Could the F-22 be so advanced that some humans just cannot handle its capabilities?

[SW-Shooter]

On 60 minutes there were two F-22 Raptor pilots talking about their problems with the fighter. Could it be that some pilots just don't have the genetic profile to handle what the bird does to the human body?

Maybe we need to find the pilots that don't have problems and look at them as the test subjects as a whole. It's obvious some pilots are having problems, maybe they "lack" something.

[telecustom]

I have a distinct feeling that the F-22 will be the basis for the US's first Unmanned Fighter.

[JohnnyC]

I don't necessarily think it's a physiological thing. If you can pull 9 G's, you can pull 9 G's, whether it's in an A-10 an F-16 or an F-22. The issues I've heard about are problems with the oxygen generation system and a few guys were going hypoxic. I'm curious of it's related to their whole integrated life support system. The aircraft doesn't use the standard g-suit configuration from what I've been told.

[SW-Shooter]

They even gave them pulse oximeters, and that showed nothing was wrong with the 02 system. The fact that there are some pilots that aren't experiencing problems leads me to believe that it's the pilot not the aircraft.

[SMETNA]

I heard LM designed the flight suit specifically to help keep blood flowing to the upper extremities, because their test pilots would get mega raging boners as soon as they looked at it.

[ChicagoTex]

While the F-22 is unquestionably an outstanding achievement of engineering, as far as stressing the human body goes, I'm not aware the F-22 has done anything other aircraft haven't.


I have a distinct feeling that the F-22 will be the basis for the US's first Unmanned Fighter.

Actually it'll probably be the F-35 (itself based on the F-22) but your point is still valid. Once Fly-by-Wire became a mainstream part of our military fighting jets with the F-16, it was and is only a matter of time before having the pilot sit in the aircraft becomes optional. Hell, I'd bet a substantial sum that there are already multiple working prototypes in testing.