![]() ![]() Wearing his lucky Super Chicken T-shirt under his flight suit, chief test pilot Paul Metz pulled the Raptor’s nose up and quickly gained speed and altitude, even with the landing gear down. The YF-22 and YF-23 prototypes were flown in 1990, and the Lockheed-Boeing-General Dynamics team won the ATF contest in 1991.Īfter nearly 44,000 wind tunnel test hours, 13,000 material sample tests, six years of development, and a trio of program rephasings mandated by Congress, the F-22 was finally airborne. ![]() ![]() The competitors in the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition were selected on Halloween in 1987. The US Air Force identified a requirement in 1981 for a new air superiority fighter to replace the F-15-which then had been in service for just seven years. A long road led to that Sunday morning flight in 1997.
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