Video Analysis of an F-22 Raptor Power Loop

Photo: Air Force 1st Lt. Sam Eckholm

The F-22 Raptor has vectored thrust. This means that the engines don’t just push towards the front of the aircraft. Instead, the thrust can be directed upward or downward (from the rear of the jet). With this vectored thrust, the Raptor can do some cool stuff like this power loop. I first saw this on thedrive.com.

There are countless F-22 power loop videos online (I mean, I didn’t actually count). However, I like this one since it has the following features.

• The motion of the aircraft is mostly perpendicular to the view of the camera. This makes it appear to move in a 2D motion of the video frame.
• The Raptor is fairly far away from the camera such that you can see the whole motion of the power loop.
• Finally, there are these things called “mountains” in the background. Who cares about mountains? I do. The mountains can serve as points to mark the background so that I can account for the panning of the camera.

Oh, well then let’s do it. Of course I’m going to use my favorite video analysis program, Tracker…