Skunk Works Mailing List
Re: Edwards AFB
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 01:17:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mary Shafer
Subject: Re: Edwards AFB
On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, Wei-Jen Su wrote:
> Hey guys, today I was in Edwards AFB and saw the F-22 Raptor 01
> taxing to her hangar, and next to the hangar was a SR-71 with the two
> vertical stabilizer removed! Anyone know which SR-71 was and what was
> doing there? Also saw the Raptor 02 with a orange cylinder attached to the
> top back of the airplane, anyone know what is it? Looks like a camera or a
> spin recover chute. Ah, I also saw the SR-71B with the tail number 831.
That SR-71 is missing the rudders--what little there is of the vertical
stabilizers is right there; the rudders sit on top of them. It's also
missing the rudder pintles. Are you sure you're familiar with the
airplane? It's a pretty major error to not know it has all-moving
rudders, not real vertical stabilizers.
Anyway, that's the second of the warehoused airplanes that the Air Force
kept in the great giveaway at retirement. They got back the A we'd kept
in flyable storage and got it back in the air quickly, got the first of
the warehoused airplanes back in the air, and were counting the B as
their third airplane, since they were renting so much time on it from
us. However, they were required to have three aircraft, so they'd
started on getting this second warehoused airplane back in the air when
the line-item veto shut them down. We may get the airplane, mostly
because AFFTC doesn't want to find the space for another one and no one
wants to tug it back to Plant 42 through Lancaster.
Yes, that was probably a spin chute. The F-22 just went to 60 deg
alpha, so I'd think a spin chute would be appropriate.
The B, 831, is parked out on the ramp for the Dryden public tour to see.
It's being kept in flyable storage. The A, 844, with the LASRE mount is
kept in Bay 4 of the RAIF, too far to take the tour, particularly on hot
summer days.
Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com
"Some days it don't come easy/And some days it don't come hard
Some days it don't come at all/And these are the days that never end...."
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Created: Sat Sep 4 02:00:58 EDT 1999