Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The F-22 Raptor vs. a Hacksaw
No kidding. This pilot was stuck in the cockpit for 6+ hours until the maintainers gave up trying to open the canopy and brought in the fire department and their trusty can opener. I held back on a lot of the close-up cockpit pix that show oil and debris all over the flat-panel displays and the HUD due to security concerns, but trust me... it's not a pretty sight. Even worse, the fire crew wasn't trained in handling low-observable materials, so they scratched the hell out of the back of the plane when they drug the canopy along skin.
$200,000,000 for an F-22
$1,000,000 for a fully trained pilot
$1,000 for an oily hack saw
$100 for a new flight suit and change of shorts
$1,000,000+ to repair the damage caused by a $500 actuator
Look on the Squadron Commander's face.... Priceless.
posted by El Capitan at 4:18 PM
2 Comments:
Jake Silver said...
One of the guys in my shop said it would have been cheaper, faster, and cooler to have him do a high-speed taxi and pop the canopy off.
2:55 PM El Capitan said...
I'm sure the idea was thought of, but I bet the Wing CC or Safety geek thought that the pilot might break a nail or something. They'd rather tear apart the plane and scratch the hell out of the skin.
Not too surprising.