Top U.S. fighter jet makes airshow debut

By Jim Wolf and Sarah Marsh

FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin's F-22 "Raptor" fighter jet, widely considered the world's most advanced, streaked through a milestone performance on Monday for a warplane that money cannot buy.

The 15-minute display of dips, dives and pirouettes was a highlight of the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow, a global arms bazaar and aviation trade show held in alternate years in Farnborough and Paris.

It marked the debut of the single-seat, radar-evading Raptor at an overseas air show. Among crowd-pleasing stunts, the 43,340-pound F-22 shot nearly straight up into leaden skies, then dropped back in a "tail-slide" controlled by dual engines capable of twice the speed of sound.

Major Paul Moga of the U.S. Air Force 27th Fighter Squadron opened the weapons-bay doors after flashing the aircraft's belly at spectators, displaying the area where bombs and missiles would be stored.

A back flip was followed by a sharp slowdown that made it appear to float across the horizon before it roared supersonically, its after-burners glowing orange.

Unlike most fighter aircraft, no weapons are carried externally on the Raptor, to make it harder to detect on radar screens.

Crossing the Atlantic to England was itself a first for the aircraft, deployed last year to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the hub of U.S. air power in the Pacific.

Japan, Israel and Australia have shown interest in buying the F-22 if the U.S. Congress were to change a law that makes it unavailable for export because it is deemed too good at what it does. The ban was enacted 10 years ago, partly to prevent the spread of U.S. technological knowhow and partly to avoid regional arms races.