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- What I got from the segment, was that the USAF would rather put our pilots at risk, than to be embarased about the f-22 being grounded again. How dare our military use these outstanding pilots as lab rats. Ground this aircraft ASAP and fix the damn problem. The American public is going to be watching what you do to these pilots and you better leave them alone. They are heroes for Gods sake. Thank God we have a system in place to let military personnel tell us what our military is up to. I was in the ASAF for many years and I saw this kind of **** all the time and did not know that I could go to my congressman and be protected from reintaliation. I hope other brave men come forward and whistleblow on the military.
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- All advanced systems pushing the envelope experience teething issues. The airship even at 400+ million is a good investment. It's capability to shoot down 6, F-15's, 2006 price,100 million apiece, without being detected, is cost efficient.
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- My first thought based on the "Raptor cough" and the use of the hyperbaric chamber is that they are suffering for something like mountain sickness aka pulmonary edema. Perhaps the enhanced performance envelope of the aircraft can induce fluid build-up in the lungs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_sickness - Reply to this comment
- This whole F22 business reeks!
first of all, in answer to someone's question, it's Lockheed Martin that makes them. Just this last week, the last of the ordered 188 were delivered. The Air Force says they're the bargain price of $133 million dollars a piece. BUT, that doesn't include research and development costs. According to the Government Accountability Office, we've got about $412 million dollars into each these babies. Now, they are planning an additional $11.7 upgrade which would bring the cost of owning the raptors a whopping $79 billion dollars...for one type of military aircraft...that hasn't flown a single combat mission.
Now I'm sure that $79 billion employed some, but I'll bet that a privileged few got fabulously wealthy from this deal.
On a sidenote comparison, an estimated 600,000 government workers were laid off in the last 18 months. That's teachers, firemen and police officers that make this world a better place and keep you safe. For 1 billion dollars, you can give 16,500 people a good $60,000 a year job.
This was all brought to my attention by the Norman Goldman show and I followed up and found the info myself. You can find it to if you google it. - Reply to this comment
- I just watched, "Is the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet making pilots sick?" and am greatly concerned with this issue. I was an evaluator for the B-1 Aircraft On-Board Oxygen Generation System back in the '80s out at Edwards Air Force Base; then the Strategic Air Command, then Air Combat Command Aircraft Environmental Systems Program Manager. From watching the story, I've already got some input on the problem(s); short-term and long-term recommendations. If the DOD and Air Force is interested in obtaining my help to assist I give 60 Minutes permission to release my contact info (E-Mail address) to them. God Bless 60 Minutes for running this.
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- There wasn't any problems with the Raptors under Bush. Why now under Obama. Always conjuring up a problem, this Obama guy.. So he can create the solution. What's the solution in his pea brain? Get rid of the raptor and appease the communists, just like with START and out missile defense. You frikin Libs are overplaying your hand.
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- During one training session, one of few offered to civilian firefighters, the Air Force told us: "If it's burning, don't go near it." The composite material puts off such a toxic vapor when heated, it well penetrate the best of turn-out gear.
I sounds like they need to route the oxygen from a different source, rather than routing it through the engine which is heated and attached to the material.
The aircraft itself may be the cause of the hypoxia. The Air Force may want to look into incapsulating the cockpit and give the pilots a vapor barrier of safety.
Whatever the cause, during this time of de-escalation in the wars, seems an optimum time to research the cause, using machines, not pilots, to isolate and correct the problem.
Using our military members as test monkeys is a common practice that has bee going on since first military force was ever formed.
The Philidelphia incident comes to mind, as does the Trinity project, which was done here in New Mexico. - Reply to this comment
- It's a new airplane, of course there are going to be problems. The media, as usual, are so desperate to point out every little thing wrong with these new planes in order to get them canceled it's pathetic. And, it's all standard practice for them. We all heard nearly all this same kind of crap with respect to the F-16, when the media labeled it a "yard dart" and implied that the F-16 ought to be scrapped not long after the F-16 first entered service with the military. And now, it's one of the preeminent fighters of the United States Air Force.
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- Regarding two of the earlier comments here. First Ozone is not a likely factor in this as the concentrations are not sufficient to cause these kinds of symptoms and even if it were it will be removed from the equation by the following factors. Contrary to one assumption that appeared earlier, air taken from the engines does not come from the jet exhaust. It's collected off the eighth stage of the compressor before it gets to the burner section. As such the air is highly compressed and comes off at a temp of roughly 580 degrees F. And by the way, this is exactly the same method used to supply pessurized oxygen to the cabin of a commercial jetliner. From there it must be cooled, passed through a pressure reducing regulator. It is then fed, in the case of the Raptor to the Oxygen generators. In the case of the jetliner, directly into the cabin. Any Ozone that it might contain by this stage should have been converted to oxygen by the heat, as ozone is unstable in the first place. So neither of these suggestions could play any part in the problem. Incidentally, if ozone at extreme altitude were a problem the Concorde would have consistently landed with a load of sick passengers.
However, I'm surprised the airforce doctors are attributing this to simple hypoxia. Certainly many of the immediate symptoms resemble hypoxia, but the long term effects that require radical treatments such as hyperberic chambers, etc. are more indicative of carbon monoxide poisoning. Red blood cells have a higher affinity for carbon monoxide than for oxygen. Consequently once saturated they take a long time to release their load of CO, thus preventing them from taking on O2.
With all the technology available today it should be a simple matter to install a small collection device on the pilot's oxygen supply hoses to get samples of the gasses he may be breathing. After that the analysis of these samples should be a fairly routine manner for any reasonably equipped lab. - Reply to this comment
- Capt Wilson should read AFI 36-2903. He is an embarrassment to the USAF and the Air National Guard.
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