F-22 flight ban to be lifted

From the Flight Safety foundation's email newsletter today - (sorry - AFAIK it's not online so I can't link, but I'm sure the news will appear elsewhere soon, if it hasn't already)

The U.S. Air Force will resume flights of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)'s F-22 Raptor this week, which has been grounded for four months after pilots suffered symptoms related to oxygen deprivation.

"We now have enough insight from recent studies and investigations that a return to flight is prudent and appropriate," said Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz in a written statement.

"We're managing the risks with our air crews, and we're continuing to study the F-22's oxygen systems and collect data to improve its performance," he said. Returning to flight Sept. 21, pilots will use additional safety equipment and undergo physiological tests.

And commenting on the oxygen system -

A continuing Air Force investigation found that, under certain conditions, Honeywell International Inc. (HON)'s On-Board Oxygen Generating System "does not deliver oxygen as designed to the pilot, which could result in hypoxia and decreased flight safety," the written notification said.

Even so, it said the probe "failed to reveal a single, definitive root cause for the hypoxia-like symptoms."

so the investigation will go on, with increased monitoring, and presumably some modifications to the permitted flight envelope to avoid those situations thought to cause the shortage.

yes the F22 takes to air once again!!!! news.yahoo.com... from the link

Air Force returns grounded F-22s to service

did not take long to fix them

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — The nation's F-22 fighter jets are back in service, four months after they were grounded over pilot complaints about a lack of oxygen.

it might seem like aong time but from the mil point of view , that is only a few days.

Air Force officials began flying the stealth planes again Wednesday following a stand-down order imposed over hypoxia issues reported by at least 12 pilots in the last three years.

wonder what other "bugs" are in the F22? lets hope there are none

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

I'm a little surprised by that.

I would have expected them to have more definitive information about the cause before returning the plane to service.

Collecting hypoxia data in live flights seems a little risky, but at least they will be monitoring it closely. Let's hope that's enough to prevent a hypoxia-related crash.

Originally posted by bekod
yes the F22 takes to air once again!!!! news.yahoo.com... from the link

Air Force returns grounded F-22s to service

did not take long to fix them

Nothing is fixed, they haven't resolved the underlying issue yet - the aircraft is being returned to service with a reduced operational envelope, and increased safety systems until they can resolve the actual issues.

Basically, someone in Congress got on the phone to Lockheed and the DoD and said "this is completely ridiculous, these planes cost $200M each and we can't fly them? Sort it out or heads will start to roll..."

That, plus the fact that the F-22 pilots were coming *very* close to losing their rating on the type - after a certain number of days non-flying, a pilot has to redo the entire training schedule for the type, and the F-22s grounding was coming up to that.

Good news in my opinion. But I read before they were only concerned about the oxygen mixing/generating over 25,000 feet. Hopefully they can figure it out and work on it. Hate to see this beast grounded again.