The Air Force has some bad news for the pilots of its F-22 Raptor
stealth fighters: Your planes are going to make you feel crappy and
there’s not much anyone can do about it. And the message to the
maintainers of the radar-evading jet is even more depressing. Any illness they feel from working around the Raptor is apparently all in their heads, according to the Air Force.
Those admissions, buried in newly released Congressional records, represent the latest twist in the years-long saga of the F-22′s faulty oxygen system, which since at least 2008 has been choking pilots,
leading to confusion, memory loss and blackouts — combined known as
hypoxia — that may have contributed to at least one fatal crash. Ground
crews have also reported growing sick while working around F-22s whose engines are running.
The Air Force claims its has a handle on the in-flight blackouts. All
180 or so F-22s are having faulty filters removed and new backup oxygen
generators installed. There have also been changes to the G-suits
pilots wear. But the Air Force says the alterations won’t do anything to fix the so-called “Raptor cough,” a chronic condition afflicting almost all F-22 pilots.
For the rest of the story: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/stealth-pilots-coughing/
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