Is the Raptor capable of this..., page 3

www.edwards.af.mil...

Straight from edwards airforce base.

Commenting on the flight, Lt. Col. C. D. Moore, F-22 Combined Test Force commander here, said: "Sustaining the target Mach was not difficult for the Raptor. The difficulty was keeping the Raptor from going faster than the target speed. Yesterday, the airplane demonstrated that it can achieve awesome speed, flying above Mach 1.5 at a low power setting, for a sustained period of time. No other fighter in the world can do that.

Lockheed Martin says :

Performance estimates give the F-22 a speed of Mach 1.5 in non-afterburning supercruise mode, and a speed of Mach 2.0 or above with afterburner. Service ceiling is thought to be over 15 kilometers (50,000 feet) and the maximum range is believed to be over 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles). Flight tests demonstrate that the F-22 combines good handling characteristics with very high maneuverability. The F-22 is 18.9 meters (62 feet) long, with a wingspan of 13.6 meters (44.5 feet) and a height of 5.2 meters (17 feet). While the USAF is quiet about many of the Raptor's specifications, it is estimated to have an empty weight of about 15 tonnes (16.5 tons) and a fully loaded weight of about 27 tonnes (30 tons).

The term "supercruise" may confuse people into thinking that is the term for its top speed, which it is not. Supercruise is the term for its LOW powered supersonic flight. The F-22's ability to supercruise at speeds ABOVE Mach 1.5 at a LOW power setting is accomplished by its high output fuel efficient jet engines, and its vectored thrust. The vectored thrust can shrink its size, accomplishing what I would call the garden hose effect. Have you ever pushed your thumb over the end of a garden hose in order to get more thrust? Im sure you have.

If the F-22 can fly Mach 1.5 at a low setting, imagine what it can do at a high setting! Then add afterburn to that high speed supercruise. Mach 3.0 should not be ruled out. I know its possible with this craft.

They claim they built this jet for 3 reasons. Stealth, Manuverability, AND Speed. Not just Stealth and Manuverability.

Someone stated the speed would increase its IR signature and would compromise stealth. That is false, they designed this jet so that its engines exhaust is deap inside the fuselage to hide most heat. Its high aerodynamics and special design reduces its radar cross section (RCS), and reduces friction with air to give it a much smaller heat signature.

IntelGirl says that stealth compromised its speed because the jet was built WITHOUT variable geometry inlets. Variable geometry inlets are used to change the size of the jet engines air intake, to optimize for speed. You would think that because the F-22 was built with fix inlets it would compromise speed, but Lockheed has removed that problem. They designed the inlets for optimized air intake for the two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 engines (155.69 kN / 35,000 lb st with afterburning each) so that while in supersonic flight the engines will not starve for air. They are tuned for the purpous of speed, and still keep its stealth. Pilots of the F-22 are trained to only reach supersonic flights at a predetermined altitude for max preformance.

[edit on 29-7-2005 by Deny0rder]