F-22 oxygen system problem found?

Let's hope is is true

"The Air Force is confident the root cause of the issue is the supply of oxygen delivered to pilots, not the quality of oxygen delivered to pilots," Little said.

A valve in the vest the pilots wear at high altitude was causing the vest to inflate or deflate at inappropriate times, Little said. The vests, which are required above 44,000 feet to protect pilots in case of an accidental rapid decompression of the cockpit, have been suspended from F-22 flights since June. The valves will all be replaced and the Air Force will brief Panetta on the modifications before the planes return to normal duty, he said.

from here

I wonder what the next F-22 bashing topic wil be....

The number one limiting component to all aircraft.

The pilot.

They have that interceptor drone they are testing, once thats up and working Piloted craft will be obsolete in comparison.

X-47B First flight at Pax River

I don't know, it accounts for the pilots but what about the 2 maintenance workers that got sick?

reply to post by Manhater


Maintenance staff don't use the pilot's oxygen system, so I'd be looking to other problems for that as is pointed out in another report - here

they have been characterised as suffering from exposure to exhaust gases, and although there is no comment as to what might be in those exhaust gases that might cause sickness you'd have to be a bit of an idiot not to understand that CO, CO2, NOx, SOx, etc. are not good for your helath!

A life support engineer, who was not consulted, believes that the problem is in the bleed air system. The seals are leaking under the extreme pressures, and that's allowing the toxins in the bleed air system to leak into the cockpit. The reason that the charcoal filters didn't catch anything, is because the OBOGS system would filter out the toxins. But there is a vent that would allow the toxins to enter the cockpit behind the seat, and they could be absorbed through the pilots skin, or other ways.

reply to post by benrl


There is no interceptor drone, the X-47 is a small tactical bomber. I'm sure there will be one day but the technology is some way in the future yet.

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
Let's hope is is true

"The Air Force is confident the root cause of the issue is the supply of oxygen delivered to pilots, not the quality of oxygen delivered to pilots," Little said.

A valve in the vest the pilots wear at high altitude was causing the vest to inflate or deflate at inappropriate times, Little said. The vests, which are required above 44,000 feet to protect pilots in case of an accidental rapid decompression of the cockpit, have been suspended from F-22 flights since June. The valves will all be replaced and the Air Force will brief Panetta on the modifications before the planes return to normal duty, he said.

from here

I wonder what the next F-22 bashing topic wil be....

This can't be the problem, in the August 2012 Issue of "AirForce Monthly" or was it "Combat Aircraft" the General, (or was it some one else) said that the "Stealth Coating was getting into the oxygen system and thats what has been causing the piolts problems, this inflate.deflate thi"ng their saying in the link you posted is a VERY minor problem that would have been fixed 10+ years ago, I can't believe it's that, but who know I could be wrong.

The Air Force has lifted most of the operating restrictions on the F-22 pilots. They have flown 21,000 sorties without incident since the grounding was lifted.

All of the restrictions have been lifted, except the altitude restriction. Pilots must remain below 35,000 feet, unless they are wearing a high altitude flight suit. A new pulse ox monitor has been installed in the helmet to warn of hypoxia like events.

Once a new valve has been installed in the environmental systems, they will be allowed to return to their 60,000 foot limit. A redesigned valve experienced "flutter" during testing, so they're still working on a modification to the valve in question.

www.flightglobal.com...

Isn't this why US Pilot's won't fly the Raptor?

reply to post by CALGARIAN


The number of pilots that won't fly the Raptor is minuscule. There have only been a handful that have officially refused to fly the jet, the rest of them don't seem to have any problem flying it.

reply to post by benrl

The number one limiting component to all aircraft.

The pilot.

They have that interceptor drone they are testing, once thats up and working Piloted craft will be obsolete in comparison.

Yeah... except that you can't hack into a pilot.

(second Line)