To give you a scale of how big a F-22 is: 2 airmen under the world's coolest sun shade as reference

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SenorCarrots92@reddit

Would you intercept me? I'd intercept me.

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Sunny-Nebula@reddit

154th Wing, Hawaii Air National Guard headquartered at Hickam AFB. The HH on the tail stands for Hickam Hawaii. Not 100% sure if the picture was taken there, but looks like it.

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KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS@reddit (OP)

The F-22 is indeed from Hickam, but this was from the April 2024 America fest at Kadena AFB in Okinawa.

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Lonetrek@reddit

Dang that sounds like a pretty long ferry.

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Buzz407@reddit

Remember she can supercruise. Probably one hop with a couple tankers.

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KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS@reddit (OP)

6-7 hours between Tokyo and Honolulu in commercial so

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Lonetrek@reddit

Would rather be doing that in a Hawaiian A330 lol. I give those solo guys credit. That's a long time by yourself with not a lot to do.

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KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS@reddit (OP)

They probably have a wingman but yeah, cannot even leave your seat for a piss

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oojiflip@reddit

To put the flanker into perspective, an average-height male can stand fully upright directly below the cockpit

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FingernailToothpicks@reddit

This is the comparison we need as well. Many Russian planes are pretty darn large.

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mrvarmint@reddit

Sukhoi and Soliviev engines are huge, even bigger than their western counterparts. You need a huge airframe to wrap around an 18 foot long D30

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tsraq@reddit

You know, that gave me an idea how to they could make those planes slightly smaller ...

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CrouchingToaster@reddit

The su27 is only like 2 feet shorter in length than a b17

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ElToroMuyLoco@reddit

I know nothing about fighter jets, but what's the reason these flankers (and others) are so much bigger then other planes. Doesn't it make them more visible?

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Makes them more visible to radar, but the larger size is a necessity. Russian doctrine doesn't rely on aerial refueling and as such their aircraft need much larger internal fuel tanks. Additionally the airspace they have to be able to cover is much much larger than something like the contiguous United States

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ElToroMuyLoco@reddit

Yh ok that makes sense, thanks.

And why does the US have these bigger planes then? I suppose just to be able to carry more ammunition?

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Omicron_Variant_@reddit

Maybe someone who knows more about this can chime in, but back in the day a plane had to be a certain size in order to carry an effective, long-range radar.

My understanding is that back in the 1970s/80s the AN/APG-63 on the F-15 was a much more capable radar than the F-16's AN/APG-66. The F-16 was arguably a better WVR fighter but it was just too small & light to have a radar with serious BVR capabilities. Electronics have advanced quite a bit since then, but there was a time when a small, lightweight fighter was simply not going to be able to carry a very capable radar.

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HughJorgens@reddit

The F-15 was our big, expensive air dominance fighter, designed to beat everything. It has over 100 victories and no losses. Certain people in the Air Force stressed that if we wanted to match Soviet numbers, we needed a bunch of smaller, cheaper fighters, so we built the F-16. Now the Soviet threat went away, so the F-15 has always been more than enough to cover air superiority, so they turned the F-16s loose to go bomb things. They just turned out to be freakishly good at this. The Soviets built the Su-27 and the Mig-29 to oppose them.

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SirEnricoFermi@reddit

Along with /u/oojiflip 's accurate comments above, the F-15 also has found a good role as a fighter-bomber and heavy loadout platform. All that extra lift and maximum takeoff weight is great for both longer legs and carrying more warheads to place on foreheads. The F-15E Strike Eagles are an optimization for this role.

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oojiflip@reddit

The F-15E is like the unholy child of a B-1B and an F-22 minus the stealth

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oojiflip@reddit

Some of the American aircraft are only slightly smaller than the Flanker, notably the F-15 which has a similar loitering air superiority role and therefore has more fuel capacity, but smaller fighters like the F-16 are designed to keep sipping from tankers on longer missions, they have really quite restricted combat radii

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Impossible_Agency992@reddit

https://media.defense.gov/2023/Oct/31/2003331190/1200/1200/0/231010-F-AU145-1203.JPG

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superuser726@reddit

Honestly it just seems the size I expected it to be

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eatmynasty@reddit

Yeah I mean it has a cockpit where you can always see a little reference person.

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Erigion@reddit

Helpful design feature. Unlike all those drone things

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FujitsuPolycom@reddit

They should at least paint a banana on the side for scale.

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Owl_lamington@reddit

Looks so good at this angle.

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mark31169@reddit

I worked on F-16s for seven years. Every other fighter looks huge to me.

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LetsGoHawks@reddit

The F-22 is 62' long.

A typical city bus is 40'.

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Benjamin39Brown@reddit

Still small compared to an Airbus A320.

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The_Sorbert@reddit

I was at an air show back in the 90's had a b-17 next to a f15 and thinking a 1 person plane is nearly as big as ww2 bomber

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BladyPiter@reddit

Also F15 can take like 2 times more bombs.

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the_messiah_waluigi@reddit

2x more bombs in weight or count?

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mrvarmint@reddit

At max, an F-15EX can carry 29.5lbs, a B-17 17.6k, but depending on range, a B-17 was as little as 4,000 lbs. Given internal volume and external hardpoints, im guessing B-17 could carry more "bombs", but a JDAM weighs >4x more than a typical WWII HE bomb

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Benjamin39Brown@reddit

Did you mean 29.5k lbs for the f15ex?

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WWYDWYOWAPL@reddit

Yes

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cmearls@reddit

There's just something oddly comforting as a mechanic to be underneath an airplane lol. Can't explain it, it could be a beautiful day and I'd find myself under the jet. IYKYK I suppose lol.

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KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS@reddit (OP)

The 5th gens were fenced off but the 4th gens were free to touch (with an airman watching of course) so I had a taco under the shade of a F-15 and that was pretty great

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donteatthedog@reddit

You know what? Breaking my nah not commenting streak to say yeah, a taco under an F-15 wing sounds extra tasty.

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cmearls@reddit

F-15s were amazing to work on. My favorite fighter.

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Gb_packers973@reddit

The engines have to be the main driver for its size right?

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dsdvbguutres@reddit

Bald eagle screams in the background

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iwantmanycows@reddit

Something on but off topic. Countries keep comparing their newly built stealth aircraft to the F22.

Let's put that into comparison. "Newly designed and built" compared to an aircraft that first flew 34 years ago and was first out into service 27 years ago..... and is still the pinnacle of stealth fighters.

Think about that for just a few moments. There is almost certainly something way more technologically advanced already almost through the works to blow people's minds shortly 😅

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Luthais327@reddit

Saw it at the airforce museum in Dayton, I was floored by how large that and the su27s are.

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SaigaExpress@reddit

Its a big plane but its not as big as i expected standing next to it.

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PilgrimInGrey@reddit

There’s actually a picture of an F-22, F-35 and, P-51 mustang which shows the true size of F-22. It is huge!

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HughJorgens@reddit

I've been in the shadow of a B-1 on a hot day, and it is noticeably cooler there, like by maybe 15 degrees. They are huge though, more like a moving building.

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One_Shoulder_1306@reddit

The su-24 is even bigger than the su-27!

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Miserable-Lawyer-233@reddit

That's not that big. The Su-27 and Su-57 are a lot bigger. Bigger doesn't mean better, but Russian jets are typically significantly larger due to different requirements.

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randytc18@reddit

It amazes me every time I see a fighter that's not a f16 how big they are. The base in my area is all f16s so I guess I just got used to their size. Then a f15, 35, and rarely a 22 comes in and I'm just like holy cow.

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Maleficent-Weird-430@reddit

35 is a better sun shade, can confirm

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shaundisbuddyguy@reddit

Saw one at an airshow a couple of years ago for the first time. Such an impressive aircraft. If anyone hasn't seen what it can do in person and has the opportunity? Go. Incredible experience.

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Mindfully-Numb@reddit

Loads of discoloration around the canopy area. Does that happen due to maintenance exchanging panels from time to time, mismatched paint, dirt, wear and tear etc? Navy planes are particularly hard hit this way.

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superuser726@reddit

Yeah, these planes have sensitive coatings too that are hard to take care of. You'll see this wear and tear even in planes that were just sitting doing nothing. Apparently these coating oxidize too and even react with water so there's not much they can do to prevent this type of discoloration

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