US Air Force YF-015B ?

YF-015B pops up as an actual desgination with an inventory of 1 in the US Air Force Statistical Digests FY1996 to FY2000:
(just search the document for the designation)

FY1996 www.dtic.mil...
FY1997 media.defense.gov...
FY1998 media.defense.gov...
FY1999 media.defense.gov...
FY2000 www.afhistory.af.mil...

According to the 2000 digest, the aircraft was removed from the inventory in FY2000.
In the FY2001 digest ‚YF-015B‘ replaced by a far less interesting designation – 'YF-15':
media.defense.gov...

Whats the story here? I have never heard of it and i cant find any reference to YF-015B. Obviously there were YF-15Bs back in the Seventies/Eighties - one was converted into the YF-15E prototype and another ended up as a test vehicle for NASA - but i dont see how those aircraft would show up in an Air Force inventory for a couple of years during the late Nineties.
It looks very much like a prototype program they had going for a couple of years and included by mistake. On the other hand, the desgination itself just screams typo.
There is other weird stuff too in those documents, but YF-015B stands out.

a reply to: mightmight

It's just a way of record keeping. If you look at some others you'll find something similar. The T-3A is listed as T-003A, as us the T-1A.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Yeah id buy that but why have an YF-15B in the inventory specifically from 1996 to 2000? It should have been around since the Seventies. The NASA bird was designated as NF-15B and flew from 1993 to 2009...
Did they reintroduce a prototype to test upgrades for the fleet or something? Why would they bother? Boeing is working on Eagle demonstrators / prototypes all the time without them showing up in the Air Forces inventory.

a reply to: mightmight

Most likely. They were probably testing upgrades for the Mud Hens. They were still pretty new at that point, and they had learned some lessons from Iraq.

Its all to do with mods done..Anything minor or updates on existing systems they just do a new Block number.Any major airframe,engine changes or systems replacement the like to change official designations.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: mightmight

Most likely. They were probably testing upgrades for the Mud Hens. They were still pretty new at that point, and they had learned some lessons from Iraq.

It could also be something as mundane as a difference in how 2 different people entered records. For example in our Fuels Manager database for all the aircraft we refuel you would find airframes entered multiple different ways, depending on who entered it. For example C5A, C005A, C5, etc. Made it a major pain in the ass when you ran searches haha

a reply to: face23785

I wouldn't be surprised if they made the YF-15 that was the test article for the E models into an active aircraft, but kept the YF designation. Then once they were mature and they didn't need it, they sent it to AMARG.

Man the POL guys used to drive us nuts some days. Between taking forever to get out to the aircraft, to taking forever to pump.

a reply to: Zaphod58

For some people making sure their walk looks gangsta enough is more important than getting to the truck in a timely manner.

I caught one guy watching the F22s while he was supposed to be wrapping up and heading to his next plane. I was like dude this isn't an air show, you see this # every day.

a reply to: face23785

Someone posted a picture in one of my groups, guy had run the handle through the door of the fuel truck,closed the door, and had a book resting on the steering wheel and was sitting there reading while pumping.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah I've caught guys doing stuff like that before. They went on my short list for when we needed some tedious, unpleasant 4-hour odd job done haha.

Going out to refuel aircraft is one of those jobs you could literally train a monkey to do, as long as everything goes ok. It's like driving, everything goes ok most of the time so people get complacent. That idiot sitting in the cab reading while he's pumping 600-1000 gallons a minute could get everybody killed if something goes wrong.

Edit: I know you know that I'm just venting a little. Stuff like that pisses me off

a reply to: face23785

The only problem we ever had, thank god, was when a carrier was in the area and sent a never sufficiently damned S-3 ashore. There was a 100% chance they were dumping fuel overboard when refueling.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I've had so many "problems" like that it's hard to pick one or two to talk about haha. One time I was setting up to refuel a P3, look up, and one of the Navy crew was sitting on the wing smoking. Then there was the time I was in the middle of filling up a Tornado and some Brits rolled up wanting to service oxygen while I was still refueling.

I saw an APU catch fire while the fuel truck was being backed into position once, that was pretty scary. Luckily he wasn't already set up so he was able to pull away pretty quickly.

a reply to: face23785

With the S-3, if you run the truck up to 18 psi, you're fine, except for taking forever to fill the aircraft. Run it at 18.5 psi or higher, and the aircraft automatically pops the dump valves open to keep from causing an over pressure in the tanks, and you end up with it pissing as much fuel onto the ramp as you're pumping into the aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That sounds fun. That's why I always asked what safe pressure was on aircraft I wasn't familiar with. When they weren't sure that was kind of annoying.

a reply to: face23785

As soon as we saw one land, we headed straight back to the shop and grabbed a box or two of absorb pads, because they were going to get put to use.

Man. That sounds like some fun times.

a reply to: cosmania

Most of the time they left one guy with the aircraft. We couldn't taxi them past the AMC terminal near the end of the runway. So everyone else would go into the terminal while one stayed and fuelled.

So when they dumped, we'd pull up and measure his attitude. If he had a good attitude, we'd help mop up the worst of it. If he had a bad attitude, we'd tell him the absorb pads were in the back of the truck, good luck and let us know when it was done so we could arrange disposal of them.