The F-22 Raptor

This fighter is the most recent of the 5th gen fighters.  The aircraft was designed by Lockheed Martin.  Lockheed Martin  The fighter is built to be an air to air combat fighter.  While the most resent F-35 is made for sneak- attacks on buildings. Though each was designed for different purposes; each was designed to replace a certain line of craft.  The F-22 was designed to replace the F-35, the F-18, the F-14, and the Vought LTV A-7 Corsair 2. This plane was designed to carry concealed missiles and weaponry. This created the sense that the plane is not armed. This is not true because at any given moment the craft can open the compartments and position the missiles. The computer can the scan the sky for any planes and determined if they are friend or foe.  If the plane is an enemy, then the computer locks it on and tracks it. If the pilot so chooses, he can press the release button and ignite the missile. The missile then tracks the enemy aircraft through laser guidance or infrared light.  The plane goes BOOM.    The F-22 is  powered by twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with two dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles. Pratt & Whitney The engines has small flaps connected to them at the end.  This allows the pilot to direct the flow of the engine.  That enables the craft to turn at steeper angles.  That capability is useful when you are in combat.  Pratt & Whitney  The 0-gravity suits that the military uses were to weak for the F-22.  So they had to design a new type and line of 0-gravity suits.  The engines that the F-22 housed were so powerful that they could make the aircraft hover vertically.  Because of its speed, the pilot's breathing system could not handle it.  They later had to redesign everything that they had done on the helmet.  Later there were no problems.

An Air force F-22 dropping a JAM pod while training. Two F-22 in slant formation. A F-22 entering the sound barrier. The fighter has super cruise speeds over Mach 1.5 without using afterburners.  This increases the survival ratio of the pilot.  Also it decreases the amount of fuel burned up during flight. That will save the US a lot of money, and perhaps more time in the air. I appreciate your viewing of this blog, and I look forward to your comments. The F-22 arment is made to meet anemy fighters in the air.  The fighter's arment includes AIM-120(seen in the picture to the right).  Raytheon AIM-120 missiles are straight line missiles that can hit enemy fighters