Metz says: ‘It enabled us to take away all
the housekeeping tasks and automate
all of it.’
All of this work was completed prior to
the first flight. Originally planned for May
1997, fuel leaks and hardware-related
anomalies led to a slip to September 7.
‘Preparations for the first flight started
nine months prior,’ says Metz. ‘Despite
being a single-seat airplane, this was
not a single person operation. We had a
mission control room composed of about
30 engineers.’ Metz says that they ran a
dress rehearsal orientation session for the
first flight that lasted a week! The team
went through each part in incredible
detail, running through all the potential
emergency procedures, running every
possible snag to ground and building
confidence to handle that first mission.
Metz recalls that first flight, which
launched out of Dobbins Air Force Base
right into the busy Atlanta air traffic system
for a round trip from Marietta. ‘We had an
F-15 that we bought in from Edwards, plusFLYING TEST BED
From November 1997, avionics trials were
conducted in a Boeing 757 (N757A) Flying
Test Bed (FTB), fitted with an AN/APG-77
radar in a nosecone. This cycled through
an array of avionics architecture from
initial iterations up to Block 3. A further
modification mounted a representative wing
section above the forward fuselage in late
1998, and testing of conformal antennas
started in 1999. The Boeing-operated FTB
was restored to flight status in June 2008,
specifically to test the F-22’s Increment 3.1
upgrade that added an electronic attack
capability. The FTB routinely flies with F-22
Raptors both at Edwards and Nellis AFBs in
order to gain an early look at F-22 mission
software before the software is released
to developmental flight testers, mainly at
Edwards.
In 2017, the 757 was back at Edwards
in relation to the latest 3.2B (software)
programme. Rachel Kitzmann, Boeing
Agile Integration Laboratory F-22 lead test
director said: ‘Our F-22 mission equipment
is completely segregated from the 757flight controls, so we can fly with prototype
software that has not gone through a formal
Equipment Operational Flight Clearance
process. This allows us to have an early look
at developmental software and problem
fixes prior to release to the 411 Flight Test
Squadron here at Edwards.’
Kitzmann added the FTB has the ability
to change software loads real-time during
flight, which allows the test team to test
multiple configurations during early
developmental testing. The fact that all
of the mission equipment is housed in a
757 means that Boeing test engineers,
F-22 test pilots and other F-22 customer
representatives can be present on board
and witness the flight test in real time.
Additionally, the 757 can fly approximately a
seven-hour sortie, which is far longer than a
typical F-22 flight test mission.
The visit to Edwards AFB in May 2017 was
the final flight the FTB took out of Boeing
Field, Washington, where it had been based
since 1999. After leaving Edwards, the FTB
headed to its new home in St Louis, Missouri.Above: Raptor
4001 made two
flights from
Marietta before
being shipped to
Edwards, from
where it flew
again on May 17,
1998.
Left: The Boeing
757 Flying Test
Bed (FTB) is
fitted with an
AN/APG-77
radar. It is seen
here at Edwards
with its test
team. USAF(^22) RAPTOR
16-27 Metz First Flight C.indd 22 28/09/2017 14:53