Saw the F-22 perform in person yesterday

When I heard word that the F-22 Raptor would be performing at an air force base 2.5 hours from where I live I decided the drive would be worth it so myself, along with friends, made the trek up to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha Nebraska to see what it could do, and to say I'm glad I did would be the understatement of the century. WOW. Seriously, WOW. I've seen the F-15, the F-16, The F-18, the Harrier, the A-10, the B-2, etc., and I've never been left in such a state of awe like I was with that plane. I was watching physics being defeated right in front of my very eyes! It performed right behind the F-18 and the difference in turning radius between the two was incredible. The F-22 looked as if it could rotate around it's own axis regardless of speed every single time it wanted to. It turned on a dime! What an absolutely incredible piece of technology, and I find that I'm left even more frustrated over our governments decision to cut production short after seeing it perform. If I'm giving them my money, THAT is what I want to see deployed should we go to war in the future.

A couple of little extra little tid-bits:

1.) The F-22 is LOUD in person. It actually caught me off guard at first with how loud it was. Even on it's silent pass it was incredibly loud as it flew over.

2.) The F-22 is much bigger in person than I thought it would be. In comparison to the F-18 that performed previous to it the F-22 took up a lot more space in the sky. It made it even more crazy seeing something so big rotating so quickly.

3.) The entire time the F-22 was performing you could see a very large white aircraft above the airfield. Jumbo-jet size. You'd see it go past one way, then past the other. Always right above the airfield. It seemed to ONLY be there while the F-22 was in the air. Is this some sort of security measure they had in place or just coincidence? There was one AWACS plane on static display, could this have been another in the air? The B-2 also did a fly-by, but I've seen it three times now and the white plane above the airfield wasn't there both the other times.

4.) You know a plane is worth the price of entrance when you see it perform, then countless people leave afterwards and skip seeing the Thunderbirds perform just an hour from then!

 

The F-22 does put on a great performance, the Thunderbirds aren't really all that interesting in comparison. Maybe just get rid of the F-16s and paint one F-22 in colors and and make it THE Thunderbird. It's certainly loud enough.

 

My ex and I had a wonderful "private" demonstration of the capabilities of the F-22 years back. We were vacationing in Death Valley and a pair of Raptors swooped down on us as we were driving down a long stretch of road. The shear grace and apparent ease with which the pilots then proceded to perform all sorts of maneuvers had me once again wishing I wasn't so tall, so old, and cursed with such poor eyesight...

 

The white plane you saw circling above was probably an E-4B, which is based out of Offutt AFB. It is a military version of the 747 and is used as an airborne mobile command post. They are painted white with a blue stripe so that may have been what you saw.

 

How manyF22 are there now!
Love the plane

 

one of the greatest and most memorable experiences of my life was seeing the F22 perform at our air show. It was absolutely the most impressive thing I have ever seen. To see it perform in the flesh, with the sound... its just indescribable. Every single person stopped and watched people in the street... kids, grandmothers, wifes who didn't want to be there... everyone. You could have pick pocketed every single person because they were so fixated on the performance. The crowd was absolutely silent and everyone just stared in awe.

At the end of it you wonder how and why any nation in the world would want to go up against that plane.

 

If the Wikipedia entry is correct: 168 as of May 2010 (187 planned).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor

 

171 which leaves just 24 left to go.

 

The E-4B did do a fly-by (what an absolutely massive plane BTW) so that makes perfect sense. Why would it be flying overhead then? Security?

 

It flies around staying at various places, it's presence probably had nothing to do with the F-22

 

I've seen F22's on static display twice now but never flying and throughout all the performances at both airshows, I would have rather seen JUST the F22 fly rather than everything else though seeing a B2 flying around is pretty sweet

 

I saw two F22's fly in an air show last year. They are surprisingly loud. Also stunningly maneuverable. The things the pilot did with such a huge plane were nothing short of ballet like.

I snapped a few poor quality pics. The last was a tight formation fly by of an old school prop, an A10warthog and F22. It was simply stunning in person.
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Looks like I'm going to Miramar in October!


(note to self: bring ear plugs!)

 

Looks like a P51D which I think is one of only about 4 different planes they fly in the formations

 

LOL! I think we were at the same show based on your last pic...JSOH 2009 at Andrews. I was there on the Saturday show...poor weather in the morning, but cleared up. Apparently the Sunday viewers got to see AF1 take off.

my pics of the Raptor in this thread:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243579&highlight=JSOH

 

Cool!! Yep, that was the show. I'll definitely bring ear plugs next time!

 

Was it anything like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFM8FHR56PY

Now I'm thinking about hitting up Miramar..

 

No F-22 at Mirimar unless something unexpected has changed - should be an awesome event as usual regardless.

We've seen the F-22 fly and it is incredibly agile. The demo video probably does more low speed maneuvering than the live demos, but it is an amazing airplane.

 

The F-22 will be at Miramar; here's the schedule:

http://www.acc.af.mil/aerialevents/f22a/index.asp

 

Sweet. Thanks for passing along. They still don't show on the Miramar air show website, but I'll take the demo team's schedule as good enough authority. Look forward to seeing it again this year.

 

Yep, that is more or less the demo. It's really an impressive demonstration that makes the Thunderbirds just look tired and old.