Has the F-22 Fighter Aircraft Broken Murphy"s Cardinal Sin? Keep It Simple Silly
We all know that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or robotic aircraft do not need pilots.
This saves a lot of money, time in construction, and expensive system installations during the manufacturing process.
Consider if you will all that is required to put a human pilot in a fighter aircraft that will fly at two to three times the speed of sound? You have to protect that human inside, he or she is a fragile organism, compared to the strength of the aircraft and materials which make it up.
All these complex systems needed to sustain and protect a pilot add weight, cost, and cause the aircraft to be bigger.
Consider if you will that just the ejection seat and oxygen system are quite complex and costly.
In some of these aircraft the extra weight involved to put a pilot aboard is 20-25% or more - and the cost; 35-40% - also consider that more complex systems mean more chance for failure of one of those systems, which typically happens at the worst and most inopportune times - aka; Murphy's Law.
Now then, The F-22 has run into all sorts of cost over-runs and recently all of the aircraft which have been produced so far have been grounded, this time due to the Oxygen Generation System.
Approximately 165 aircraft have been grounded, basically all of them produced so far.
In fact, there was an interesting article recently in the Kansas City Star (Associated Press Syndicated) on May 8, 2011 titled "Stealth Fighters Grounded" which stated; "The US Air Force is no longer flying its entire fleet of F-22 Raptors because of concerns about the system that delivers oxygen to the pilots aboard the stealth fighter jets, a military spokeswoman said Friday.
" One of the most important things for a military is its preparedness and readiness at all times to defend its nation.
Having the most technologically endowed weaponry is noble and an obvious example of the US prowess when it comes to innovation and science in building war machines, but if those systems are too complex and cannot maintain uptime status, then may I ask; what good are they? Look, here is the deal; I am not against the F-22, I am indeed completely impressed with its performance, but we must do a better job.
Our weapons which protect our nation must be as reliable as a properly tempered sword.
Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
It's a serious issue, not to be taken lightly.
This saves a lot of money, time in construction, and expensive system installations during the manufacturing process.
Consider if you will all that is required to put a human pilot in a fighter aircraft that will fly at two to three times the speed of sound? You have to protect that human inside, he or she is a fragile organism, compared to the strength of the aircraft and materials which make it up.
All these complex systems needed to sustain and protect a pilot add weight, cost, and cause the aircraft to be bigger.
Consider if you will that just the ejection seat and oxygen system are quite complex and costly.
In some of these aircraft the extra weight involved to put a pilot aboard is 20-25% or more - and the cost; 35-40% - also consider that more complex systems mean more chance for failure of one of those systems, which typically happens at the worst and most inopportune times - aka; Murphy's Law.
Now then, The F-22 has run into all sorts of cost over-runs and recently all of the aircraft which have been produced so far have been grounded, this time due to the Oxygen Generation System.
Approximately 165 aircraft have been grounded, basically all of them produced so far.
In fact, there was an interesting article recently in the Kansas City Star (Associated Press Syndicated) on May 8, 2011 titled "Stealth Fighters Grounded" which stated; "The US Air Force is no longer flying its entire fleet of F-22 Raptors because of concerns about the system that delivers oxygen to the pilots aboard the stealth fighter jets, a military spokeswoman said Friday.
" One of the most important things for a military is its preparedness and readiness at all times to defend its nation.
Having the most technologically endowed weaponry is noble and an obvious example of the US prowess when it comes to innovation and science in building war machines, but if those systems are too complex and cannot maintain uptime status, then may I ask; what good are they? Look, here is the deal; I am not against the F-22, I am indeed completely impressed with its performance, but we must do a better job.
Our weapons which protect our nation must be as reliable as a properly tempered sword.
Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
It's a serious issue, not to be taken lightly.
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