If you're not doing anything Sunday evening, I suggest you watch 60 Minutes. (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

(This will be my first time in years and years and years.)

In November 2010 a pilot flying an F-22 in Alaska lost consciousness ('situational awareness ' in military-speak) and augured that almost half a billion dollar jet and himself into the ground.

The entire fleet of 186 F-22s were grounded for at least five months in 2011. Yup, all $77+ billion of these wondertoys were grounded because the oxygen system would cause pilots to 'experience hypoxia-like symptoms in flight', aka blackout. It's really bad form to blackout while you're flying a jet

Apparently there's been rumbles among the F-22 pilot community about the safety of flying these top-of-the-line $418 million front-line fifth-generation stealth fighters. I've been watching the military rags daily and in the last few months I've seen a number of articles about the search to find the root cause of the problem. The military, Lockheed Martin and Boeing (amongst others) have been trying to find out why the oxygen system in the F-22 fails for over a year with no luck to date. Nada. None. Zip.

At least Lockheed Martin is consistent in producing expensive crap that kills people. The only difference this time is they are killing the people who use these things.

Which leads me back to the subject of this thread.

F-22 Pilots to Discuss Why They Won’t Fly the Jet
http://defensetech.org/2012/05/04/f-22-pilots-to-discuss-why-they-wont-fly-the-jet/?comp=1198882887570&rank=4




So there’s been a bunch of commotion this week because two F-22 Raptor pilots say they want to transfer to flying different jets. Now, the pilots will go on 60 Minutes this Sunday to discuss the matter. Naturally, everyone’s freaking out since the pilots are apparently going to blow the lid off the jets’ safety issues that we, and everyone else, have written about over the last year.



unhappycamper comment: The $418 million dollar price tag on these bad boys came from a Time magazine article last summer.

[valerief]

1. Well, the purpose of the jets is

1) to make rich people richer
2) to justify the WAR budget (DOD)
3) and to make rich people much richer

Using them serves no purpose.

[bananas]

2. "Time of Useful Consciousness"

"Time of Useful Consciousness" is the time between the onset of oxygen deficiency and the loss of consciousness.
These are the brief moments in which a pilot may save the plane.

It's also the name of a good radio show: http://www.tucradio.org/
Lot's of archived interviews.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. Thanks