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- HamiltonMP427
Yeah, it had been a while since i read about it, and got the two ive seen confused.
Damn planes, am I right, always looking so similar. It's all good man.
Yeah, it had been a while since i read about it, and got the two ive seen confused.
Has anyone ever seen the F117 called Toxic Death? It was one of the prototypes and when it was retired it was donated to Wright Patterson for the Air Force Museum, but no F117 had ever been displayed in a museum before. So they media blasted the reflective paint off it before it left. And because media blasting can be pretty hateful, the crew had to be covered head to toe to protect themselves, hence the name Toxic Death. After they were done, I guess they were allowed to have a little bit of fun with it. They also took out all of the sensitive and top secret stuff, but the transit look is awesome. As far as I've seen, this is the only photo of it.
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This is Toxic Death today.
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I just did an image search for "Boeing 747" and i saw no black circles.
That said, the plane shown was actually the 747 prototype, probably quite different electronics from the ones around today. Coloring the nose over the radar meant more expensive material, which would have nothing to do with testing and proving the airplane's performance and capability. Can't use most paints over the antenna, so you get a "save money" look like the black bumpers of a cheap car.
Ahh.... now that I know what you're talking about, it makes a bit more sense. It's primarily found on the 100 series 747s, not so much the newest generations..
I'd have to assume that the major reason for this was for the radome, generally a composite material, which houses the weather radar/avoidance systems. Even in the late 60's, early 70's, weather radar was minimal but available. The black paint may or may not contain magnetic properties to help attract and correctly funnel the signals back to the dish.
This is the inside of the radome. The device tilts left to right, up and down to pick up the signals. In flight, and when the weather scanner is turned on, the pilot can adjust the tilt and pan to adjust the the angle of climb or decent.
This is the inside of the radome, unsure of the type however:
Mostly comprised of carbon fiber and what appears to be a honeycomb type of material.
This is N664US. It's final pax revenue flight was Detroit-Seoul (Korean air in the back). While flying on it's last few hours it ran into a hail storm, this is the damage hail can do at extreme speed. The damage to the radome as well as the weather radar was going to be more costly than profitable for the next flight, so the return leg was to the boneyard.
JUG!I was at a small air force museum (basically just some garages) last week. They didn't have a lot, but my favourites were the two beautiful SAAB 35 and a Piasecki H-21, although the helicopter was not exactly in mint condition...
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For many years I've personally found the Cessna 208 to be one of the most beautiful aircraft ever made:
Been really interested in the MiG-25/31 recently. Anyone have any interesting stories or trivia on them?
Could someone help identify the plane @Johnny1996 took a photo of? I couldn't tell, but someone in here might.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/profile-posts/360147/
Why do most, if not all, old Boeing 747s have a black circle on the radome and in front of the cockpit windshield?
Been really interested in the MiG-25/31 recently. Anyone have any interesting stories or trivia on them?
Wow.... looks like they got to watch a bunch of planes take off and land.......