Resolving conflicts for the F/A-22 cockpit canopy

Diverse requirements made design and production of the fighter's cockpit canopy a challenging systems integration enterprise for Lockheed Martin.

It has a mass of only 360 lb, but the cockpit canopy of the F/A-22 fighter proved to be one of the heavier engineering jobs associated with the aircraft. In the words of John Summerlot, F/A-22 Raptor Program Technical Integrator for Lockheed Martin, “It was one of the most important and one of the most complex aspects of the F-22. Years of systems engineering went into this.”

The systems integration job on the F-22 involved “taking a whole bunch of sometimes conflicting requirements and bringing them together into a single product that does its job,” he said. “Lots of detailed analysis went into it-structural design characteristics of it, what the right thickness of the laminates (canopy transparency) was, what kind of material should be used, making sure we didn't have any voids or disbonds in the processes-and integrating that design into the (aircraft) frame and making sure you have full integrity associated with the interface between the two.”