Raptor rapture: pilots say the F-22 is a true marvel to fly: F-22 raptors taxi into position for takeoff from Kadena Air Base, Japan. The jets, from Langley Air Force Base, Va., went to the Pacific base in M May 2007 for their first overseas deployment, a three-month tour

Airman, Fall, 2007 by Matthew Bates

Growing up in Bloomfield, Ind., Lt. Col. Kevin Fesler dreamed of flying airplanes. He watched them take off and land at the airport and wondered what it was like to be in the cockpit, the world far below, and the seemingly limitless sky, stretching out as far as the eye could see.

He had to find out.

So, instead of asking for a new bicycle or the latest toy, he started asking for money for his birthdays and at Christmas. When he had enough, he bought flying lessons at an airfield that was nothing more than a grassy strip of land five miles from his childhood home.

"I don't remember a time I didn't want to fly," he said. "After learning to fly on that grass strip, I was fortunate to get an Air Force ROTC scholarship and then a pilot training slot. And now here I sit."

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"Here" is a good place to sit. Colonel Fesler is commander of the 94th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va. It's the second fighter squadron in the Air Force to receive and operate its fifth-generation fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

This modern marvel of technology is a far cry from anything Colonel Fesler ever imagined flying when he was a youngster. Sometimes, even the grownup version has a hard time believing he gets to fly the stealth jet.

"I think if I sat down and really thought about it, it would seem overwhelming," he said. "It's certainly not what I envisioned I'd be flying as a kid. It's an amazing plane."

Colonel Fesler felt this way right from the start. He still remembers his first Raptor flight. He had to do it solo, of course, because there isn't a two-seat Raptor trainer, like with the F-15E Strike Eagle he used to fly.

"I remember thinking that I wanted to do everything perfect," he said.

This meant going over numerous checklists in his head, recalling things he'd learned in the simulator and relying on his prior experience in the Strike Eagle. In the end, everything worked out and the colonel had a successful first flight.

Still, he was all business.

"I don't remember thinking 'sweet,' while I was up there," he said. "I think I was more concerned with doing everything right, like staying in formation and talking on the radio. And I was just happy everything went well and I was able to land safely. Even then, though, I was struck at how easy this plane was to fly."

Flying jets is nothing new to Colonel Fesler and his fellow F-22 pilots. Every one of them has logged at least 500 hours in the F-16 Flying Falcon, F-15 Eagle or the Strike Eagle before the Air Force chose them to fly the Raptor. Then they attended a three-month transition course that gave them a fast-paced, down-and-dirty overview of the aircraft and how to fly it.

"Not that we don't know how to fly," Colonel Fesler said. "It's just that the F-22 has some differences from the planes we're used to flying that make it unique."

For one, the control stick is located along the right side of the cockpit and not in between the pilot's legs as in most fighters.

"For quite a while, whenever I took my hand off the stick, I would reach for it in the middle," Colonel Fesler said. "It was muscle memory from flying the F-15E for so long. So, it's little things like that that take getting used to."

The first month of the course consists of classroom lectures and flights in the simulator, while the last two put the pilots in the cockpit and gives them the chance to fly the real thing. It's an exciting, intimidating and awe-inspiring introduction between man and machine, he said.

Yet one look at the jet dispels any thought that this is lust another plane. There are no soft curves or bright paint. It is all hard edges and sweeping angles, a sleek aircraft that is both beautiful and menacing at the same time.

"It is a mean-looking aircraft," Colonel Fesler said. "No doubt about it."

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This hard exterior serves a purpose. The plane's angles, skin composition and paint scheme all combine to make it nearly invisible to radar's electronic eye.

But the true menace of this plane lies beneath its exterior.

"The first time the afterburner kicked in and I flew down the runway I knew this plane was different," said squadron Raptor pilot Capt. Greg Ebert. "You could feel the power--and we weren't even using all of it."

That power is generated by the plane's two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with afterburners and two-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles that are each capable of producing 35,000 pounds of thrust. That's more thrust than in any current fighter, which allows the F-22 to cruise at more than 1,100 mph without using afterburner--a capability known as supercruise. This capability expands the F-22's operating envelope in both speed and range over other fighters, which must use fuel-consuming afterburners to go supersonic.

While the F-22's top speed is a guarded secret, pilots refer to it as simply "very fast."

"Yeah, this plane can move," said Captain Ebert, from San Diego. "We rarely use full afterburner, but when we do it's quite a ride."

What the plane has in engine power it also matches in firepower. Designed as an air-to-air weapon, the Raptor's main mission is to destroy all aerial threats in a battlespace. However, it can also destroy ground threats.