[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I understand that a canopy has to be designed to withstand all kinds of things and, for the F-22, have stealth characteristics. I'm a bit skeptical of a canopy that costs more than the landing gear, though. The F-16's canopy costs about $30,000.

[narby]

The F-16's canopy costs about $30,000.

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.

[Oztrich Boy]

I'm a bit skeptical of a canopy that costs more than the landing gear, though. The F-16's canopy costs about $30,000.

Tooling to build canopy, say $10 million

Machinery cost written off over 5,000 aircraft = $2,000/aircraft

Machinery cost written off over 182 aircrqft = $55,000/aircraft