![]() ![]() First and foremost, the Navy was already dealing with the high cost of maintaining the sweep wing apparatus on the F-14 Tomcat. That variable-sweep wing design itself brought a slew of its own problems engineers would need to solve. Related: F-14 TOMCAT: IRAN’S BEST FIGHTER JET USED TO BE AMERICA’S TOP GUN The NATF-22 would also have to leverage the same sort of variable-sweep wing approach found on the F-14 to grant the aircraft the ability to fly slowly enough to safely land aboard a carrier. The fuselage needs to be more physically robust to withstand the incredible forces applied to it during catapult launches and short-distance landings supported by a tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. Aircraft designed for carrier operations have to manage a very different set of take-off and landing challenges than their land-based counterparts. Navy opted to pursue a carrier-capable variant of the F-22, there would have been a number of significant technical hurdles to overcome. ![]() As a result, the NATF-22 concept was dropped in early 1991. By 1990, some seven years before the F-22 would first take to the sky, Admiral Richard Dunleavy, the man responsible for outlining the Navy’s requirements for a new fighter, was quoted as saying that he didn’t see any way the F-22 could be incorporated into an affordable plan for Naval aviation. Investigators also spoke with F-22 manufacturer Lockheed Martin and other companies that work on the jet, though their input was not made public.Īfter more than a year of silence on the mishap, the Air Force said in August the jet crashed because of a “maintenance error made after the aircraft was washed” that “impacted control inputs transmitted to the aircraft.” The service did not elaborate on that error the investigation documents do not include interviews with maintainers or other clear evidence of a cause.In a prelude to things to come, the NATF program, and its associated plans for an NATF-22, were soon seen as prohibitively expensive. The pilot was not fatigued, stressed or intoxicated at the time of the accident. In total, the accident cost more than $202 million in damages, including the $201.6 million aircraft, two CATM-9 air-intercept training missiles valued at $32,000 apiece, and $850,000 in environmental cleanup costs. ![]() “There were multiple agencies that I believe were attempting to help using their best judgment, but the airspace over the crash site actually got saturated and became … fairly dangerous,” the supervisor said.į-22s flying overhead almost collided in midair with F-35s that were acting as the on-scene commanders - a near miss that the supervisor said should be a learning opportunity for future emergency response coordination in the area. Some U-28 special operations reconnaissance planes from Hurlburt took over at the scene once the F-35s ran out of gas, the flying supervisor said. His calves were sore and his hands scratched, but otherwise felt fine, a lieutenant colonel working as the sortie operations supervisor told investigators.Ī local tour helicopter was en route to help find the pilot while military personnel were on their way, but was called off when the pilot confirmed to local officials that he was OK. The downed pilot landed in shrubbery within about 100 yards of a nearby road and hitched a ride back to Eglin in a government-owned vehicle that had pulled up. … I began attempting to steer towards the clearing and avoid the fireball.”į-35s flew to the scene to relay coordinates to search-and-rescue forces, but none were available from Duke Field, Hurlburt Field or the surrounding local area, according to another captain, an instructor with the 43rd Fighter Squadron who served as the flying supervisor during the mishap. “Then I realized that, no, that was actually where my airplane landed. “Looking down, I thought, ‘Oh, there’s a forest fire down there,’” the pilot said. Hornet 2 looked on as the F-22 spiraled down and slammed into the ground. Time slowed as the pilot launched out of the cockpit, watching the jet’s canopy fall through the air in a daze. ![]()
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