F-22 на Аляске. В снегу

• Таки да, это Аляска.

"The airplanes do best when we can park them in our flow-through shelters to prevent the snow from accumulating on them," Niemi continues. The flow-through shelters are heated hangars with doors on two facing sides. The 90th has only eight of these shelters for its twenty F-22s, so the unit always has aircraft parked in the weather.
"Snow doesn't present a particular problem," Niemi explains. "It affects our schedule more than anything else because de-icing the airplane requires more time. We have to clear the wings and flight control surfaces of any ice before we take off.

 

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"All of the jets have held up quite well," explains Capt. Mary Lent, maintenance chief for the 90th. "We have had a few flight control issues. But other than that, maintenance has been fairly routine." Aircraft take about one week to acclimate to a new environment. The F-22 is no different from any other fighter going between climate extremes of cold Alaska to warm tropics. "The low-observable coatings require a little more maintenance because of the tropical environment," Lent adds. "So we rinse the F-22 with clear water daily to prevent corrosion."

 

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