Do you recall the entire squadron that had to turn back after trying to cross the Intl. Date Line? I know that was a while ago, but thats not going to be lived down. The F-22 pilot trapped in his cockpit?
Software glitch that was fixed and sent out to that squadron and the rest of the fleet within 48 hours and they then proceeded on their mission. Side note, that was the first long range deployment of the plane and they were expecting glitches, hence the Lockheed support staff on call 24-7 during the deployment.
The pilot was trapped in the cockpit because a $20 latch broke. Very small part of the canopy system that failed. Not unheard of in any fighter aircraft. The pilot could have jetisoned the canopy if he really needed to get out "right the hell now" but he chose not to because that would have caused significant damage to the airframe and it wasn't an emergancy situation. That incident happened right up the road at Langely AFB and they had the pilot on the news a couple of days later talking about it. What it boiled down to was having the canopy cut open to get him out, cost of replacing JUST the canopy, or having him blow the canopy off, cost for the canopy, canopy mounting rails, air frame repair cost, new paint, ext, ext, ext. He had air conditioning, wasn't in any danger, and was chocked on the ramp so they had him wait a few hours while they figured out the best/cheapest way to get him out.
Only other incident involving the F-22 was a crash during flight testing. Pilot walked away unharmed, and the aircraft was repaired (bellied in) and put back into testing.
Pretty good track record for an aircraft that's been flying for around 10 years or so.
