There were quite a few times when I was climbing into the jet, getting ready to launch off the pointy end, when the chief would tug on my flight suit and yell over the flight deck noise, “SIR, CAN YOU GIVE IT A FRESH-WATER WASH?” That was euphemism for flying through a rain shower and when convenient, we would.
The carrier just doesn’t produce enough fresh water with its distilling units to provide baths, though. As John says, there’s a spray-can solution, but watching these poor kids—with what appears to be spray paint, shoot and wipe, shoot and wipe—is just agonizing.
This is really going to come to a head when the F-35 deploys, though. The stealth characteristics are going to be degraded without regular attention. It’s going to mean more work for the maintenance crews, regardless of the solution.
This is known as a deluge rinse rack, many military and civilian airfields have them and they are a great tool!
It would be great if carrier aircraft could be rinsed after every flight, but it is just not feasible.
All Naval aircraft have calendar based inspections, conditional inspections, and hourly (hours of flight) inspections. Cleaning the aircraft falls under both the calendar based inspection and conditional criteria.
A normal land based calendar cycle for Navy aircraft cleaning is every 14 days with a 3 day window on either side. When these aircraft deploy to the carrier, their cycle is cut in half. The aircraft cleaning will be accomplished every 7 days.
When deployed, all of the calendar based special inspections dealing with cleaning, preserving, or lubrication are cut to half the normal cycle.
Even with the cycle cut in half it is a challenge to stay ahead of the salt water and air. With the lack of available fresh water, you will see the line division and corrosion shop doing “scrubby bubbles” wipe downs of the aircraft whenever possible and you will find the plane captains cleaning the canopies multiple times daily.
The “scrubby bubbles” wipe down is actually called the waterless wipe down method and is an approved substitute for fresh water. Items like landing gear struts which are exposed are wiped down on each daily inspection with a lint free cloth soaked in clean hydraulic fluid to keep them free of dirt, salt crystals, and to curtail any pitting which may occur.
Of course the squadrons don’t just make their needs up or invent them, they are governed by instructions and manuals. The NA-01-1A-509 is the manual which covers aircraft cleaning, corrosion treatment, corrosion prevention, corrosion identification, and lists suitable substitutes when freshwater is not available.
The instruction which is basically the bible of Naval Aviation is the OPNAV-4790.2 and it mandates the corrosion control program along with numerous others.
