Forum: F-22A Raptor

Here's some pics:

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Btw I have Jay Miller's book on the F-22, but there is only one pic of the orange box (on page 122), and it says here it is a "Test Instrumentation Package". I'm not sure but I think somewhere else in the book it says that one of the things tested during the program was weapons-bay acoustics, and the box may serve that purpose. Combat ready Raptors do not have these. They either have the 3 AVELs for the AMRAAMs or the SDB rack. The box has flown at several airshows.

On flight test airplanes, all special gear related to test instrumentation is orange, to distinguish it from production parts. That includes wiring, transducers, mounting brackets, power supplies, recorders, telemetering transmitters, etc. That weapon bay box is large enough to house the power supplies, recorder, and transmitters, so I suspect that is what it is. On a high density fighter, it is difficult to find a place to put all the test instrumentation, so the F-22 weapon bay is a good location. The F-111 test instrumentation package was also in its weapon bay. On many F-16 test airplanes, the gun and ammo drum were removed to make room for the data system.

Grrreat! Now I have to make the box and all that piping and wiring coming in and out of it! =^P Thanks for the great closeup pics, they're going to help alot.

You can find the pics at Airliners.net, they're even bigger and they may have new ones too. =)

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

Looks like there can be more than one box as well. In the first and last photos there is a smaller box aft of the large one (actually looks like two different boxes). I'm sure it just depends on what they're testing.

Forum: F-22A Raptor

F-22 Weapons Bays