F-22 Fighter Plane
...159 MILLION dollars
Cost to train the F-22 Pilot
...8 MILLION dollars
Cost of an in flight fill-up...20 THOUSAND dollars.
Not able to get the danged canopy open...PRICELESS!!
OUCH!!!
And over 182 THOUSAND dollars later!!!
Posted on 04/25/2006 4:14:09 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
After seeing the pics of that "glass" I don't think I'd volunteer to be the first one to shoot at it from the inside... I don't think it would be fun. :-)
an average cost of $159 million per plane, making it the most expensive fighter aircraft in history
http://www.cdi.org/issues/aviation/F22.html
ejection is not an option except in case of severe distress. new flight suits and seats are cheap by comparison.
It is made by Lockheed Martin.
I've seen a couple in production, and I agree with your statement.
It sounds like a defect. Time for a recall and free replacement!
OUCH!!!
And over 182 THOUSAND dollars later!!!
Usually the canopy can be blown off the airplane.
"Replacement cost of the canopy will be $182,205."
Got away cheap.
What is that 2" thick? Someone somewhere is going to get their butt kicked.
They're only ordering a hundred or so of these things. So the development of every part, and every mold, etc. has to be amortized across a puny small number. Therefore it costs a bunch.
Also, we hide secret stuff in contracts like this. That's how we supposedly built the "BlackStar", by hiding money in an earlier canceled Navy fighter contract.
When I was at Luke AFB and the very first F-15 squadron, the jack pads for the airplane were identical to F-4 jack pads, but the cost was at least 10X, maybe 20X. We were warned *not* to use F-4 jack pads, whatever the cost.
New stuff costs more than old stuff. Always has, always will. That's the military procurement way.
When the F-22 is 30 years old, canopies will cost $16k in 2006 dollars too.
Usually the canopy can be blown off the airplane.
Yes it can, but that is an extreme measure, reserved for true emergencies. When you blow the canopy, there's the potential for even more damage if the canopy hits the aircraft on the way down.
Same goes for ejection. When those rockets fire under the seat, they do tremendous damage to the inside of the cockpit.
And we can't even get a good American built chainsaw anymore.
When I was in the Navy, the canopy of one of our birds was damaged during inflight refueling.
Instead of just pulling it off and replacing it, they strapped one of our fully equipped pilot into the seat, and timed to see how long it would take him to exit the aircraft using his survival knife.
It was pretty cool. When they pressed the go buttton on the stopwatch, he pulled the knife out, and with both hands, jammed it up through the plexiglass canopy. He then poked, sawed and smashed until he was able to climb out. I forget how long it took.
We did take major precautions, though, to ensure none of the canopy became FOD in the cockpit...
Boy...does that pilot look PISSED or WHAT!
$170k of that goes to the personnel who fill out government paperwork
That will be a rather substantial "payroll deduction".
:-)
Is it just me or do others find themselves wondering why the fire department was extracting him instead of military personell????
Something doesn't fit imho
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