Message posted by Polemodel on July 13, 2009 at 7:14:27 PST:

Bill Sweetman is right up there with Peter M. on knowing his stuff, IMO. I would agree with his point that these horror stories about F-22 LO problems are at the allegation stage, and as yet not very well-substantiated.
As for the F-22 at Area 51, I think visitors to DLR have seen the flight suit patch with words along the lines of 'just passing thru--Raptor 4004'. That's in reference to measurements made on 4004 with DYCOMS during the development effort.
F-22 models & subassemblies had been measured at Helendale, and full-up RCS imaging measurements were being done on every plane off the assembly line at a dedicated facility in Georgia.
There was a contract requirement that an F-22 be measured at an RCS range that had gone through the DoD's RCS range certification process; this was to demonstrate to the USAF that the (quite good, actually) numbers coming from Helendale and Georgia were "real".
Things did not unfold exactly as planned. The 'certified' range which had been intended to address the above contract requirement was facing some delays in getting thru the certification process. By this time, the AF had confidence in the measurements from the other facilities, and nobody wanted to see the program delayed waiting for this original 'certified' range. So Raptor 4004 flew a test profile past (already certified) DYCOMS, the numbers correlated nicely with the previous measurements, and the appropriate box on the contract was checked off.
As far as I know, that's the only LO work done on the F-22 at Groom. Since the existence of the F-22 was no secret, obviously, there just wasn't much justification for the logistical penalties one pays for doing work out there. There are plenty of other places where LO measurements can be done, as long as the thing being measured "exists".

In Reply to: Great debate about LO and the F-22 posted by Robert on July 10, 2009 at 10:40:09 PST:

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