USAF Museum C-17

[Old Viper Tester]

Some time ago, I posted images of the flight test C-17 at Edwards in 1991. At that time, I also said that I would post some images of the same aircraft as it arrived for display at the National Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB. The aircraft is now on display, but these images show it in the restoration yard in May 2012, waiting for a crew from Edwards to remove flight test equipment for shipment back to Edwards. Its pseudo-Euro One scheme replaced with the current operational Air Mobility scheme.

 

 

 

"Mission" symbols next to the crew door. Due to its proximity to Hollywood, Edwards was often 'loaned' to production companies. The C-17 showing its participation in a number of action films...

 

Detail at the lower right of the crew door. That's right, there is actually a panel on each side of the jet and an emergency escape slides inside for the cockpit crew to escape quickly

 

Though the escape slide concept assumes that g-forces in an out of control aircraft would be such that it would keep the crew members on the slide and propel them back and out through the jettisoned panel. Hmmmm....

 

Aft fuselage. Thats part of the XC-99 carcass in the background.

 

The part that intrigued me as an ex stability and control flight test engineer, the installation of the stall recovery parachute. When doing high angle of attack flight test, the tail cone was removed at the vertical panel line and the reefed parachute exposed, looking sort of like a puckered... er... well you get the idea. The explosive warning triangle reads "STALL RECOVERY CHUTE".

 

A USAF image showing the bobbed tail cone during a LAPES drop on the Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards.

 

Nose gear, only because I failed to take a picture of it 20 years earlier.

 

Thanks for looking,

Sven

[Britman]

Great and informative as usual Sven,thank you. I take it the XC99 still exists? 

 

Keith. 

Edited August 6, 2018 by Britman

[Old Viper Tester]

On 8/6/2018 at 4:52 AM, Britman said:

I take it the XC99 still exists? 

I haven't been by the restoration yard in a long time. There were still a lot of XC-99 pieces in the yard when I retired from Wright-Patt two years ago. There was so much visible corrosion, especially on the wing box, that I would be surprised if it could ever be re-assembled. I suppose they could remanufacture parts, but that would be an enormous task. even if someone found the room to display it. I suspect the museum has a lot more high priority restorations on there list ahead of this white elephant. 

 

Sven

[RidgeRunner]

25 minutes ago, Old Viper Tester said:

There were still a lot of XC-99 pieces in the yard when I retired from Wright-Patt two years ago. There was so much visible corrosion, especially on the wing box, that I would be surprised if it could ever be re-assembled. I suppose they could remanufacture parts, but that would be an enormous task. even if someone found the room to display it. I suspect the museum has a lot more high priority restorations on there list ahead of this white elephant. 

  

Sven

That's a shame, Sven. I remember seeing her at Kelly in 1979, in one piece!

 

Martin

[Red Dot]

i'd love to see a C-17 hanging off the tail chute!!

 

Andy

[Old Viper Tester]

22 hours ago, Red Dot said:

i'd love to see a C-17 hanging off the tail chute!!

This is the only image I have seen with the departure chute deployed.

 

This was the chute deployment test. Note that the parachute is still reefed and probably was not fully opened during the test. This event was just to make sure that everything worked and that the chute, lines or cable did not foul on the airframe. A standard test for all new spin chute installations. Always preceded by a ground firing test. (Have some images of an F-15 ground firing somewhere.)

[Red Dot]

thanks for the photo Sven. It's amazing what goes in to making planes fly. I suppose i shouldn't be surprised as i know what happens to cars

 

Andy

[F-32]

Great work 👌