The F-35 gets plenty of headlines, but one famous Top Gun graduate has a different favorite sitting at the top of his list. Lt. Col. (Ret.) David “Chip” Berke, a Marine pilot with a long and varied flying career, says the F-22 Raptor is the jet that left the biggest mark on him.
Berke’s view carries weight because he has actually flown the kind of aircraft most people only argue about from a distance. Over the years, he has logged time in the F/A-18 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, and F-35, which gives him a rare side-by-side comparison of how these jets feel in real life.
That perspective matters even more because Berke is not just any pilot. He spent 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, graduated from Top Gun, served as an instructor, and flew combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. He also became the first Marine selected to fly the F-22, a fighter that belongs to the Air Force and is not part of the standard Marine Corps lineup.
Before the F-35 ever entered the conversation, the F-22 had already built a reputation as the stealth jet with the wow factor. It was the world’s first fifth-generation fighter to enter service, and for pilots, it brought a combination of speed, agility, and pure intimidation that made it stand out from the pack.
Berke has been clear about why he rates it so highly. “The short, easy answer is the F-22 Raptor is a unique aircraft. Getting to fly that was amazing, and it really doesn’t have a real equal in the world that it operates.”
That kind of answer says a lot, especially coming from someone who has spent his career around some of the most capable aircraft ever built. He does not trash the F-35 or the other jets either. Instead, he talks about them with respect, while still making room for the one that felt special in his hands.
The F/A-18, in particular, holds a different place for him. Berke called it his “first love,” which makes sense since it was his first operational aircraft and the jet he used in combat more than once. That kind of attachment is hard to beat, because firsts in aviation tend to stick with a pilot forever.
Even so, the F-22 appears to have delivered the biggest thrill. Berke has described its thrust vectoring with obvious excitement, and that feature is a big part of what makes the jet so much fun to watch and even more fun to fly. It gives the Raptor an almost unreal level of maneuverability, the sort of control that lets it pull off moves that look more like stunt work than combat flight.
He has gone as far as calling the jet “pure fun,” and that’s about as close as you can get to a pilot’s love letter without making it one. “It is just the most ridiculous thing…I loved flying the F-22. The most fun you could ever have in an airplane is that jet.”
Of course, the Raptor is not just a thrill machine. It is also an expensive one, which helps explain why the United States only produced 186 of them. Those numbers are part of the reason the F-35 has taken over many of the missions once expected of the F-22, even if the older jet still inspires a lot of loyalty from the people who have flown it.
The interesting part is how Berke’s take cuts through the usual hype. Instead of picking the newest or most visible aircraft, he goes with the one that gave him the most complete flying experience, the one that felt different from everything else in the sky. That is the kind of opinion that sticks, especially when it comes from a pilot who has actually been there, strapped in, and pointed the nose upward.
