F-22A Raptor: Super stealth, super fast, super costly

Posted on: Feb. 25th, 2006 || Source: washdateline.mgnetwork.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

F-22A Raptor: Super stealth, super fast, super costly

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. - The gold-tinted canopy closed and a wave of apprehension swept over Air Force pilot Wade Tolliver as he started the jet engines for his first flight in an F-22 Raptor.

“I was scared I’d scratch the jet,” Tolliver said.

The lieutenant colonel, a veteran of more than 2,000 hours in jets, had reason to worry. A mistake could be very costly. The plane he sat in cost $339 million.

The Raptor is the Air Force’s new super jet – super stealthy, supersonic and super expensive.

It is virtually invisible to radar, masked from infrared sensors, faster than a speeding bullet and better than anything else flying these days. Some think it will be better than anything flying for the next two decades, at least.

The Raptor is more expensive than any other jet, commercial or military, but one. The B-2 bomber costs about $2.2 billion each.

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