Lockheed-Martin-Boeing F-22 Raptor

Quick Summary

• First Stealth Fighter, beat the YF-23 in the ATF finals.
• Carries M61 Vulcan Machine gun with 500 rounds 4 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and 4 Sidewinder Missiles all in concealed bays
• Goes Mach 1.7, ceiling: over 50,000 ft. range: 3,500 mi with max fuel
• Radar: AN/APG-77 fire control radar, 2 Pratt and Whitney F119-PW-100 turbo fan engines with after burners

The F-22 is the worlds first stealth fighter thats main role is air superiority. The F-117 Night Hawk was supposudly made to be a fighter and carrying two AIM-9 side winders, but the airforce had a smarter and better idea to have it carry bombs although a small load it may be it can go into heavily defended areas on take out high priority military targets. The F-15 was starting to age and with the extremely high succesful rate of the f-117 they thought "hmmm alot of air battles take alot of lives why dont we make a fast manuverable fighter that will take barelly any loses while the enemy loses a high percentage of aircraft" so thats were part of the concept came up. The F-22 pilot will be carrying one of the safest aircraft and the best fighter in his hands.The F-22 will cost a remarkable 150 million dollars for one plane but its worth every penny. The F-22 was in competition with the YF-23, although in many ways the was a better fighter in some ways, faster, stealthier (for example the RCS-Radar Cross Section-is 100% while the F-22 was at 50% and the YF-23 at 40%)the only place where the f-22 dominated was low speed handling and political support. The YF-23 was made by Northrop Grumman, a company that already had problems with the B-2 having delays and cost over runs and Mcdonnel Douglas was having problems with the canceled a-12 project, while Lockheed Martin in contrast had the succesful f-117. The F-22 will be armed with 4 AIM-120 AMRAAMS in the body and 4 AIM-9 sidewinders in the side bays and an M61 6 barreled Vulcan Machine gun with 500 rounds. Its 2 Pratt and Whitney f-119-PW-100 turbofans will push this 21st century superfighter to speeds exceding 1000 m.p.h. It has a max ceiling of 50,000 ft. and a range of 3,500 mi. Its deminsions are: Span-44ft 6in. Length-62ft. 1in. Height-16ft. 5in. Wing area-840 sq. ft. It will replace the F-15 in 2005. Each unit will cost 150 million dollars, alot compared with the 40 million dollar F-14 and small compared to the 2 billion dollar B-2. First flight was made on Sept. 29, 1990.