Air Show pics

[phantomphan1974]

Rander, there were two YF-17s built; your photo is of the second.  By the way - don't dispair - those snapshots can actually be cleaned up!  (I used photoshop Elements 6).

So is the one at WMOF the 1st one? And what happened to the 2nd one?  XF was that VX-4 back then too?

[rander]

Rander, there were two YF-17s built; your photo is of the second.  By the way - don't dispair - those snapshots can actually be cleaned up!  (I used photoshop Elements 6).

Thanks!! I have Photo shop elements 6.0 These YF-17 pics may be nastalga pics along with some pics I posted in the Boeing Commercial airlines thread

[rander]

Aim9xray: Do these look Better?

[NikonGuy]

Cool 

[Midnight Mover]

Sure do miss the Tomcat.

[rander]

Looks like a YF-17. Similar to the one at Torrance Airport with the Western Museum of Flight. How many total were made? Never seen one with the XF on the tails.

I was looking through the museum info thread on Fencecheck and found a YF-17 pic the 6th photo down at the link
http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php/topic,7281.0.html

THis pic is dated November 2006. Scroll downto reply #3 and there is a November 2007 pic. look like they gave the YF-17 a paint job.

Thought you might be interested

[Midnight Mover]

Sweet

[aero-engineer]

Yup, YF-17 #1 got a paint job a few years ago, I believe to the "Paris Air Show" colors IIRC.

YF-17 #2 is at the US Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.


Kevin
aero-engineer

[rander]

Yup, YF-17 #1 got a paint job a few years ago, I believe to the "Paris Air Show" colors IIRC.

YF-17 #2 is at the US Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.


Kevin
aero-engineer

Kevin: in reply #6 of this thread Josh posted pics of a YF-17 at the Western Museum of Flight at the Torrance Airport was there more than the 2 above? I always thought there were more that 2 YF-17's but not more than 4 of them. Also did these YF-17 actually get U.S. Navy BUNO's?

Lastly what the heck does IIRC mean?

Rander Veteran Tweaker

[aim9xray]

A few tidbits in no particular order...  (IIRC -> If I Recall Correctly.)

There were two YF-16s and two YF-17s built for the flyoff.

The two YF-17s received AF Serials 72-01569 and 72-01570.  When the aircraft went to the Navy, the Air Force Serials were mangled to fit into the six-digit NAVFLIR Buno fields for the Logs and Records people.  So,

AF               Navy    
72-01569 -> 201569
72-01570 -> 201570

Aircraft 1 seems to have been the homebody, while A/C 2 did the demo circuit; doing Farnborough and Paris.  As the "YF-18 Prototype"  it went on tour for the Navy as a demo bird and was retired about 1980ish (IIRC).

After retirement, A/C 1 was stored (either at Edwards or Palmdale) until it came down to the WMoF in 1987.  As delivered, it was in a 3-shade lo-vis adversary scheme; it was "restored" into markings resembling the late "roadtrip" markings of A/C 2.

After retirement, A/C 2 went to Pensacola and was on display for some time at the NMUSNA in its final color scheme, gloss gray.  After F-18s became available for display, A/C 2 was farmed out to the Battleship Alabama Museum display.

A/C 2 did carry the VX-4 "XF" tailcode for display purposes but as far as I know, it was not assigned to the squadron.  The "XF" tailcode goes back to the early fifties when the VX squadrons were first established.

[rander]

Thanks Kevin for that explanation. That clears the air on the YF-171 issue.q