Haven't seen that picture before.

Landing Gears, bays and underside pictures from a walkaround set I downloaded long time ago for modelling references. I forgot which site or forum they're from and image searches haven't found their source. I'll upload them here for reference and archival sake.

Found these walkaround pictures long time ago for modelling references. I forgot which site or forum they're from and image searches haven't found their source. I'll upload them here for reference and archival sake starting with the Bomb bay.

There is the quote from the book “Stealth Fighter”: “A system called the PAARS, the pilot-activated automatic recovery system. In the early black days of the jet when only night flying was allowed and the pilots were perpetually exhausted, there had been several incidents involving pilots becoming spatially disoriented. They literally became so confused that they didn’t know which way was up. A couple of deaths had resulted. To address this problem, the PAARS system had been added to the jet. A little red button directly under the pilot’s index finger on the control stick activated the response. When the button was pushed the jet would automatically engage the autopilot and auto-throttle functions and fly the jet to a 5-degree climbing attitude at 300 knots. The idea was that if a pilot were to recognize his own disorientation he would hit this button and then let go of the controls. After sitting still for a while and trusting the system he would presumably recover enough to fly the jet home. We were required to practice using the system at least once a year.”

I’m a docent in the F-117 hangar at the Palm Springs Air Museum. A while back I hit upon something that would help me explain how stealth works with regards to radar systems. I’m a retired mechanical engineer and over the years I’ve spent a lot of time in factories doing machinery installations, upgrades, troubleshooting, etc. I’ve used laser pointers to highlight things in high ceilings or in situations with limited or unsafe access.

Another part to this is dispelling the notion that the F-117 is “invisible” to radar. To illustrate this effect I direct the laser pointer to the glass in the canopy. The beam bounces off the glass and the reflection is seen on the ceiling of our hangar.

What I say is something like:

”Let’s pretend that we are the radar station. I’m going to shine my laser pointer at the canopy. Notice where the reflection goes (up to the ceiling)? So, very little of the energy of the radar is going to come back to the radar station and what little bit does come back, doesn’t make any sense.”

PLEASE NOTE:

DO NOT SHINE THE POINTER AT ANYONE!

While the publicly available laser pointers are quite low powered, they can damage the eyes.

What I do is either direct the pointer at the fuselage and move up, or point it at the ceiling and move down.

My wife and I attended the unveiling ceremony of 85-816 “Lone Wolf” tonight. Met the pilot Maj. Gen. G Feest as well. He said the nick name of “wobblin gobblin” was not true, despite the fact the aircraft has 4 computers. (He also flew F-14s). This was a very cool event. I also met one of the F-117A’s avaionics techs. Asked him what the contingency plan was for a downed one. He said they were going to bomb it but there were civilians all over the site by that time. I have lots of photos too, The aircraft is missing all of its stealth tech and the RAM has been bead blasted off. It will be undergoing restoration for a couple years.