F22 Lightning II - tricks

F22 Lightning II is a flight simulator game released in 1996 by Nova Logic. Its good physics, simplicity and low system requirements (MS-DOS version) made it very popular. This game was published as demo version in many game magazines. The full version is much rare. There is yet another one, named multiplayer slave.

Demo version features only one quick mission. So I played extensivelly this level and found few interesting things.

Maximum altitude (Quick Mission 1)

Have you ever wondered how high you can fly? My record is 88283

Maximum speed (Quick Mission 1)

Have you ever wondered how fast you can fly? My record is M2.08

Maximum forces (Quick Mission 1)

Have you ever wondered how much forces can you obtain? My record is +10.4G

Mysterious lake (Quick Mission 1)

This map consists mostly of mountains and deserts, though there is a river that when you follow, you will reach a lake with mini-peak on its center. Its unusual feature is that except the airport, this is the only place in the map where you can land (and your fuel will be restored). If you dont have patience to follow the river, at the beginning of level, when you're on the airport, aim your aircraft exactly between tower and hangar (316 degrees) and fly.

Acrobatics (Quick Mission 1)

Set power to BURN and hold down arrow. Plane will make a 360 degree turn once, and when whells touch the airport, you will even hear the airborne theme. Second turn will be crash unfortunatelly. MOVIE

Level characteristics (Quick Mission 1)

All you have to do is to flight through 4 waypoints. Though there are: some friendly aircrafts in the air that you can target and even shoot down: * F-16 DRAGON 3
* F-16 DRAGON 2
* AWACS RADAR PLANE DRAGON 1
* F-22 STORM 2 (your wingman)

and ground structures:
* FUEL TANK BRAVO 9, 8, 7, 5, 3
* HANGAR BRAVO 4, 2, 11, 10
* CONTROL TOWER BRAVO 6
* B1 BOMVER VAMPIRE 3

Map for this mission:

Attitude vs speed (Quick Mission 1)

If you fly horizonally, maximum speed you can reach depends on the height you are flying. The fastest speed you can get (M1.97) somewhere around 36000. Probably air density has something to do with in. This is a plot of maximum achievable speed, measured from game.

Climbing the mountains (Quick Mission 1)

It is possible to climb the mountains, without taking off, still driving on gears. Head to 241 and set throttle to 80%. Though it looks like the game engine has problems in rendering the terrain from the plane's cabin in that situation.

Unidentified norman (Campaign 4, Mission 7)

After taking off the airport, turn 180 degrees backward, select JDAM bombs and use radar. You will find objects named: UNIDENTIFIED NORMAN 1, 2, 3 and 4, which turn out to be cows.