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The F-22 Raptor successfully completed thirteen of the nineteen planned air vehicle ultimate load static tests in late August at Lockheed Martin facilities in Marietta, Georgia. The tests applied loads to the mid-fuselage and the engine inlet ducts the F-22 could experience during operational usage. The ultimate load tests consist of nineteen “air vehicle cases” and a set of local cases. The remaining air vehicle test conditions simulate design loading of other major structural components, including the vertical stabilizers, the aft fuselage, and the wing.
The air vehicle tests, scheduled to run through October, are the first phase of the full-scale ultimate static test program. They are designed to test the strength of the aircraft’s primary components at 150 percent of the forces and pressures it would experience in actual flight. Limit load tests, completed last year, tested the aircraft at 100 percent of simulated flight conditions. Once air vehicle cases are completed, the F-22 program will begin the second phase of the full-scale ultimate static test program, which is a series of tests designed to exercise the aircraft’s localized structure. These tests will run through April 2001. |
