[Edwood]

The door is ajar....

The door is ajar...

The door is ajar...

http://tinyurl.com/lg4ej

LOL. Hahaha. Oh wait. My tax dollars went into that cockpit.

-Ed

 

[jerb]

well its 180,000 just for the canopy but they also said the cockpit had been conaminated by oil

 

[Polaris111688]

Eh, don't worry. The canopy (1 inch thick polycarbonate) of that thing is replacable. The fighter is actually 250 million a pop counting research and development. I'm hoping to fly one someday (got into USAFA 2010).

 

[marvin]

Nah, last estimate I saw $350 mil a pop to amortize R&D costs. And unless we go to war with China, I can easily see that number reaching half a billion a plane.

 

[XxATOLxX]

Thats a sweet plane

Whose idea was it to charge $180,000 for a canopy?!

 

[jerb]

they cant just replace the canopy. they have to check over the cockpit aswell because of the debris that got in there when they cut it, nasty plastic and oil.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XxATOLxX Thats a sweet plane Whose idea was it to charge $180,000 for a canopy?!

Yeah, and like $10 for the Canopy opening trigger.

-Ed

 

[Denim]

A Raptor was at the Sun 'N Fun Fly-In a few weeks ago at Lakeland, FL. It was flying around for 3 days and quite impressive. I missed so may shots trying to get a decent picture on a fly by.

 

[Polaris111688]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XxATOLxX Thats a sweet plane Whose idea was it to charge $180,000 for a canopy?!

You got to remember, this is a single piece of 1 inch thick polycarbonate formed to shape, capable of resisting a bird at 550 knots. It ain't the cheap Lexan stuff you find at Home Depot.

 

[gevorg]

Haha, look at the pilot inside, he is covering his ears! Must be a headfier

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvin And unless we go to war with China, I can easily see that number reaching half a billion a plane.

Hell, that chainsaw runs about 20 grand.

 

[ScubaSteve87]

This question has bugged me for a while:

How many people actaully get to fly cutting edge tech fighter jets like that. At so expensive I just couldn't see it that every joe who goes to air force flight school gets to take hops. Or maybe they do? Its the governemnt afterall.

 

[dhp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve87 This question has bugged me for a while: How many people actaully get to fly cutting edge tech fighter jets like that. At so expensive I just couldn't see it that every joe who goes to air force flight school gets to take hops. Or maybe they do? Its the governemnt afterall.

try making your post intelligible...

 

[tennisets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieInAFire try making your post intelligible...

Um, it is?

What he wants to know is what level you have to reach in flight school to fly one of these, or how many people, out of everyone that attends air force flight school, get to actually fly this plane. I'd imagine only the top graduates every get the chance, but I really don't know.

 

[a1rocketpilot]

Well, considering there is only one operational squadron of Raptors IIRC, then that is under 20 people who get to fly them operationally in the whole USAF at the moment. They probably recruited the pilots with the best combat and flight records from operational units and combined the best pilots with the best aircraft. Why would you ever want to compromise any part of the system with less than superb components? It's like using an Orpheus with Rat Shack IC's and a Walkman.

Aditya