AP 118 · No. 11 Section II · Aircraft Plate 359 / 372

Plate 359 of 372 · Modern age · Air-superiority fighter

Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor

F-22A Block 35 09-4191, painted as Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor Block 35 serial 09-4191 of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Operations Group, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, as photographed at the Royal International Air Tattoo, RAF Fairford, in July 2016 (no F-22 is in a UK museum): the American stealth air-superiority fighter of 1997, with a chined and faceted nose, raked caret intakes, a diamond wing, canted twin fins, large all-moving tailplanes and rectangular thrust-vectoring nozzles for its two Pratt & Whitney F119 turbofans: metallic grey, pale above and darker below the chine, with a darker radome behind a sawtooth joint, paler wing and tailplane margins, a dark panel on each fin carrying ‘FF’ and ‘AF 09 191’ in pale grey, tan screened panels behind the gold-tinted frameless canopy and a dark low-visibility national star on the port upper wing, parked with its weapons bays closed (shape from a three-view of the F-22A; gear bays, door outlines and panel lines are simplified, the nozzles are styled from another F-22, the fin crest is a simplified outline, the starboard fin’s serial and crest are mirrored from port, and small stencils are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor Block 35 serial 09-4191 of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Operations Group, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, as photographed at the Royal International Air Tattoo, RAF Fairford, in July 2016 (no F-22 is in a UK museum): the American stealth air-superiority fighter of 1997, with a chined and faceted nose, raked caret intakes, a diamond wing, canted twin fins, large all-moving tailplanes and rectangular thrust-vectoring nozzles for its two Pratt & Whitney F119 turbofans: metallic grey, pale above and darker below the chine, with a darker radome behind a sawtooth joint, paler wing and tailplane margins, a dark panel on each fin carrying ‘FF’ and ‘AF 09 191’ in pale grey, tan screened panels behind the gold-tinted frameless canopy and a dark low-visibility national star on the port upper wing, parked with its weapons bays closed (shape from a three-view of the F-22A; gear bays, door outlines and panel lines are simplified, the nozzles are styled from another F-22, the fin crest is a simplified outline, the starboard fin’s serial and crest are mirrored from port, and small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (606 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (F-22A); engine, crew and dimensions are for the F-22A Block 35 09-4191 modelled here.

History

The F-22A

The Raptor began in the 1980s as the US Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter, a replacement for the F-15 Eagle meant to meet new Soviet fighters and missiles. Two teams each built a pair of prototypes: Lockheed, Boeing and General Dynamics the YF-22, and Northrop and McDonnell Douglas the YF-23. Pratt & Whitney and General Electric competed to supply the engines. The YF-23 was considered stealthier and faster, but the YF-22, with its thrust-vectoring nozzles, was more manoeuvrable, cheaper and less risky. On 23 April 1991 the Air Force chose the Lockheed team and Pratt & Whitney. The first F-22 was named at Marietta, Georgia, in April 1997 and first flew there on 7 September that year, with chief test pilot Paul Metz at the controls.

The shape combines stealth with performance. The wing and tail edges share the same angles and door edges are sawtoothed, so radar returns are thrown off in a few narrow directions, while the raked caret intakes hide the engine faces and the weapons are carried inside the fuselage. The two F119 turbofans can hold about Mach 1.8 without afterburner, which is known as supercruise, and their rectangular nozzles swivel up and down to tighten the turn. The aircraft’s sensors feed one combined picture to the pilot, the only person on board.

The Air Force once planned to buy 750, then 381, but the programme was cut in 2009 as costs rose and the F-35 came on. The last of 195 was completed in December 2011 and delivered on 2 May 2012, and US law banned exports, so no other air force has flown it. The 94th Fighter Squadron at Langley, Virginia, declared initial operational capability in December 2005. The type’s first combat came in September 2014 with bombing strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria. It is still in US Air Force service. A few early airframes are in US museums; none is in a UK museum.

This airframe

F-22A Block 35 09-4191 ‘FF’

09-4191The airframe modelled

F-22A 09-4191, construction number 645-4191, carries ‘AF 09 191’ and the ‘FF’ tail code of Langley. F-16.net’s airframe database lists it as a Block 35, accepted at Marietta on 10 April 2012 and flown to Joint Base Langley-Eustis for the 94th Fighter Squadron, one of the last Raptors built. It is an in-service aircraft, not a museum piece, and the model follows photographs taken when it visited the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in July 2016, seen from the side, the front quarter, above, below and behind: metallic grey, pale above and darker below the chine, with a darker radome behind a sawtooth joint, paler wing and tailplane margins and a dark panel on each fin carrying the code and serial. The tan panels behind the canopy, the gold tint of the canopy and the dark national star on the port upper wing are all as photographed. Its shape follows a three-view of the F-22A. The gear bays, door outlines and panel lines are simplified, the nozzles are styled from a photograph of another F-22, and the small stencils are left off. The fin crest is a simplified outline because the photographs are too coarse to read it, and the serial and crest on the starboard fin are mirrored from the port side.

Where to see one

Not on charge

Still in USAF service. A few early airframes are in US museums; none is in a UK museum.

All 372 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.