Needing to find a replacement for the F-15 in 1981, the US air force went to work trying to find a better, more superior aircraft. It was designed to be the most advanced plane yet, and is able to find, target and eliminate, airborne or ground threats without ever being detected. In 1991, the Lockheed-Boeing-General Dynamics team was selected to build this plane, after their prototype won the Advanced Technical Fighter competition. Testing for their prototype took as many as 44,000 wind tunnel tests, 13,000 material sample tests, and over 6 years of redesigning. Finally, in 1997, the first test flight was done for the YF-22. During it's first test flight, there needed to be a safety chase aircraft, which was a F-16 Falcon. The F-22 was so much faster, that at its normal speed, the F-16 needed to put its afterburners (afterburner for jets is like nitrous for cars) just to keep up with the Raptor. After 3,000 more flight tests, the F-22 Raptor was finally declared operational in 2005.
What set the F-22 apart from other fighter jets of its era was its technological superiority. It had a new revolutionary ability to "supercruise", which meant it could fly at Mach 1.5 without the use of afterburners. With afterburners, this plane could reach Mach 2. It had a 10 mile high service ceiling, and could make extremely sharp turns considering its airspeed. The F-22 was also equipped with stealth, and was virtually undetectable by most radars. Still to this day, no plane can match the F-22.
Sources:
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/history/f-22.html
https://www.military.com/equipment/f-22-raptor
Ooh-rah we really gotta give it to American superiority!
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