Pilot locked in F22

On 29-Apr-2007, TheSmokingGnu wrote:

The canopy is held onto the aircraft by those explosive bolts. If those
don't remove the canopy's incentive to remain attached, there's not much
you can do about it.

As a bonus, however, the seatback will punch through the canopy first,
and you're wearing that fancy helmet. Worth a shot, at least! :P

TheSmokingGnu




I can't speak for the F-22, but I can tell you with the F-4 Phantom, if the
canopy didn't jettison, you couldn't eject. There was no such thing as
ejecting through the canopy. And an F-4s canopy wouldn't have jettisoned if
had been stuck closed as it was on that F-22. That's why they had a great
big knife on each canopy's left rail, to cut your way out if you had to.
With the F-4 (and the F-15) the canopy is jettisoned by shooting unregulated
compressed air into the pneumatic actuator normally used to open and close
the canopy. The canopy would open so fast with the unregulated air that it
would snap off the hinges at the rear. There were NO explosive bolts
involved. If the canopy was already open, you couldn't eject either, as the
canopy jettison system couldn't work.
As I said, I don't know what kind of system the F-22 uses, so the above
might not be pertinent. But I do know ejecting has plenty of potential
injuries and hazards. I think they did the right thing by exhausting all
other avenues, then cutting the pilot out.
Scott Wilson
Phormer Phantom comm-nav avionics tech
F-4C 1980-82, F-4E 1982-86

Vaughn Simon wrote:
"TheSmokingGnu" wrote in message
...
601XL Builder wrote:
At that point, why not have some fun and try out the ejection seat?

And if you pull the ejection lever and the canopy STILL stays stubbornly
attached? What then?

Vaughn





Vaughn, Please watch your attributions. There is nothing in the above
that I wrote except the subject line?

I would be willing to bet if $50,000 were offered to all involved
(engineers and mechanics) for the first person to figure out how to get
the pilot out, with out damaging the plane, they would still have an
intact canopy and saved $132,200

601XL Builder wrote:
For what a F22 costs you'd think they'd throw in an extra set of keys.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20396

How much crap do you think this guy had to deal with in the ready room?

--
Chris W
KE5GIX

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On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:36:45 -0500, 601XL Builder
wrDOTgiacona@suddenlinkDOTnet wrote in
:

For what a F22 costs you'd think they'd throw in an extra set of keys.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20396


Canopy replacement cost is $182,205

The question is, did LocMart reimburse the USAF for the new
replacement canopy, cost of canopy replacement, emergency personnel,
five hours of pilot time, trouble-shooting of the aircraft, and
aircraft time lost from service? Or did the tax payers end up paying
for LocMart's obviously defective hardware/software/design?

I found this quote interesting:

The aircraft subsequently ground aborted.

If the aircraft has demonstrated its ability to malfunction, I'm not
sure I'd be comfortable with it making any decisions at all if I were
PIC. What if it decided to open the canopy at mach 2 for instance.

"Open the pod-bay doors, Dave...."