Lockheed Martin has launched an offensive to combat complaints from pilots who have refused to fly its F-22s over concerns about oxygen deprivation while in the cockpit. The company took its campaign to the skies - er, Twitter - to try to combat growing negative publicity about its Raptors. The Air Force has been looking into about a dozen unexplained incidents related to hypoxia, or oxygen deficiency, with pilots but has been unable to pinpoint the cause, Air Combat Command has said. Some pilots have come forward to say they won't get in the F-22s until the problem is solved. Pilots began experiencing problems about four years ago. “For some reason, the onboard oxygen generating system and the environmental control system that feeds it may be inputting some contaminant,” Gen. Gregory Martin, a retired Air Force veteran, told CNN affiliate WAVY in Virginia. For a while, the problem was the subject of only a spattering of media reports, but Lockheed Martin went on the offensive (or defensive, depending whom you ask) by launching a Twitter campaign praising the fleet as "60 Minutes" aired a segment on the problems with the Raptors and interviewed decorated pilots who were refusing to fly them. Gen. Mike Hostage of Air Combat Command recently spoke about the issue, which has plagued the fleet since problems with the F-22s' oxygen supply system were reported in 2008. The jets have been grounded to examine the problem, but in September 2011, the Raptors were again cleared and allowed to fly. In January 2011, the jets were limited to altitudes under 25,000 feet during an investigation into a November 2010 crash. Flying above that altitude could cause a pilot to black out from lack of oxygen and lose control. The Air Force has made sure to add emergency oxygen deployment handles should a pilot encounter any issues. "We are diligently pursuing a variety of hypotheses to try and understand and characterize the exact circumstances we've been experiencing," Hostage said. As the "60 Minutes" feature aired, Lockheed Martin tweeted about the impressive speeds and missions that no other planes but the F-22s were able to claim. But it also got a few pithy responses to the public relations campaign. Lockheed Martin @LockheedMartin 6 May 12 Did you know that F-22 supercruise speeds are greater than Mach 1.5 without afterburners? ow.ly/aJy6G Damo ✌ @ThatDamonGuy @LockheedMartin Pity the pilots don't want to fly them though... more-- http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/0...er-offensive-to-defend-maligned-fighter-jets/
They should review the case files from previous aviation accidents. Most of what can happen, has already happened. I was talking to a biochemist who was called in by the Air Force in the 1960s to investigate why some Canberra bombers (B-57s in U.S. service) had crashed. They were being used as high-altitude recce platforms since there were not enough U2s and SR-71s for all the missions required and they had lost some in unexplained circumstances where the pilots were incapacitated for no apparent reason. The oxygen systems were working, but toxicology work showed some sort of contaminant in the bloodstream of the pilots that was eventually traced to engine lubricants. The pressurization system of a plane operates off the compressor stages of the jet engine, not a bottle (though the emergency O2 system is usually a bottle). What was happening was that the seals on some of the compressor bearings were failing enough to let a thin stream of lubricant into the airflow of the engine, which was then being compressed and sent to the pilot to breathe, with predictable negative effects. Not saying that is happening here, but it sounds similar.