By Jeff Mullin, Senior Writer
June 30, 2007 12:46 am
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The goal of every pilot is perfection, with hardly a wobble or bobble from takeoff to touchdown.
But if it hadn’t been for a couple of somewhat imperfect flights, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Riem-er wouldn’t be where he is today — executive officer for the Air Force’s F-22 “Rap-tor” program — overseeing the na-tion’s next-generation fighter jet.
During Riem-er’s days as a test pilot he was flying an F-16, testing how the aircraft would hold up under certain conditions after recent modifications.
He was flying 1,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, periodically building up the gravitational pull on the jet to 9 Gs (nine times normal earth gravity), holding it for five seconds, then doing it again.
Riemer was doing the last test at just over the speed of sound, at 1,000 feet, when he suffered g-induced loss of consciousness. The jet’s nose was pointed up at about a 45-degree angle when he passed out.
“I woke up, the aircraft was inverted at 20,000 feet in full afterburner with the nose coming down through the horizon,” Riemer said. “I didn’t know how I got there.”
Riemer leveled off, declared an emergency and headed to a safe landing.
About a month later he was flying a test mission in an F-16 when, during an engine testing mission at 40,000 feet traveling at twice the speed of sound, veins guiding air into the engine suddenly closed, creating a condition known as engine inlet buzz, causing the jet to vibrate violently.
“It vibrated so much it cracked all the acrylic they had put on the airplane to give it a smooth surface,” Riemer said. “I thought the airplane was going to come apart at 40,000 feet at Mach 2.”
It didn’t, fortunately. Riemer was able to slow the jet enough that the vibrations stopped, and he was able to land safely.
“Shortly after that I got a job in the Pentagon,” said Riemer, laughing. “I said, ‘Maybe it’s time to do a staff tour. Maybe my luck is running out.’”
Negotiating the corridors of power in Washington, he said, presents a “different kind of threat.”
These days Riemer, who visited Vance Air Force Base Friday to speak at the graduation of Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training class 07-11, is responsible for acquiring, modernizing and sustaining the F-22, the stealth fighter destined to eventually replace the F-15.
Eventually, the Air Force wants 381 F-22s, but budget constraints have limited them to 183. Friday morning a contract was signed for a bulk order of 60 of the jets, which will help cut the per-unit cost, Riemer said. Each F-22 is roughly $300 million.
The F-22 can fight targets both in the air and on the ground. Its engines produce more thrust than any current fighter engine. The first F-22s were deployed to Kadena Air Base, Japan, earlier this year.
“It is absolutely amazing people,” Riemer said. “In the deployed environment it is doing absolutely amazing things.”
The F-22 will strengthen the United States’ dominance in aerial combat, Riemer said.
“There’s no other aircraft in the world that has the capabilities of the F-22,” Riemer said. “It does things no one else can do, not only in its performance but in its employment of the (weapons) systems.”
Some of the 14 graduates Riemer addressed Friday may someday be flying the F-22.
“It is an exciting time for them to be coming into the Air Force with such amazing equipment to fly to help defend our nation,” Riemer said.
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