This is going to result in change orders and extra costs on this already over-budget aircraft.

We don’t need this aircraft, nor do we need the joint strike fighter. What they add can be provided by improvements in the weapons systems and avionics.

The only thing I’ve ever used to cut plastic of any sort is an X-acto knife, and the only plastic is the Delrin (or its equivalent) that they use for modern harpsichord plectra (and sometimes even for the jacks they ride on). In the old days, they used condor quills, and a good friend’s husband, who happens to be one of the best harpsichordists in the world, still insists on quills (typically turkey) for the feel and the sound. I have to admit, quills certainly are easier to work with the knife, but in use they break if you look at them crooked, and I’m a lazy guy. Voicing plectra is a slow job; it involves removing amounts measured in fractions of a millimeter with each knife stroke… which means that so far I haven’t had to use any fluid to cool the blade, though occasionally I have to cool my language. 🙂

I would think the canopy latch is something you’d never want to see malfunction. Are you saying, Bryan, that there is no external way to release the canopy in an emergency on an F-22? Was that an economy measure? or a stupidity measure?

The rescue crews use metal cutting saws for everything, and the auto-spraying keeps down the danger of sparks.

Agreed, but it’s still cheaper than leaving the pilot in there! I admit the image of those men taking chainsaws to the canopy made me raise my eyebrows… it’s not the tool one thinks of first for repairing sophisticated fighters.

In a lot of ways, it was fitting, but I think he would have preferred to have corkscrewed into the planet at Mach 2.

NASA has film of the two accidents he had in the X-15s. The one of the engine explosion is the scariest thing any pilot can imagine.

Regarding the F-22, what kind of idiot accepts a fighter that doesn’t have an external canopy release for the crash crew to use. That is a safety requirement. You will see the panels on all other fighters marked with a red “RESCUE” arrow. $200K to replace the canopy and clean up the cockpit, just criminal.