I can tell you Drew was very excited about this personal tour. (We're going to miss Elmendorf's air show in June.) He's kind of a nut about planes, and actually built a model of the F-22 back in high school. That gives you an idea of how long they've been talking about this plane. So though we didn't get to peek into the cockpit or feel the rumble of standing too close to an F-22 as it's taking off, we did get to see a guy reapplying the stealth stuff on the underside of one of the wings – it's multi-layered, multi-colored, kind of complicated looking. And Hubie was full of interesting facts, most of which I have an impression of but can't remember exactly. One that I do remember: this particular plane has "AK 099" printed on the tail, which means it's based here in Alaska and is #99 of only 180+ planes that they're ever going to make. This passed week they were holding some exercise so there were a lot of other planes with "TY" on the tail for Tyndall AFB in Florida. There was also some bit about the jet engine exhausts doing this vectoring thing, i.e. pointing at different degrees up and down, to avoid heat detection on radar... I'll have to clear that up.
Then Hubie took us back to where the pilots keep their gear and showed us everything that they put on before flying. There's the helmet, specially molded to everyone's head; the compression suit that keeps them from passing out when they're pulling a lot of G-force; there's a suit for keeping them warm, that accounts for the temperature difference between here on the ground and the altitudes they plan on flying at; a vest that carries their pistol when they go behind enemy lines; and because it's Alaska, there's even a special arctic survival pack that they take with them, which I assume is included in the ejection pack. Did you ever see that movie Behind Enemy Lines? In the movie, when Owen Wilson's character ejects from his plane, I seem to remember (and it's been awhile since I saw the movie) they depicted the survival kit and homing beacon as being part of the chair, which landed in that open field near the statue. So I was curious to know whether the same thing applies to the F-22 seat. Hubie told us that after ejecting, the seat drops away, which automatically deploys the parachute located in the seat but attached to one of the pilot's vests (which also has the homing beacon), and the survival kit actually goes with the pilot as well, attached to the seat of his pants. Which makes more sense to me being that if you're in a pinch, i.e. in hostile territory, or landing over water, you don't want to have to go retrieving the seat to ensure your survival.As we were getting ready to leave the hangar, G kept insisting that we stay to watch the planes take-off. Unfortunately, because of the weather and more for the upcoming exercise, no one was out and about that day so she was totally out of luck there. But as we were driving around the rest of the airfield, G pointed out every single plane and said, "Look, Daddy, it's your plane!" – even the ones that were refurbished models. For the handful of times we've taken Drew to the airport to go out of town on business, G's gotten the impression that every plane belongs to Drew. It doesn't matter if it's commercial, military, or private, they're all "Dada's planes".
As a side note for you engineer geeks at heart, maybe you can just pick out the red vent-like things on the ceiling of the hangar in the top picture, along the top edge, one in the LH corner, one in the center. A friend of mine, who consults with an engineering firm in town, helped to design some of the features of the hangar, including the fire suppression (red vent-like things) system. Some years ago, a slideshow (below) was circulated on the internet regarding the fire suppression system malfunction at Ellsworth AFB in S.Dakota, where I worked for two summers during college. This, of course, happened after I left S.Dakota, but it's funny nonetheless.
