August 23, 2006: Modern combat aircraft are built to take damage, but repairing that damage is very expensive. This is the case even when you were trying your best to avoid damage. Case in point is the incident last April when a new F-22 fighter encountered a problem with the cockpit canopy. It would not open. And the pilot was still inside. After over four hours of air force and contractor technicians fussing with the mechanical, electronic and software aspects of the problem, to no avail, a couple of airmen with a chainsaw were called in. The cockpit canopy was made of 19mm thick polycarbonate. The chainsaw cut through it. | "Varoooooom varooooooom, braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" |
Finally, after about five hours, the pilot was free. Then the bookkeepers got to work. Replacing the cut up canopy cost $286,000. But the most expensive damage done was to the special (stealthy) skin of the F-22. This was all scuffed up by the folks trying to get the pilot out. Scuffing this special, stealthy, material makes it less stealthy, and more likely to have the F-22 show up on enemy radar. So the scuffed portions of the aircraft exterior had to be replaced, at a cost of about a million dollars. Then there was the cost of the dozen or so air force and contractor personnel who labored for five hours on the problem. That cost about $10,000. Total cost for the stuck cockpit canopy, about $1.3 million. Not counting the cost of research and development work on making sure it doesn't happen again. |