In World War II, the U. S. Army Air Corps downed 15,798 aircraft in day air to air combat.
Those kills were made by only 7,306 of the approximately 35,000 fighter pilots in combat. Of that number only 1,284 were aces. In other words, only 21 percent of the fighter pilots shot down other aircraft and only 3.6 percent were aces. In the Korean War, similar results occurred for the dedicated fighter pilots. There, 4.8 percent of the pilots were aces but they got 38 percent of all kills.
The F-22 team reasoned that a smaller force could be far more lethal if the percentage of fighter pilots who achieve combat kills could be increased significantly from the historical averages of 10 percent to 20 percent.
If freed from "housekeeping" duties, pilots will be better able to develop their combat skills and fly with carefree abandon.
Reduced workload
The idea was to relieve pilots of the bulk of system manipulations associated with flying and allow them to do what a human does best – be a tactician. Using the power of the onboard computers, coupled with the extensive maintenance diagnostics built into the F-22 by the maintainers, that workload has been significantly reduced.
Aircraft startup and taxi are excellent examples of harnessing the power of the computer to eliminate workload.
There are only three steps to take the F-22 from cold metal and composites to full-up airplane ready for takeoff: The pilot places the battery switch 'on,' places the auxiliary power unit switch momentarily to 'start' and then places both throttles in 'idle.' That's it.
The engines start sequentially right to left and the auxiliary power unit then shuts down. All subsystems and avionics are brought on line and built-in testing checks are made. Then the necessary navigation information is loaded and even the pilot's personal preferences for avionics configuration is read and the systems are tailored to those preferences.
All of this happens automatically with no pilot actions other than the three steps. The airplane can be ready to taxi in less than 30 seconds after engine start.
Integrated warning system
To reduce pilot workload in flight, the F-22 incorporates the uniquely designed integrated caution, advisory and warning system (ICAW).
This system's messages normally appear on the 3-by-4 inch up-front display just below the glare shield. A total of 12 individual ICAW messages can appear at one time on the up-front display and additional ones can appear on sub pages of the display.
Two aspects of the ICAW display differentiate it from a traditional warning light panel. First, all ICAW fault messages are filtered to eliminate extraneous messages and tell the pilot specifically and succinctly what the problem is.
For example, when an engine fails, the generator and hydraulic cautions normally associated with an engine being shutdown are suppressed, and the pilot is provided the specific problem in the form of an engine shutdown message.
More than two years of detail design by pilots and engineers has gone into the filtering logic of the ICAW system and extensive testing of the system was done.
In addition, the success of the Army's RAH 66 Comanche helicopter's ICAW system that uses a similar filtering approach gives the F-22 team confidence in the fundamental soundness of the design.
Another feature of the ICAW system is the electronic checklist. When an ICAW message occurs, the pilot depresses the checklist push button (called a bezel button) on the bottom of the up-front display and the associated checklist appears on the left hand secondary multi-function display.
If multiple ICAWs occur, their associated checklists are selected by moving a pick box over the desired ICAW and depressing the checklist button. Associated checklists are automatically linked together so that if an engine failure occurs, the pilot will not only get the checklist for the engine failure procedure in-flight but also the single engine landing checklist. The pilot can also manually page through the checklists at any time from the main menu. This is particularly handy when helping a wing man work through an emergency.
F-22 "networking"
The Inter/Intra Flight Data Link is one of the powerful tools that make all F-22s more capable.
Each F-22 can be linked together to trade information without radio calls with each F-22s in a flight or between flight. Each pilot is then free to operate more autonomously because, for example, the leader can tell at a glance what his wing man's fuel state is, his weapons remaining, and even the enemy aircraft he has targeted. Classical tactics based on visual 'tally' (visual identification) and violent formation maneuvers that reduce the wing man to 'hanging on' may have to be rethought in light of such capabilities.
Targets can be automatically prioritized and set up in a shoot list with one button push. A 'shoot' cue in the head up display alerts the pilot to the selected weapon kill parameters and he fires the weapons. Both a pilot's and wing man's missile flight can be monitored on the cockpit displays.
Considerable effort has been expended in making the F-22 'user friendly.'
The aircraft systems operations are straightforward and simple. The airplane can be flown with carefree abandon, and the tactical situation can be understood and acted upon through intuitive presentations from many sensors.
Information from the web sites of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney were used in this story.