A VENERATED GIANT'S WEAKNESS? - F-22 excels at long-range, but not as much in traditional dogfights

Eurofighter Typhoons

Since its introduction, the F-22 Raptor has been known as the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. This is certainly not an exaggeration. With its stealth capabilities, state-of-the-art detection equipment (e.g. radars), powerful computers, and potent engines, the aircraft was years ahead of the best fighter aircraft fielded by any other country out there. It was also a Hollywood icon, appearing in multiple Blockbusters such as Iron Man, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and The Avengers.

However, in a recent (this June) mock military exercise of an international scale called the Red Flag training exercise in Alaska, the F-22 found itself equally matched by Europe's finest fighter aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon, in traditional dogfighting. This comes as a surprise since during the 2006 Red Flag exercise, the F-22's had a 144:0 kill ratio; an undefeated giant. As such, the German pilots that confronted the Raptors had initially went in doubtful of their own aircraft's performance and only when the mock aerial duelling start did they realise they could match the F-22 almost turn for turn. 

This, however, is not a big problem for the F-22 Raptor. The aircraft mainly excels in long-range combat where it is able to track down and lock on to the target miles before the enemy can do the same or do it at all. In fact, according to two German officers that were present at the exercise, Col. Andreas Pfeiffer and Maj. Marco Gumbrecht, the F-22 was far superior compared to the Eurofighter at long range, being able to target the fighter 20 miles out. This is probably why it was so dominant in Red Flag 2006. 

F-22 Raptor

In light of the training exercise, many US military officials have come out to defend the Raptor, arguing primarily that the Raptor and Eurofighter were designed for two different aspects of combat and thus hard to be compared. Much of this reaction stemmed from the F-22's hefty price tag of an estimated $ 420 million while the Eurofighter costs less than half as much at just under $ 200 million.

The Red Flag training exercise is a two week ordeal where the air forces of countries allied to the United States meet to undergo simulated air wars, pitching the pilots in a variety of missions. Red Flag takes place in the US annually. You can watch the 2004 Red Flag exercise in the IMAX documentary, Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag. 

BEE SWARM DELAYS PLANE - pittsburgh int. airport

On Wednesday night last week, a Delta commuter flight bound for New York in Pittsburgh International Airport was delayed by a most unexpected thing; a honeybee swarm that had decided to take refuge under the left wing of the aircraft. However bizarre this might seem to outsiders, these bee swarms are not uncommon to the airport's maintenance crews. In fact, the swarm is the fourth one discovered this year.

To fix this problem, no act of cruel massacre was performed (nor was it truly an act of kindness as the honey bees are a protected species and thus required by law to be moved). Instead, the airport called in Master beekeeper Stephen Repasky of Meadow Street Apiaries to safely relocate the bees (most likely his fourth time this year at the airport). Repasky worked his magic and scraped the bees off with a light thistle brush into a box later for release.

According to Repasky, swarms of wayward honey bees form when a colony becomes overpopulated. They show up most anywhere to rest before moving to find a new home. Of course, when the ignorant citizen sees these bees, there's not knowing what s/he would do from fear of seeing such a large cluster of black and yellow. However, Repasky urges the people not to fear upon seeing a swarm as honey bees are extremely docile and would sooner move on if left alone.

Repasky worked swiftly but gently and the flight was again underway to JFK airport in about 20 minutes. The sentiment on the plane was not that of annoyance but fascination as some took out their phones for pictures and videos. The delay caused by the bees were in fact, irrelevant, as the flight was still going to be delayed going into JFK due to congestion issues.