The main weapons bays are beautifully rendered with all of the structural ribbing, plumbing and wiring. The kit cockpit reveals a nice 'pit in this scale - stick and throttle, ACES II ejection seat, and instrument panel are all here and the multi-function displays (MFDs) are all rendered as decals. One clear tree is crystal clear, the other is smoke/gold tinted.
#F 22 RAPTOR MODEL KIT PLUS#
The kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on three parts trees plus two trees of clear parts. While the Raptor has not seen combat to date, the aircraft have deployed around the world to practice the Air Force version of the Navy's old 'gunboat diplomacy', putting potential trouble makers on notice that their air and air defenses will become smoking holes in the ground should they wish to test their knives in the next gun fight.Īcademy has scaled down their beautiful 1/48 F-22A kit to 1/72 scale and it doesn't look like they left out any of the details or features from it's larger cousin. It shouldn't be any surprise that the F-35 Lightning II has already surpassed the cost of the F-22 and the F-35 was supposed to be the 'budget' model. This vicious cycle of 'saving money' resulted in the Raptor setting new records for cost, not because the aircraft is expensive, but because of the politics of 'saving money'. As the Air Force and Congress tried to 'save money' by cutting the number of aircraft built, the cost of development is spread across fewer airframes and the cost per airframe skyrockets. The cost of that development is spread across the number of aircraft built. What gets overlooked all-too-often is that it costs X dollars to develop an aircraft. Its gestation may have been long, but it has developed a significant leap in manned fighter capabilities.ĭespite the aircraft's capabilities, the F-22 took a lot of flak from the press and others for becoming the most expensive fighter ever produced.
The F-22 took an extraordinary period of time to develop prior to entering service, but the aircraft represents the integration of major advances in avionics, aerodynamics, flight control laws, stealth, and propulsion. What's the difference? Trying to fight against the Raptor When the F-22 Raptor entered service, it was billed as the air dominance fighter. When the F-15 Eagle entered service in the mid-1970s, it was billed as the air superiority fighter for the US Air Force.