F/A-22

WASHINGTON One of the Air Force's prized and politically vulnerable
F/A-22 Raptor fighter jets nearly crashed during a recent practice
flight, prompting an investigation, service officials confirm.

The previously unreported incident occurred Sept. 19 near Edwards Air
Force Base, Calif., officials said, when an experienced F-15 pilot
with less than 20 hours in the exotic new F/A-22 attempted a dogfight
maneuver that sent the aircraft plummeting downward in an upside-down
spiral.

The unidentified pilot became disoriented as the $161 million plane,
which is partly built in Fort Worth, plunged more than 10,000 feet
from a beginning altitude of 13,000 to 15,000 feet, a senior Air Force
official told The Dallas Morning News, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

The pilot and plane were saved when he released the controls and the
F/A-22 stopped spiraling, allowing him to regain his bearings, the
official said.

"He pulled out at about 2,800 feet above the ground, not knowing what
had happened to him, declared an emergency" and landed safely at
Edwards, where F/A-22 flight tests are conducted, this official said.

The pilot of an F-16 chase plane witnessed the incident, which
occurred during a flight that began in nearby Palmdale, Calif., where
maintenance had been performed on the F/A-22.

A safety investigation board headed by a brigadier general found no
flaw in the airplane or any mechanical reason for the incident, the
official said. The Air Force is expected to examine the pilot's
conduct in a process called a commander-directed investigation.
Such a proceeding could lead to disciplinary action against the pilot
or any others deemed responsible for the in-flight emergency.

"There are no restrictions on this aircraft," the Air Force official
said. "We have not in any way grounded the fleet of aircraft. We have
not grounded this particular aircraft.

"This is not an airplane problem."

High-tech stealth jet

The F/A-22, a twin-engine stealth jet with "thrust vectoring" that
allows it to do unconventional maneuvers by pointing its exhaust in
different directions, is built by Lockheed Martin Corp. in Fort Worth
and Marietta, Ga. Boeing Co. of Seattle, Wash., is a one-third
partner.

"Lockheed Martin is cooperating with the Air Force investigation as
requested," company spokesman Sam Grizzle said. "Any other questions
have to go to the
Air Force."

The near loss of F/A-22 No. 4011, which would have been the first
Raptor to crash since a prototype in 1992, came four days before a
high-level Pentagon committee met to review the $67 billion program.

Critics have tried for years to cancel the costly Raptor on grounds
that it is a Cold War relic designed to contend with high-performance
fighters from a hostile Soviet Union that no longer exists.

Development problems, including difficulties with the F/A-22's complex
avionics software, have led Congress to cap the program and cut the
number the Air Force is to buy.

The Air Force official, however, said the urgency and depth of the
investigation of the near crash had nothing to do with the F/A-22's
troubled political history and the Pentagon panel's meeting.

Rather than a threat to the program, the official said, the incident
"more than reassured us that we have a rock-solid aircraft, we have a
robust design and we have no problems with this airplane."

In its Sept. 23 meeting, the Defense Acquisition Board approved
continued F/A-22 production but scheduled another session in February
to decide whether the plane is ready for operational testing.

With 18 F/A-22s in the Air Force test program inventory, Congress
recently approved $3.6 billion to build an additional 22 Raptors.

The F/A-22 program employs about 2,500 of the 16,300 workers at
Lockheed's Fort Worth plant. The plant also builds the F-16 Fighting
Falcon and will build the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Experienced F-15 pilot

Air Force officials declined to identify the pilot in the Sept. 19
incident by name but described him as an experienced F-15C Eagle
fighter pilot who is among seven Air Combat Command fliers tapped to
learn the F/A-22.

Col. Joseph Lanni, director of F/A-22 testing at Edwards, said the
pilot "is not flying right now" but refused to describe him as
"grounded."

"He was not doing some unauthorized maneuver," Col. Lanni said. "He
had an unexpected response out of the airplane, got the airplane back
into a straight-in landing and landed right here at Edwards."

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the initial
investigation was a comprehensive effort that focused on whether
something was wrong with the aircraft that caused it to go into its
near-death spiral.

The safety investigation board collected and analyzed radar tapes,
voice tapes, eyewitness accounts, interviews with the pilots,
maintenance documents and all other available data, the official said.

"We brought in government and industry experts, we brought in
individuals who were developmental test pilots in the F/A-22, we
brought in test community experts, we brought in operational experts,
we bought in logisticians," he added.

After finding no problem with the airplane, the Air Force is
considering whether the pilot or others in the chain of command were
at fault.

The senior official recounted what is known about the incident this
way:

After taking off from Palmdale, the F/A-22 pilot went through a
prescribed set of maneuvers known as advanced handling characteristics
"so that he, the pilot, could learn how the aircraft responds to his
control inputs," the official said.

Having successfully completed that phase of the flight, the F/A-22
pilot and the F-16 chase plane began flying basic fighter maneuvers
practicing for combat.

The trouble started, the official said, as the planes were flying
side-by-side at slow speed and "fighting for position."

"In an attempt to get behind the other aircraft, the pilot of our
F/A-22 raised the nose very excessively at extraordinarily slow
speeds" and tried a "rolling reposition to get behind the other
aircraft," the official said.

As the F/A-22 rolled upside down and over the F-16, the official said,
the Raptor lost all airspeed but continued maneuvering because the
thrust vectoring nozzles were pushing the exhaust out at an angle and
the pilot was continuing to use the rudders and stick to try to roll.

'Hanging upside down'

"He finds himself literally hanging upside down," the official said,
and the F/A-22 "starts him into an inverted, rolling spiral ...
towards the ground."

After falling thousands of feet, the pilot "lets go of the flight
controls," the official said, and the highly computerized F/A-22
straightened itself out.

"The nose is now pointed towards the ground, the airspeed continues to
build, he recognizes that the airplane is flying and he very carefully
and gingerly flies out the back side of what almost looks like a loop,
ending at the lowest point about 2,800 feet above ground," the
official said.

The incident lasted "a matter of seconds," the official reported, but
"it probably did seem like an eternity to him."

[By Richard Whittle, The Dallas Morning News]