Panetta restricts F-22 flights due to oxygen system complaints

Started by jimmy olsen, May 15, 2012, 07:23:07 PM

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jimmy olsen

May 15, 2012, 07:23:07 PM
 :huh: Weird, seems like this would be a system that'd be hard to fuckup.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11718911-panetta-restricts-f-22-flights-due-to-oxygen-system-complaints?lite

QuotePanetta restricts F-22 flights due to oxygen system complaints

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the Air Force to restrict flights of its new F-22 stealth fighters because of continuing problems with the aircraft's oxygen system.

At least 22 pilots have suffered from oxygen deprivation while in flight since April 2008.

Panetta on Tuesday ordered that all F-22 flights remain within a "proximate distance" of an airfield in case a pilot should suffer from a hypoxia event and be forced to land. That will force an immediate end to F-22 patrol missions over Alaska.

Panetta also ordered the Air Force to accelerate installment of a backup oxygen system in all F-22s and provide monthly progress reports on efforts to identify the problem with the current oxygen system.  The Air Force does not expect to begin installing automatic backup oxygen systems until December of this year.

The Air Force has been unable to determine the cause of the 12 incidents of hypoxia suffered by pilots of the F-22. Pilots have reported wooziness while flying the supersonic jet, considered the most advanced fighter plane in the world.

Some of the military's top aviators have refused to fly the radar-evading planes because of the oxygen system problems.

The supersonic plane has also been criticized in the past for its high-maintenance costs.

The Air Force reports that each of the aircraft costs $143 million. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, estimates that each F-22 cost taxpayers $412 million, if upgrades and research and development expenses are included.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

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Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
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Neil

#1
May 15, 2012, 07:29:59 PM
It was designed for the Air Force.  Those guys are retarded.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

11B4V

#2
May 15, 2012, 07:33:33 PM
QuoteThe Air Force has been unable to determine the cause of the 12 incidents of hypoxia suffered by pilots of the F-22. Pilots have reported wooziness while flying the supersonic jet, considered the most advanced fighter plane in the world.

Strange this reminded me of the Speed Racer episode on the GRX.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

DontSayBanana

#3
May 16, 2012, 08:22:50 AM
Saw an interview a week or two ago about this with the people who outed the problem.  Apparently, it was already so well known that they had named it "raptor cough" when a pilot gets out and starts coughing.
Experience bij!
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