Posted by Frank James at 10:26 am CDT
This has been reported elsewhere but a colleague just passed this item along about an Air Force pilot who was literally in a jam recently when the canopy of his Lockheed Martin F-22 A Raptor, the U.S. military’s newest aircraft and the most sophisticated fighter in the world, got stuck in the closed position, trapping the pilot for five hours. 
Firefighters eventually had to saw a hole in the canopy to free the pilot. The canopy, which will have to replaced, cost an estimated $180,000.
Still, it could’ve been worse. The firefighters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia wisely didn’t resort to using the “jaws of life” on the $134 million jet which would have torn it open like an aluminum can at a much greater cost to taxpayers.
These pictures are among several to be found at the Flightglobal.com website of Flight magazine. They show the trapped pilot as well as the rescue.
On the website’s associated blog, a writer suggests the aircraft’s designers could’ve learned something from the design of the British Spitfire, a World War II aircraft, which had a canopy design that allowed pilots to easily roll it open to free themselves. Sounds like a winner to me. I bet the pilot in the pictures would second the idea.
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Comments
Obviously Bush's fault. What a lying nazi!!!!!!!
Isn't that what all of the posts on this site have to say??
Posted by: PW | April 27, 2006 12:34 PM
Darn! PW said what I was going to say.
SAN DIEMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!
Posted by: TMOTTB | April 27, 2006 1:55 PM
PW, nice that you're catching on!
Only, do you have any way(s) that you can think of to pin this on him? I've been doing my darndest to find some way to connect this to Bush and I can't come up with anything. Let me know if you have any thoughts!
Posted by: John | April 27, 2006 1:57 PM
It's pretty simple--the multi-billion dollar contract to manufacture the canopies went to someone who gave a lot of money to the GOP but knows nothing about jet canopies.
Posted by: Cheryl | April 27, 2006 2:43 PM
This is what Eisenhower was talking about when he warned us of the EEEVIL of the Military Industrial Complex.
Posted by: JD | April 27, 2006 3:56 PM
Please don't tell me that any taxpayer money will be used to repair the plane.
Since the canopy was obviously defective (and hopefully not caused by human/pilot error), make the manufacturer replace it at no charge.
Plus charge the manufacturer for the unplanned downtime incurred due to the defect. Besides, they ought to reimburse the pilot for undue stress and emotional strain.
Posted by: ECG | April 29, 2006 12:46 AM