The end of an era.
That thing is so cool, I wonder what is gonna come out and be developed now, unless they just make the raptor do like, everything lol
thats the idea… the raptor can do pretty much everything… if it wasn;t such a piece of shit. and would work already!!!
What?
Sad to see. 
The raptor is a better replacement for the steath but the jsf is pretty bad ass.
Indeed, but if the F-22 is any indication. The JSF project is going to take quite awhile. Regardless they are all very impressive in their own rights.
Well, considering I work on both the F-22 and JSF…
The F-22 is what is the primary replacement. Now that there is one complete wing flying operational F-22s, and the 2nd one recieving aircraft, and the 3rd wing being trained the need for the F-117A is gone.
The f-22 has less RCS (Radar Cross Section) signature than the F-117 does, is a mach 2+ aircraft, and carries more than 2 bombs. The F-117A just became a non-viable way to deliver ordinance in a reasonable manner.
As for you guys comparing the F-22 and JSF, they are different animals and not really anywheres near the same in capabilities. The F-22 was built to be the top-dog of the world when it comes to fighter/attack aircraft and it fills that position well. It is a US only aircraft as well.
The JSF on the other hand was built to replace the aging F-16 Falcons and be a mid-level fighter/attack aircraft with good capabilites but not the speed, firepower, stealth, or cost of a F-22 Raptor. It is also being sold to many other countries as an export and we are sourcing a lot of major parts from other countires.
The F-117A had it’s time and place, it made way for todays stealth aircraft and showed the world that radar was not the tell-all of spotting aircraft. Now that toe computing power has increased expontentionally the ability to calculate the radar reflection off of comples 3d constant curature panels is a reality; whereas the F-117 had to be large flat panels because there was nothing powerful enough to calculate the constant surfaces required.
And in reality the F-117 flight system is based off of that of a F-16 (another icredibly un-stable aircraft), and most of the parts were off-the shelf.
F-22 is an air superiority / interdiction fighter with strike capability. F-35 will fill three branches needs with variations on the airframe, replacing both the F-16 and F-18 variants. There are carrier-ready and V/STOL versions in development as we speak. Plus it will be exported as a mainstay fighter/ground attack aircraft to our allies.
Please stop adding baseless facts.
Good post :tup: I’d like to add that the F-22 also has vectored thrust and supercruise. Simply the best all-around fighter in service, period - and that includes Sukhoi’s Su-35 and variants, plus the Eurofighter and Rafale ships. Lookdown-shootdown is now standard fare.
The other thing is that the JSF has not flown yet in the real version… It will by the end of the year but it has not yet flown. The dirty Aircraft #1 is being tested and readied for first flight; most likely sometime mid december.
The one nice thing the JSF has developed that the F-22 doesn’t have yet… but will be retrofitted is the Pilots Heads-up Display system. The F-22 has a conventional system, whereas the JSF has a helmet-mounted display system. Rumor has it that system plus the voice recognition systems of the JSF will both be back-fitted into the F-22 once testing has completed on the JSF system.
It’s been a long week, and I’m thinking faster than I can type, thus all the spelling errors.
I would guestimate that the JSF or some variant based on it will take over the F117’s role. The F117 while it was a cool aircraft, was very limited in capability, and was not as efficient compared to other aircraft on dropping quanity of ordinance per sortie. Honestly, the JSF in it’s stock form already can match or outperform the F117, and costs a lot less money.
I doubt the F22 will be used to replace the Nighthawk’s role just because it is too specialized as an air superiority aircraft by design. That’s just my opinion though. I’ve been out of the loop for a while.
97FormulaWS-6 pretty much covered everything else.
Officail designation for the Raptor is F/A-22 - it will be used in limited strike roles, similar to the F-15E. It probably will not take over the role in it’s entirety.
It’s hard to believe that the F-117 was in service for almost 20 years.
RX3… the only problem I have with your point is that the JSF in it’s earliest development form has not yet flown yet. The technology demonstrators flew a few years ago, but the first Conventional Take-Off & Landing aircraft hasn’t yet taken flight. Not to mention we’re at least 5-10 years before the JSF Lightning II becomes operational.
The F/A-22 is fully operational and most likely is what drove the F-117A to retirement after 25 years of flying. The F-117A was damn expensive in it’s time and can only be used for certian missions. The F/A-22 is leaps and bounds a better aircraft and is fully operational now. There is no reason to keep the F-117A operational any longer when the Raptor can do all the F-117A did 100 fold better and even more.
People have to realize that where the Raptor was back in 1998/1999 is where the JSF if now… it takes that long to get the first batch out, tested, changed, delivered, and operational. That’s an 8 year difference. The JSF won’t be doing much but a butt-load of testing for the next 5 years, then maybe the first few deliverable aircraft will roll off the production facility at Ft. Worth TX.
AH. I thought the JSF was much further along. Guess I was wrong. F-22 it is then. Faster, more efficient.
While they are at it, they need to restart the Commanche program. Apache isn’t going to cut it for much longer.
http://www.jsf.mil/images/gallery/sdd/f35_test/sdd_f35test_002.jpg
That’s a picture of JSF A1, the first “production” development aircraft sitting in it’s hangar going through all the pre-first flight testing. I’ve been there, seen and touched the plane down in TX. It’s a wonderful aircraft, but no Raptor.
Currently they have powered the engine, and done a lot of pre-flight testing, but no taxi testing yet. That’s scheduled to start within 2 weeks, and progress through the next month and a half until first flight Mid-december.
They have 5 “B” version (STOVL; or vertical tak-off) aircraft underway in various stages of assembly. That is the version that erquires the most testing due to the new lift-fan design.