gray painted F-117

As Waynos has pointed out, this is not primier.

Last year the USAF painted one F-117 with the same paint as the Raptor uses, because they wanted the plane to have the ability to strike during the day.

The F-117 is a 1st gen stealth, and its ageing, its not as "black" as it used to be, we have better stealth aircraft now so it doesn't have to be so secretive. So to make it more useful they want some that can fly in the daytime. As far as I know they have only painted one F-117 the color of the Raptor, but i would assume that they will paint some more.

But dont think this means that the B-2 will go grey, its much better then the nighthawk.

Actually I wouldn't be suprised if they are planning on painting the Raptor black, obviously not all but around 6 to 12 of them. So when we first attack a country we can use the state of art F-22, along with our bombers, so they are all black, and the F-22's could clear the skies at nightime.

My February issue of Flight Journal has a camo F-117 on the cover. Its sort of a grey/olive scheme, gray on the bottom but a camo pattern on top.

It says:
"The night-only F-117 is being evaluated for daytime operations, hence the light-gray color scheme."

It was taken near Holloman AFB in NM. Flown by the 53rd Test and Evaluation group.


Update:
Found a small pic, my apologies if this has been shown before, but it looks a bit different than Wayno's pic.




[edit on 2-2-2005 by Veltro]

[edit on 2-2-2005 by Veltro]

I think its a smart move, because the F-117's role is shrinking, and having the ability to use it during the day will help keep it operational.

Originally posted by blythe
Where I live in NM, Stealths are seen quite often and this was the first one that I've seen in any color other than black.

where in NM? i have family in alamogordo. when i was out there during the summers growing up, i would watch them through the clouds out in the desert (white sands) once in a while. then in the evenings, there would be denials of new stealth planes. haha. one even crashed years after while i was out there. pretty intense.

Originally posted by DeltaNine
Ninja's figured it out years ago that a dark grey was best.

from what i recall, greys and blacks were not used since they tended to look unnatural. in low light conditions, colors desaturate. thusly, they would use dark reds and therefore blend into shadows much more naturally. then again, the last time i was discussing things like this was 7 years ago.

daved

Regardless, Ninja's rock.

According to Ben Rich [re: Lookheed Skunkworks fame], black is NOT the the ideal color for low observeble aircraft operating at night. Ben said, several years ago, the color scheme most difficult to detect visually is actually more of a 'pastel', but higher-ups didn't feel it proper to paint military aircraft in such ways. Can grey be consisered a pastel?



[edit on 2/3/2005 by flyboy]

Okay, I'm going out on a limb here, and feel free to slap me if I'm being stupid. We've all heard rumours of this adaptive colouring technology, whereby an aircraft can alter its apparent colour to match it's surroundings. Now, could this grey be the colour of the skin when it's "switched off"?

I live in Socorro and I work at the North end of WSMR.

Originally posted by Snoogans
Okay, I'm going out on a limb here, and feel free to slap me if I'm being stupid. We've all heard rumours of this adaptive colouring technology, whereby an aircraft can alter its apparent colour to match it's surroundings. Now, could this grey be the colour of the skin when it's "switched off"?

No, they are different paint schemes. I doubt they had visual stealth decades ago.

Air Force's Monthly ran a article on painting 2 aircraft grey to see if suitable for day operations. Which included testing with other aicraft.

Originally posted by blythe
Today I spotted an F-117 that was painted a battleship gray color instead of the usual black. It was being chased by a T-38, possibly doing a photo shoot.

Maybe one of the test planes! The test planes were all gray, instead of black. I've also heard that the Air Force was thinking about going to the gray paint scheme.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

I am with the ninjas,

black has lowest reflection/radiation, but high contrast to background, unless background is perfectly black itselve

grey, has pretty low reflection, and pretty low contrast with other coloursplus lots of blue light scattering, making the outline more fuzzy from a distance....

also works better in daytime cloudy conditions.


[edit on 4-2-2005 by Countermeasures]

I wonder if that's why they did it with the earlier planes too? (gray paint).

Seems to make sense, as most Raptors are coming out with that color... Seems the old standby was right all along...go figure, hehe...

Then again, by the time you visually SEE any of these planes, if the enemy you're pretty much already dead, so what really is the point?

Damn, if they will become grey, I guess the name "Darth Vader's Helmet" won't fit anymore

IMHO a dark grey would be best, like the camo used in low light urban ops, but yeah, for both day and night time, this is probably the best paint scheme...ick, Grey Stealths...

I have a picture of a desert cammo F-117.

Don't know where i got it, but ifi can i'll hunt it down and post the link sharpish, as it looks real sweet.

If i cannot find it, i'll post it some where for you all to see.

Probably the Have Blue? anyway share if you can

hahahha found it, and no, its the real deal F-117 fighter.

heres the link for you all to have a look at!

www.danshistory.com...

this is a real sweet cammo scheme if you ask me....but not very good for europe!

Read this article, and look close at the pictures. even the HUD in the F-117 is strange shaped.

Makes an interesting point about the lack of navigation equipment in the F-117. Very interesting, even if it is a bit old.

www.f-117a.com...

happy reading

ok, heres a picture thats just not adding up.

If this is a grey F-117, as it looks to be, where and what is it doing? its operational, as we can tell, but whats with all the heavy mob guarding it??

www.desertsecrets.com...

Looks like a day time variant. in use !

Originally posted by MadGrimbo
Read this article, and look close at the pictures. even the HUD in the F-117 is strange shaped.

Makes an interesting point about the lack of navigation equipment in the F-117. Very interesting, even if it is a bit old.

www.f-117a.com...

happy reading

Ahh no, the article you quote suggests a LOWER navigational capability than the KC-135 tankers, that doesnt mean that they dont have navigational equipment.

Remember that the F-117 is 1970s tech, and I seriously doubt that theyve really updated much of the avionics. Since it wasnt designed as a theatre bomber (a bomber that has the capability to roam around the complete area of combat), but a precision strike aircraft, I wouldnt expect wide ranging navigational capabilities when space was at such a premium (computers were BIG back then) - just enough to get from a 'nearby' airbase to the target and back again.