It was quite a treat to have a pair of F-22’s visit Oshkosh last week. They are still working at approving a full low-level airshow, so we were limited to impressive low passes, high-g turns and pull-ups, and a higher altitude demonstration of the F-22’s low-speed maneuvering prowess via vectored thrust. Besides our photo album, we put together 3 videos to better capture the power of seeing the F-22 up close.

Conditions were ideal for vapor trail generation as you’ll see in our photos. During one pass, the F-22 managed to generate strong trails from both tails, the wingtips, and the outboard aileron tips.

On another fly-by, the F-22 reached near supersonic speed and the aircraft was nearly enveloped in vapor from the transonic shock wave.

Throughout the F-22 display, a KC-135 could be seen orbiting in the distance up high. Following the final passes, the F-22s climbed to the south while the KC-135 made a large counter-clockwise turn over Oshkosh and headed east. Just within visual range with our telephoto lens, we were able to see the 1st Raptor hook up with the tanker to take on fuel for the trip home.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Plane Events, Planes, F-22 Raptor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.