Flygplan F-22A Raptor

Flygplan F-22A Raptor, längd 328,9 mm, bredd 283,6 mm, totalt antal delar 380+, plastbyggsats.

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor is an American fighter aircraft with highly developed ground attack capability as well as electronic warfare and electronic clock. The F-22 was in April 1991 the winner of the competition announced by the USAAF for the Advanced Tactical Fighter, which dates back to 1981. It was then that a $12 billion program was launched and the construction of a highly maneuverable, indirectly controlled, Stealth- fighter jets started. The US Navy joined the program in April 1986, hoping to build a successor to the F-14 Tomcat. Later that year, the Department of Defense announced that Lockheed and Northrop had advanced to the next stage. Each of the companies would build a prototype, designated YF-22 and YF-23 respectively. Since then, Lockheed merged with Boeing and General Dynamics, which later resulted in a division of work on production aircraft between the Boeing and Lockheed factories. The first prototype YF-22 was named 87-3997 / N22YF and was equipped with newly built General Electric YF120 engines.

The flight of the aircraft took place on 29 September 1990. Shortly afterwards, on 30 October 1990, a second 87-3998 / N22YF prototype was flown, powered by an alternative Pratt-Whitney YF119 engine. After a careful comparison of the parameters with the competing YF-23 by the Northrop / McDonnell Douglas team, it was announced that the winner of the competition was the YF-22 with the YF119 engine.

The design of the final version of the F-22A was frozen in March 1992. The differences compared to the prototype included an increase in the wingspan of a trapezoid shape to 13.59 m, which, however, did not increase the wing area, a reduction in the thickness of the wing profile at the root and its twist, which better ensured the maneuverability of the aircraft in terms of supersonic speeds. The area of ​​the dual vertical tail was also reduced to 27.2 m2.

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor is one of the first, if not the only, fifth-generation fighter in the world. Thanks to the use of a completely new power unit (two Pratt-Whitney F119-PW-100 engines with vector thrust) and low aerodynamic resistance, the speed of the F-22 - according to unofficial data - exceeds 2.4Ma. In addition, it is very maneuverable, which allows you to perform such acrobatic figures as, for example, Pugacheva cobra or Kulbit. Another important feature of the F-22 is the Stealth technology, though based less than the F-117 on RAM, and more on aerodynamic excellence, overall shape of the aircraft and refined exterior details. However, the exact radar view (RCS) is still classified.