F-22 Raptor To Deploy To Europe?

While scanning past monthly articles of Aviation Week I noticed this entry dated April 19th, 2007. It says that the Pentagon will deploy (probably) one F-22 to perform an aerial demonstration at the Paris Air Show in France (Le Bourget airport). However due to past security concerns the USAF will not put the F-22 in a ground exhibition and the fighter will be stationed in the UK rather than in France. It does not mention where in the UK but the likely choice is RAF Lakenheath. The Paris Air Show this year is scheduled for June 18th through the 24th. For the record, I cannot find this mentioned in any official LM or USAF publications.

Making its Le Bourget debut this year will be the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor. But plans right now foresee the F-22 only in the air, not on the ground. The U.S. Air Force will likely base the stealth fighter in the U.K., eschewing French hospitality for good security -- the moves comes just after U.S. Air Force sent the stealth fighter to Japan, for its first serious overseas deployment.

The Pentagon has a long track record of bringing its best and finest aircraft to Le Bourget. Unfortunately, it's the memory of some of those experiences that has them looking to base the F-22 somewhere else.

Link

EDIT: I thought I'd add the 2007 F-22 Langley Air Show routine, this is not the official demo, that will debut in 2008. However this is the best preview of the full demo displayed as of now...

Few other notes, the F-22 in the video was not flying with training missiles (due to the bay doors being opened) but it did have a full fuel load (at take off). Even though the announcer says 68K (for the takeoff figure) another F-22 pilot has comment that combat load figure given is "in the ballpark but high". However he made no comment towards the 37K figure given for the F-119 although many believe the real figure is closer to 39K (uninstalled at ground level). One last thing, from several pilot comments it is hinted that in an unrestricted take off the F-22 can get airborne in under 800 ft.

Anyway enough of that, here is the video...



[edit on 5-5-2007 by WestPoint23]

Nuts.

I was hoping to see one at RIAT at Fairford, as its the USAF's 60th Anniversary year.

Ah well.

BTW, its a nice Vid, but I've seen an SU27 and the Mig29 OVT, and both put on displays as good, in fact the Migs was slightly better in my opinion.

Still, stunning aircraft nontheless

Well, RIAT is scheduled for 14-15 July, 2007. About three weeks after the Paris Air Show, seeing as how the Raptor will be stationed in the UK anyway it will already be in country. Maybe it will stick around for RIAT too, this is just speculation of course...

One thing the Americans always do better is the takeoff. The takeoff roll of the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, and F-22 demos are always very short and involve some sort of trick or display of climbing ability.

I've never seen the MiG-29 or Su-27 to do a short takeoff roll to vertical.

Originally posted by JFrazier
One thing the Americans always do better is the takeoff. The takeoff roll of the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, and F-22 demos are always very short and involve some sort of trick or display of climbing ability.

I've never seen the MiG-29 or Su-27 to do a short takeoff roll to vertical.

The MiG-29OVT was displaying at RIAT last year, and it did precisely that - with the wind behind it as well so it was an impressive demo of the OVTs takeoff performance.

Originally posted by RichardPrice
The MiG-29OVT was displaying at RIAT last year, and it did precisely that - with the wind behind it as well so it was an impressive demo of the OVTs takeoff performance.

That it did and it made a wonderful wonderful noise when it did it

Best display of the show with the Typhoon a close second.

I'm still peeved that I was stuck in traffic and under trees when the Canberra did its display though

Well I just watched the demo you guys were right. One thing I did notice though. Brakes off to wheels off the ground was around 15 seconds for the OVT. Not bad.

With 18K pounds of fuel the Raptor did it in 9.

If you guys overseas ever see the Raptor, I think you will be surprised at how loud it is. First time I heard it I couldn't believe it as the Hornet is usually the loudest fighter we have IMO. It makes a crazy sounding howl when the engine settings are changed too.

[edit on 5-5-2007 by JFrazier]

Originally posted by neformore
BTW, its a nice Vid, but I've seen an SU27 and the Mig29 OVT, and both put on displays as good, in fact the Migs was slightly better in my opinion.

Still, stunning aircraft nontheless

Ah yes, I have to say that MiG-29OVT's turn rate was abit faster than F-22 may be because of the OVT. But Raptor did also is good enough some perfomance like Windmill was done by F-22, which I hard to image how it did without OVT....

Well, think of it this way, in combat the F-22 will have close to the same amount of fuel, probably less and the same external profile (ie. "clean"), no drag. The Mig's and Flankers will be lumbering around with pylons and missiles as well as more internal fuel all of which will severely limit it's ability to pull air show maneuvers. The Raptor does not have this problem, what you see in that video is what it can pull in combat tomorrow.