitude (something that is often ignored), add tremendously to the effective range of both air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. Indeed, these factors could provide a strong rationale as to why USAF has not pursued long-range, high-energy air-to-air missiles such as the MBDA Meteor. However the USAF plans to procure the AIM-120D AMRAAM which will have a significant increase in range compared to the AIM-120C. The launch platform, in this case, provides the additional specific impulse to the missile. This speed and altitude characteristic also helps improve the range of air-to-ground ordnance. While specific figures remain classified, it is expected that JDAMs employed by F-22's will have twice or more the effective range of munitions dropped by legacy platforms.[20] In testing, a Raptor dropped a 1000 lb JDAM from 50,000 feet, while cruising at Mach 1.5, striking a moving target 24 miles away.The SDB, as employed from the F-22 , should see even greater increases in effective range, due to the improved lift to drag ratio of these weapons.

While in its air-superiority configuration, the F-22 carries its weapons internally, though it is not limited to this option. The wings are capable of supporting detachable hardpoints. Each hardpoint is theoretically capable of handling 5,000 lb of ordnance. However, usage of external stores greatly compromises the F-22 stealth, and has a detrimental effect on maneuverability. As many as two of these hardpoints are "plumbed", allowing the usage of external fuel tanks. The hardpoints are detachable in flight allowing the fighter to regain its stealth once these external stores are exhausted. Currently, there is research being conducted to develop a stealth ordnance pod and hardpoints for it. Such a pod would comprise a stealth shape and carry its weapons internally, then would split open when launching a missile or dropping a bomb. Both the pod and hardpoints could be detached when no longer needed. This system would allow the F-22 to carry its maximum ordnance load while remaining stealthy, albeit at a loss of maneuverability. However, there is concern over this program as external carriage of fuel tanks has shown more stress placed on the wings than originally anticipated.

F-22 Raptor :Development

F-22 Raptor to F/A-22 and back again The production model was formally named F-22 "Raptor" when the first production-representative plane was unveiled on April 9, 1997 at Lockheed-Georgia Co., Marietta, Georgia. First flight occurred on September 7, 1997.

In September 2002, Air Force leaders changed the Raptor’s designation to F/A-22. The new designation, which mimicked that of the Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet, was intended to highlight plans to give the Raptor a ground-attack capability amid intense debate over the relevance of the expensive air-superiority jet. This was later changed back to simply F-22 on December 12, 2005. On December 15, 2005, the F-22 A entered service. Production.

The first production F-22 was delivered to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, on January 14, 2003. F-22 Dedicated Initial Operational Test and Evaluation occurred on October 27, 2004. As of late 2004, 51 Raptors were in service, with 22 more ordered under fiscal year 2004 funding. The first crash of a production F-22 occurred at Nellis Air Force Base on December 20, 2004, during takeoff. The pilot ejected safely moments before impact. The crash investigation revealed that a brief interruption in power during an engine shutdown prior to flight caused a malfunction in the flight-control system. The technical data for the aircraft has been amended to avoid this problem in the future. USAF officials were planning to reuse the remains into a new airframe.

F-22 Raptor :Variants

Based on the F-22, the swing-wing Navalized Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF) was proposed for the U.S. Navy as a carrier-borne variant of the F-22 to replace the F-14 Tomcat, though the program was subsequently canceled in 1993. Another more recent proposal is the FB-22, which would be used as a deep strike bomber for the USAF. There has yet to be any word on whether the USAF plans further development of the program. Also, the X-44 MANTA, short for Multi-Axis, No-Tail Aircraft, is an experimental aircraft which itself is an F-22 with enhanced thrust vectoring controls and no aerodynamic backup (i.e. the aircraft is controlled solely by thrust vectoring, without rudders, ailerons, or elevators). It is scheduled to be tested some time in 2007.