(CDR) completed in February 1995 when
Con guration 645 was nalised. The CDR
of the F-22 and the Initial Production
Readiness Review (IPRR) of the F
engine con rmed that the programme
was ready to proceed to assembly of the
initial EMD aircraft.
Fabrication of rst components for the
rst EMD aircraft (c/n 4001, ‘Raptor 01’)
had already begun at Boeing’s facility
in Kent, Washington, on December 8,- This was the rst of three EMD
aircraft dedicated to airframe, engine and
weapons release testing. Assembly of the
forward fuselage was launched at Marietta
on November 2, 1995, with start of work
on nose landing gear well.
The prototype was rolled out on April
9, 1997, when the F-22 was o cially
christened the Raptor. The name SuperStar
had been rejected in 1991.
FIRST FLIGHT
This publication marks 20 years since
the rst ight of the rst F-22A Raptor
on September 7, 1997. Lockheed Martin
had allocated Marietta, Georgia, as the
production centre for the F-22, and it
was from here that the rst ight would
take place.
In the driving seat for the rst ight
was Paul Metz. Metz served as Lockheed
Martin’s Chief Test Pilot (CTP) for the F-22.
Metz told this publication: ‘After we lost the
ATF competition with the YF-23, Northrop
transferred me over to the B-2 programme.
I was there for two years and I was just‘WE STARTED
CLIMBING TO
15,000FT, ME
WITH THE GEAR
DOWN, AND THE
F 16 ON MY LEFT.
HE STARTED
FALLING AWAY
FROM ME AND
HAVING TO USE
AFTERBURNER
TO KEEP UP. IT
WAS THEN THAT
I BEGAN TO
APPRECIATE THE
RAW POWER OF
THE F 22’
PAUL METZ
pilot, your education is also in engineering,’
says Metz. ‘I’m an aeronautical and
astronautical engineer, so I worked closely
with the engineers on every aspect of the
airplane — aerodynamics, hydraulics, ECS
[Environmental Control System], landing
gear, brakes, etc. This is for two main
reasons. One, I give a pilot’s perception togoing through the check-out programme
for the B-2 when I got a call from Lockheed
Martin, asking me if I wanted to be the chief
test pilot for the F-22. Dave Ferguson [YF-
test pilot] and myself had said: ‘whoever is
on the losing team will submit a résumé
to the other CTP,’ and I did just that after
we lost. From that came an o er to go to
Lockheed at Marietta, Georgia, to help
design and build the rst Raptor.’
Metz and a sta of test pilots worked
closely with the engineers on subsystem
design, ying qualities, simulation, avionics,
cockpit layout and man-machine interface.
He was central to the complex programme
of work that took the aircraft from the
YF-22 con guration, through initial EMD
work, to the rst ight in 1997. ‘As a testAbove: Raptor
4001 returns to
Marietta at the
culmination of its
maiden ight.
Left: Paul Metz
gives a thumbs-
up prior to
the rst ight.
Lockheed Martin/
John RossinoRAPTOR^1916-27 Metz First Flight C.indd 19 28/09/2017 14: