Escorted joy-ride

About three weeks ago, my friend and Air Force Colonel Lynn Carmichael called me to come and discreetly check out the new F/A-22 delivered to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, the first operational base to receive the brand new “Raptor” fighter in replacement of the aging F-15. This plane was very expensive to produce as its cost per unit is at this point about $339 million. According to the military, this plane can’t be matched by any known other fighter aircraft. What impressed me the most was its cockpit reminiscent of a giant iPhone. At any rate, after spending a morning in the flight simulator during which my quick-responses didn’t perform too well, my friend Lynn got me all the special gear and somewhat reluctantly, let me fly for a quick twenty minute ride under the name of Paul Feldmann, a Canadian-born pilot at the base. Since I wasn’t supposed to, I didn’t try to execute any Herbst maneuver (J-turn) or the Pugachev's Cobra; I just took off, climbed up to 40,000 feet, made a few turns and landed the plane without breaking anything, under Lynn’s sharp eye who was escorting me closely all along in a two-seater F-15 accompanied by Captain Bert Langford…