raptor missing in Alaska

There is no such thing as a "get home" button on an F-22. No button exists that'll take a blacked out unconscious pilot to a safe altitude to wait on him to regain his wits to fly back to base.

Maybe KIT the car had that function on that old TV series Knight Rider or maybe the Batmobile, but not an F-22.

Just a few days ago I was in a bar in Panama City Beach and this fellow next to me overheard my Uncle sitting on the other side of me ask if I was still working on F-22's. So this stranger slaps a coin on the counter he got from somewhere that had an F-22 on it. Squadrons usually have them made. He was a civilian that claimed to have a high security clearance and he asked me what happened to that plane in Alaska.

In his best slurred english (somewhat affected by too many pulls of the tap handle) he asked "why that pilot didn't hit the get home button, they've got one you know. Them pilots don't mess up, I know." I just shook my head and said "beats me pal". He went on to say something about that plane being shot down somehow. I just slurped the rest of my Sam Adams, got up and left without another word. Heck, I was leavin' anyhow.

It just goes to show you how things get carried away like the conspiracy theory of a missile shooting it down in the Alaskan interior, or the magic button that takes a fighter pilot out of harms way. Sounds like a video game to me...

 

http://www.stratpost.com/usaf-f-22-to-get-auto-recovery-system

Got me interested enough to do some searching... I knew I had read about it some place.

 

yep, that's exactly what I was thinking of...

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Tests+With+Lockheed+Martin+F-16+Demonstrate+New+Flight+Safety+Feature-a021088200

No button necessary, plane will do all the work for you

 

Yeah, there was something I read about recently on these sort of systems but I really can't remember where it was. For some reason I thought it was already integrated with the F-22 but apparently it's not. It will be interesting to see how this sort of system evolves as an extension of GCAS and maybe TCAS.

 

Yea, this is some incredibly advanced stuff. I can't imagine being the software engineer that has to come up with the algorithms for this thing..and that article claims it could prevent 95% of fighter crashes.

 

Part of me wonders about these new planes with electronics controlling everything. Seems like the more computers you put in something, the more something will go wrong. Hopefully it's not an error that other Raptors have.

 

300 million dollars and no get home button? I think for that price, it should have a get home button, and also have a happy ending button.

 

No radio calls, no nothing. Nobody home. I have been to a bunch of funerals of guys that died at night in fighters. Nearly all the time, we are able to piece together what happened. Never pretty. If you have a get home button, someone has to push it. You do not want an aircraft wresting control from the pilot.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I can't argue with that. Every fighter pilot should climb down the boarding ladder with a smile on his face.

 

Where do you find these reports?