05/15/2020 at 20:31 • Filed to: Planelopnik, F-22 Raptor, florida | ![]() | ![]() |
An F-22 Raptor pilot is in stable condition and recovering at an Eglin Air Force Base hospital in Florida after a training accident Friday morning, according to Air Force officials.
The single-seat fighter jet was assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron, part of the 325th Fighter Wing now based at Eglin. The jet crashed at about 9:15 a.m. in a test at the training range located 12 miles northeast of the main base, according to a news release about the incident.
The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and has been transported to the 96th Medical Group hospital on the base for evaluation and observation, according to the release. His name has not been released.
Four Raptors have been destroyed in crashes, and four more were damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018, but were swiftly repaired. The last F-22 was delivered in 2011
![]() 05/15/2020 at 20:46 |
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The last F-22 was delivered in 2011
Oof.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:05 |
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yikes
05/15/2020 at 21:06 |
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Y eah, not only did the USAF only get half as many Raptors as they wanted, SecDef Gates ordered the tooling destroyed, so LockMart can't build more. Looks like we're stuck with the F-35, at least until the F-X and F/A-XX programs get rolling.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:20 |
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I jut don’t understand why the destroyed the tooling.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:20 |
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Probably sketched some people across the bay out, seeing more smoke. Across Blackwater Bay from Eglin recently were some pretty big forest fires a couple of weeks back. Where I used to live was evacuated.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:28 |
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I watched them flight the F22 around 2000-2001. It’s an amazing jet. Why they destroy the tooling is beyond me.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:36 |
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Huh? I’ve read tooling was saved. A study of the feasibility of restarting said:
This included approximately $228 million to refurbish production tooling
That’s a lot of money but it certainly doesn’t sound like remanufactuing new tooling, and is only a tiny percentage of the ~$10B estimated restart cost.
And more directly:
The Air Force also noted that while approximately 95 percent of the F-22-related production tooling is still available, the physical productions facilities either no longer exist or are supporting other Lockheed Martin programs, such as the F-35. After the 2011 study, the service elected to put the “primary production tooling” into a warehouse at Sierra Army Depot in California in case there was a need to make certain spare parts in the future.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 21:38 |
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They didn’t, see the link I posted above. 95% is still available.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 22:49 |
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I’ve got a friend stationed in Belgium who owns a house on Garcon Point. Thankfully he only lost his irrigation pump to the blaze. That fire was nuts.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 22:50 |
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User name checks out!
![]() 05/15/2020 at 23:10 |
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I’m genuinely shocked it doesn’t happen more often. The state DNR(or whatever it is there) would start fires on wind advisory days, and they got out of control 3-4 times a year, but luckily they just ended up taking swamp. I actually had a pic somewhere of the morons starting a fire directly behind a wind advisory light up sign.
![]() 05/15/2020 at 23:16 |
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It always seemed like there was no notice about it- just a massive fire all of a sudden. I remember one that looked to stretch from the East end of Navarre all the way through Mary Esther North of Hurlburt. No one was concerned because it was “just a prescribed burn”. I suppose they don’t get completely out of hand more often because they actually do them, vs. Oregon's policy of just letting the state burn to the ground every time there's a lightning strike while banning logging, clearing and prescribed burns that might help prevent it.