F-22 Boneshaker
July 17, 2008 RJH
Heavy rain and waterlogged fields saw most of the Fairford airshow cancelled this year. Lucky for us, then, that we saw the practice sessions the day before.
On Friday, HM the Queen presented the RAF with new colours to commemorate its 90th year. The RAF flew 90 planes in formation over the event, everything from the new Eurofighter Typhoons to a Lancaster bomber flanked by a Spitfire and a Hurricane.
But the show was stolen by the Yanks, showing off the new F-22 Raptor for the first time in Europe. A clip of its take-off — the thrust was unbelievable — is enough to show that the USAF has entered a different league with this machine.
The F-22 is so superior that the Americans won’t sell it, so the rest of us have to make do with the F-35 JSF instead (that is if the Americans allow the RAF full proprietary control of our version). I do have to ask one question, though. The F-22 is designed to give the Americans total air superiority, but just what wars are we envisioning that would require air-to-air fighting? The F-22 vs. Iran’s F4’s?
My favourite American plane remains the F-16 (this one was from the Belgian air force).
The Eurofighters look cool, but for its sheer masculinity, I still like the Tornado.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
The USAF also have the F-111 at Heyford and Lakenheath. As a kid our baseball field was right at the end of the Heyford runway. We always had to timeout the games whenever they landed or took off.
But my favorite was the A-10. On my mission (Coventry) we once saw them preparing for Desert Storm 1 by playing follow the leader over some fields. Very cool.
I remember being at Uxbridge once when the English jet that hovers (the name escapes me) stopped in midair to watch a game some of the troops were playing. That is always strange the first time you see it.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Harrier.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
TStevens,
The F-35 Ronan mentions also hovers - they even included a CG version of it in the latest Die Hard movie (although very fake - the F-35 wasn’t built to do combat while hovering - it also has only one cannon, not two). There’s a pretty good NOVA program out there on its development. The USAF doesn’t like it, however, for various reasons. If you’re interested, I have a friend on the inside who can provide you with the inside scoop on it. All he said was they didn’t like it. It seems that most of the fighters the USAF wants to keep around are twin engine, twin stabilizer aircraft - increased power/range, as well as higher stability/maneuverability. They usually export the single engine fighters like the F-16 - low cost, low maintenence (there’s also geo-political reasons for doing this).
I grew up between USAF bases McClellan (closed), Mather (closed), and Travis. Each had its own specialty aircraft, though very few of them fighters (mostly C-5s, KC-135s, and B-52s). TStevens, you guys were lucky, we only had a handful of F-111s at Mather, and never saw them with their wings fully retracted. And yes, A-10s are great. My same friend if the USAF informed me that there was talk of retiring the A-10 in lieu of a special air-to-ground version of the F-15, but the A-10s durability during Desert Storm/Shield/Fox convinced the USAF to hang on to it for a while. They usually don’t hang on to sub-sonic aircraft these days, but the A-10 is that special I guess. A flying 30mm cannon - it’s like a jet version of Blue Thunder.
Tornados are wicked cool. So are Mirages. Most Russian aircraft elude me as far as looks, except for maybe the Mig-29. In real life, I’ve only seen Mig-15 and Mig-21, both very unimpressive.
R, did you notice the F-22’s pivoting thrusters? There’s some wicked youtube footage of it nearly hovering in mid-air, standing on its end due to said thrusters. Very cool.
The USAF isn’t internationally distributing any aircraft with radar signatures that are below normal levels just yet, like the F-22, B-2, F(B)-117, etc. (again, geo-political concerns). The air’s angle of attack on the wings of the F-22 is supposed to be one of the most impressive around. Apparently it can turn pretty tight corners as a result.
Very nice photos. Airshows rock.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Awesome. I remember two A-6’s doing a slow climb across the bay and over the Bay Bridge one day when I was driving in to work. Brought a tear to my eye.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Dave, Intruders are cool. My uncle flew them in the US Navy for 10 years. He’s got some cool stories. I didn’t think any were based in the Bay Area. Do you know where they might have originated?
July 25th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
If you ever go to Mount Rushmore, there is an USAF base on I90 that has a free Mueseum. A lot of cool jets are parked out front including the F111. For ten bucks more they will take you to an old missle silo for a tour. I actually qualified and had my slot to become a MLO through ROTC at BYU, but life plans change and I opted out prior to going to camp.