How do you exit a F-22 cockpit?

From http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,97576,00.html

The Self-Locking F-22
Robert Bryce | May 17, 2006
Last week, Lockheed Martin announced that its profits were up a hefty
60 percent in the first quarter. The company earned $591 million in
profit on revenues of $9.2 billion. Now, if the company could just
figure out how to put a door handle on its new $361 million F-22
fighter, its prospects would really soar.

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad
Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours.
No one in the U.S. Air Force or from Lockheed Martin could figure out
how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1:15 pm, chainsaw-wielding
firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after
they cut through the F-22's three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate
canopy.

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon:
$1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which
cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin
which will cost about $1 million to replace.

The Pentagon currently plans to buy 181 copies of the F-22 from
Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest weapons vendor. The total price
tag: $65.4 billion.

The incident at Langley has many Pentagon watchers shaking their heads.
Tom Christie, the former director of testing and evaluation for the
DOD, calls the F-22 incident at Langley "incredible." "God knows
what'll happen next," said Christie, who points out that the F-22 has
about two million lines of code in its software system. "This thing is
so software intensive. You can't check out every line of code."

Now, just for the sake of comparison, Windows XP, one of the most
common computer operating systems, contains about 45 million lines of
code. But if any of that code fails, then the computer that's running
it simply stops working. It won't cause that computer to fall out of
the sky. If any of the F-22's two million lines of computer code go
bad, then the pilot can die, or, perhaps, just get trapped in the
cockpit.

One analyst inside the Pentagon who has followed the F-22 for years
said that "Everyone's incredulous. They're asking can this really have
happened?" As for Lockheed Martin, the source said, "Whatever the
problem was, the people who built it should know how to open the
canopy."

Given that the U.S. military is Lockheed Martin's biggest client,
perhaps the company could provide the Air Force with a supply of slim
jims or coat hangars, just in case another F-22 pilot gets stuck at the
controls.

As if the latest canopy shenanigans weren't bad enough, on May 1,
Defense News reported that there are serious structural problems with
the F-22. Seems the titanium hull of the aircraft isn't meshing as well
as it should. Naturally, taxpayers have to foot the bill for the
mistake (improper heat-treating of the titanium) which is found on 90
aircraft. The cost of repairing those wrinkles? Another $1 billion or
so.

Lockheed Martin's F-22 spokesman, Joe Quimby, did not return telephone
calls.

How do you exit a F-22 cockpit?

Step One of Fifteen:

Insert $1.28 million into cash acceptance slot below annunciator panel. Please use exact change. Credit card users please insert your Visa card or MasterCard into the reader nearby. Your available credit must equal or exceed the charge. American Express cards are NOT accepted at this location!...

g

--
Mike Kanze

"The real accomplishment of 'The Da Vinci Code' is that Dan Brown has proven that the theory of conspiracy theories is totally elastic, it has no limits."

- Daniel Henninger, WALL STREET JOURNAL - 5/19/06

"Mike" wrote in message oups.com...
From http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,97576,00.html

The Self-Locking F-22
[rest snipped]

Heck It would have been cheaper to roll the aircraft to a clear outside area
and let him eject. I doubt that would cost over a ½-¾ million or so, even
with medical cost. And most of that would be made up at in sales at "Happy
Hour" in the next few months as he told his story. Ya ain't a real pilot
until you have your own legend.

DJ


"Mike Kanze" wrote in message
...
How do you exit a F-22 cockpit?

Step One of Fifteen:

Insert $1.28 million into cash acceptance slot below annunciator panel.
Please use exact change. Credit card users please insert your Visa card or
MasterCard into the reader nearby. Your available credit must equal or
exceed the charge. American Express cards are NOT accepted at this
location!...

g

--
Mike Kanze

"The real accomplishment of 'The Da Vinci Code' is that Dan Brown has proven
that the theory of conspiracy theories is totally elastic, it has no
limits."

- Daniel Henninger, WALL STREET JOURNAL - 5/19/06

"Mike" wrote in message
oups.com...
From http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,97576,00.html

The Self-Locking F-22
[rest snipped]

----------
In article .com, "Mike"
wrote:


Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon:
$1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which
cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin
which will cost about $1 million to replace.

That latter part was totally avoidable. I don't know why there wasn't a
crew chief there to tell the firefighters to lift the canopy off to the
side, rather than set it down on the airplane.




D

DDAY wrote:

----------
In article .com, "Mike"
wrote:

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon:
$1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which
cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin
which will cost about $1 million to replace.

That latter part was totally avoidable. I don't know why there wasn't a
crew chief there to tell the firefighters to lift the canopy off to the
side, rather than set it down on the airplane.

D

Photos are available in the current AvLeak. The firefighters taped a
rectangular area on the top of the canopy extending down the sides, then sawed
through the tape. According to AvLeak the canopy cost is $186,000; there was
no mention of any damage to skin covering in the article, but it undoubtedly
went to press Friday or so.

Guy

from an email someone send to me:

"I'm inclined to doubt that the jammed canopy was due to a software
problem. Still, it's not impossible...I'm wondering why they didn't
just have the pilot blow the canopy. It
should be possible to do that w/o triggering the ejection seat,
shouldn't it? It seems to me that that would have caused less damage
overall, especially if they tethered the canopy to an overhead crane
first (suction cups? A few drilled holes? The canopy was probably a
write-off, anyway). Speaking of which, does anyone know if the F-22
uses a 'jetison' style canopy for ejection situations, or a
'glass-shatter' type system like the Tornado?"

Mike

----------
In article , Guy Alcala
wrote:

That latter part was totally avoidable. I don't know why there wasn't a
crew chief there to tell the firefighters to lift the canopy off to the
side, rather than set it down on the airplane.

Photos are available in the current AvLeak. The firefighters taped a
rectangular area on the top of the canopy extending down the sides, then sawed
through the tape. According to AvLeak the canopy cost is $186,000; there was
no mention of any damage to skin covering in the article, but it undoubtedly
went to press Friday or so.

I saw the PowerPoint slides. When they picked up the canopy, they then set
it down on the fuselage, where it slid a bit. It appeared to have actually
scratched the material, not simply the paint. I could easily see how a
piece of radar absorbing material that was part of the structure might have
to be replaced and might cost $1 million. What I don't understand is why
nobody told the firemen to take the canopy off to the side. This was not a
life threatening situation, it was a maintenance issue.

(Presumably the pilot had enough oxygen, although I don't know how they
would have gotten it to him. But once they made the initial cut in the
canopy they could blow in air.)


D

"Mike" wrote in message
oups.com...
From http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,97576,00.html

The Self-Locking F-22
Robert Bryce | May 17, 2006
Last week, Lockheed Martin announced that its profits were up a hefty
60 percent in the first quarter. The company earned $591 million in
profit on revenues of $9.2 billion. Now, if the company could just
figure out how to put a door handle on its new $361 million F-22
fighter, its prospects would really soar.

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad
Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours.
No one in the U.S. Air Force or from Lockheed Martin could figure out
how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1:15 pm, chainsaw-wielding
firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after
they cut through the F-22's three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate
canopy.

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon:
$1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which
cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin
which will cost about $1 million to replace.

The Pentagon currently plans to buy 181 copies of the F-22 from
Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest weapons vendor. The total price
tag: $65.4 billion.

The incident at Langley has many Pentagon watchers shaking their heads.
Tom Christie, the former director of testing and evaluation for the
DOD, calls the F-22 incident at Langley "incredible." "God knows
what'll happen next," said Christie, who points out that the F-22 has
about two million lines of code in its software system. "This thing is
so software intensive. You can't check out every line of code."

Now, just for the sake of comparison, Windows XP, one of the most
common computer operating systems, contains about 45 million lines of
code. But if any of that code fails, then the computer that's running
it simply stops working. It won't cause that computer to fall out of
the sky. If any of the F-22's two million lines of computer code go
bad, then the pilot can die, or, perhaps, just get trapped in the
cockpit.

One analyst inside the Pentagon who has followed the F-22 for years
said that "Everyone's incredulous. They're asking can this really have
happened?" As for Lockheed Martin, the source said, "Whatever the
problem was, the people who built it should know how to open the
canopy."

Given that the U.S. military is Lockheed Martin's biggest client,
perhaps the company could provide the Air Force with a supply of slim
jims or coat hangars, just in case another F-22 pilot gets stuck at the
controls.

As if the latest canopy shenanigans weren't bad enough, on May 1,
Defense News reported that there are serious structural problems with
the F-22. Seems the titanium hull of the aircraft isn't meshing as well
as it should. Naturally, taxpayers have to foot the bill for the
mistake (improper heat-treating of the titanium) which is found on 90
aircraft. The cost of repairing those wrinkles? Another $1 billion or
so.

Lockheed Martin's F-22 spokesman, Joe Quimby, did not return telephone
calls.

Video of the story

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp...6&nav=23iieWIY

when did we stop building fighters without a mechanical canopy release

"Mike" wrote in message
oups.com...

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon:
$1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which
cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin
which will cost about $1 million to replace.


$1 million to touch-up some scuffed paint?

What's the number of that waste, fraud, and abuse hotline?


JD