YF-117 on ice

cold testing the YF-117

...the airframe depicted is one of the original five full scale development (FSD) YF-117 aircraft. The picture shows the jet undergoing testing in the refrigeration system at McKinley Climatic Laboratory.

reply to post by gariac
More than likely a freeze test which most aircrafts go through to test the components/integrity/reliabilit and functionalilty of the avionics.

reply to post by gariac


If I lived in Florida, I would love to work there. Especially during the summer.

Did you see the C-17 coated in ice? That was kind of creepy I thought. Almost like a vision from the future.

reply to post by gariac


Actually, that is a production F-117A. It is tail no. 824.

reply to post by Shadowhawk


All I see is ED on the tail. Wiki has a high res image.



Digging through the information (cough cough) on the interwebs, the claim is the first five full scale models of the F117 were operational. But does that mean the first five YF-117s were really F-117s? That would be 780 through 784.

www.f-117a.com...

Now the wiki on the facility itself does indicate it was 824.
en.wikipedia.org...

The official USAF image doesn't indicate the tail number. There are a number of frozen aircraft on this page:
www.eglin.af.mil...

The five FSD airframes (780 through 784) were designated YF-117A, and used strictly for testing. The production models (785 through 843) were designated F-117A. A few of those were also used occasionally for testing. Article 824 was used for the climatic testing at Eglin. If you zoom in on the nose gear, you can see the first two digits of the number.

reply to post by TDawgRex


They took the 787 down to Florida and froze it too. I always find it kind of ironic that as hot as Florida stays, they have a facility to freeze aircraft there.

reply to post by Shadowhawk


I found the "82", though 824 had a HO tail code in all the photos I could find. Scramble lists ED tail codes on 781, 782, 783, 784, 811 and 831.

In addition,88-0841 had ED markings based on a photo search.

This could be 824 in the "final four". The photograph resolution isn't very high. No ED markings.



I was at Tonopah for the final four F-117s landing, but at the last minute they changed their approach so the air force photographer could get better shots rather than the schmucks on the Mt. Diablo.
www.lazygranch.com...

Article 824 underwent six months of climatic testing at Eglin. Testing began under cold weather conditions (-40F) on 15 July 1991. The airplane was subjected to snow loading, blowing snow, hail, freezing rain, ice and fog, hot weather (140 F), water intrusion, and concluded with tropical rain and human factors evaluations in January 1992.