WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California , killing the test pilot , the Air Force said . An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California . The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. ( 1:30 p.m . ET ) for unknown reasons , Air Force officials said . Lockheed Martin said the test pilot , David Cooley , 49 , of Palmdale , California , joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force . The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB , where it was stationed , the Air Force said in a news release . At $ 150 million apiece , the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter . In 2004 , an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert . The pilot ejected and was not hurt , though the jet was destroyed . The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike . Once the Cold War ended , the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival . However , the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program , which was almost eliminated by Congress . In the end , the aircraft survived , and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag , which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft .
NEW : Test pilot David Cooley , 49 , of California , Palmdale , dies in crash . F-22A fighter jet crashes 35 miles northeast of Air Force around 10:30 a.m . The one -seater jet was on a test mission when it crashed . At $ 150 million apiece , the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter .