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RoleNational originUnited StatesManufacturerFirst flight18 June 1981Introduction15 October 1983Retired22 April 2008Primary userNumber built64 (5 YF-117As, 59 F-117As)Unit cost42.6 million US$111.2 million (total program)Developed fromThe Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was a single-seat, stealth formerly operated by the (USAF). The F-117A's was in 1981, and it achieved status in October 1983. The F-117A was 'acknowledged' and revealed to the world in November 1988.A product of Lockheed and a development of the technology demonstrator, it became the first operational aircraft initially designed around. The F-117A was widely publicized during theof 1991. It was commonly called the 'Stealth Fighter' although it was aground-attack aircraft, making its F-designation misleading.The Air Force retired the F-117 on 22 April 2008, primarily due to the fielding of the and the impending introduction of the.
Sixty-four F-117s were built, 59 of which were production versions with five demonstrators/prototypes.Development Background and Have Blue. Main article:In 1964, a mathematician, published a seminal paper titled Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction in the journal of the Moscow Institute for Radio Engineering, in which he showed that the strength of a return is related to the edge configuration of an object, not its size. Ufimtsev was extending theoretical work published by the German physicist. Ufimtsev demonstrated that he could calculate theacross a wing's surface and along its edge.
The obvious conclusion wasthat even a large aircraft could be made stealthy by exploiting thisprinciple. However, the airplane's design would make it aerodynamicallyunstable, and the state of computer technology in the early 1960s couldnot provide the kinds of flight computers which allow aircraft such asthe F-117, andto stay airborne. However, by the 1970s, when a Lockheed analystreviewing foreign literature found Ufimtsev's paper, computers andsoftware had advanced significantly, and the stage was set for thedevelopment of a stealthy airplane. F-117A painted in 'Gray Dragon' experimental camouflage scheme.The F-117 was born after combat experience in the when increasingly sophisticated (SAMs) downed heavy bombers. It was a, an ultra-secret program for much of its life, until the late 1980s. The project began in 1975 with a model called the 'Hopeless Diamond' (a wordplay on thedue to its appearance).
The following year, the Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency issued Lockheed Skunk Works a contract to buildand test two Stealth Strike Fighters, under the code name ' '. These subscale aircraft incorporated jet engines of the, systems of the, landing gear of the, and of the.By bringing together existing technology and components, Lockheed builttwo demonstrators under budget, at $35 million for both aircraft, andin record time.The of the demonstrators occurred on 1 December 1977. Although both aircraft were lost during the demonstration program, test data proved positive. The success of Have Blue led the government to increase funding for.Much of that increase was allocated towards the production of anoperational stealth aircraft, the Lockheed F-117A, under the programcode name ' Senior Trend'.Senior TrendThe decision to produce the F-117A was made on 1 November 1978, and acontract was awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects,popularly known as the, in, California.
The program was led by,who called on Bill Schroeder, a Lockheed mathematician, and DenysOverholser, a computer scientist, to exploit Ufimtsev's work. The threedesigned a computer program called 'Echo', which made it possible todesign an airplane with flat panels, called facets, which were arrangedso as to scatter over 99% of a radar's signal energy 'painting' theaircraft.The first YF-117A, serial number 79-0780, made its maiden flight from, Nevada on 18 June 1981,only 31 months after the full-scale development decision. The firstproduction F-117A was delivered in 1982, and operational capability wasachieved in October 1983.The Air Force denied the existence of the aircraft until 1988, when agrainy photograph was released to the public. In April 1990 two wereflown into,Nevada, arriving during daylight and visible to a crowd of tens ofthousands.
Five Full Scale Development (FSD) aircraft were built,designated 'YF-117A'. The last of 59 production F-117s were delivered on 3 July 1990. F-117 flight demonstrationAs the Air Force has stated, 'Streamlined management by Aeronautical Systems Center,combined breakthrough stealth technology with concurrent developmentand production to rapidly field the aircraft. The F-117A programdemonstrates that a stealth aircraft can be designed for reliability andmaintainability.'
The aircraft maintenance statistics are comparable to other tacticalfighters of similar complexity. Logistically supported by Sacramento AirLogistics Center,California, the F-117A was kept at the forefront of technology through aplanned weapon system improvement program located at USAF at, California. DesignationThe operational aircraft had the official designation of 'F-117A'.
Most modern U.S. Military aircraft use in which the designation 'F' is usually an, 'B' is usually a, 'A' is usually a ground-attack aircraft, etc. (Examples include the, the, and the.) The F-117 is primarily a ground-attack aircraft so its 'F' designation is inconsistent with the system, but it is an inconsistency that has been repeatedly employed by the with several of its ground attack aircraft since the late 1950s, e.g., etc.The designation 'F-117' seems to indicate that it was given anofficial designation prior to the 1962 U.S. Tri-Service AircraftDesignation System and could be considered numerically to be a part ofthe earlier 'Century series' of fighters. The assumption prior to therevealing of the aircraft to the public was that it would likely receivethe designation F-19 as that number had not been used. However therewere no other aircraft to receive a '100' series number following the.
Soviet fighters obtained by the United States via various means under the program were given F-series numbers for their evaluation by U.S. Pilots, and with the advent of the fighters, most often designations.As with other exotic military aircraft types flying in the southernNevada area, such as captured fighters, an arbitrary radio call of '117'was assigned. This same radio call had been used by the enigmatic,also known as the 'Red Hats' or 'Red Eagles', that often had flownexpatriated MiGs in the area, but there was no relationship to the calland the formaldesignation then being considered by the Air Force. Apparently, use ofthe '117' radio call became commonplace and when Lockheed released itsfirst flight manual (i.e., the Air Force 'dash one' manual for theaircraft), F-117A was the designation printed on the cover.A televised documentary quoted a senior member of the F-117Adevelopment team as saying that the top-notch USAF fighter pilotsrequired to fly the new aircraft were more easily attracted to anaircraft with an 'F' designation for fighter, as opposed to a bomber('B') or attack ('A') designation.Design.
Front view of an F-117The F-117 is shaped to deflect radar signals and is about the size ofan F-15 Eagle. The single-seat Nighthawk is powered by twonon-afterburning turbofan engines, and has quadruple-redundant. To lower development costs, the avionics, fly-by-wire systems, and other parts are derived from the, and.The parts were originally described as spares on budgets for theseaircraft, to keep the F-117 project secret. The F-117 Nighthawk has aradar signature of about 0.025 m 2 (0.269 sq ft).Among the penalties for stealth are lower engine power thrust, due to losses in the inlet and outlet, a very low wing, and a high (50°) needed to deflect incoming radar waves to the sides. With these design considerations and no, the F-117 is limited to subsonic speeds.The F-117A is equipped with sophisticated navigation and attacksystems integrated into a digital avionics suite. It carries no radar,which lowers emissions and cross-section.
It navigates primarily by and high-accuracy.Missions are coordinated by an automated planning system that canautomatically perform all aspects of an attack mission, includingweapons release. Targets are acquired by a system, slaved to a that finds the range and designates targets for.
The F-117A's split internal bay can carry 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) of ordnance. Typical weapons are a pair of, or laser-guided bombs, two penetration bombs, or two Joint Direct Attack Munitions , a GPS/INS guided stand-off bomb.Operational history. F-117s in formationDuring the program's early years, from 1984 to mid-1992, the F-117A fleet was based at,where it served under the 4450th Tactical Group. Because the F-117 wasclassified during this time, the 4450th Tactical Group was 'officially'located at, Nevada and equipped with aircraft. The 4450th was absorbed by the in 1989. In 1992, the entire fleet was transferred to, where it was placed under the command of the.
This move also eliminated the and contract flights to Tonopah, which flew 22,000 passenger trips on 300 flights from Nellis to Tonopah per month.F-117 pilots called themselves 'Bandits'. Each of the 558 Air Forcepilots who have flown the F-117 have a Bandit number, such as 'Bandit52', that indicates the sequential order of their first flight in theF-117.The F-117 has been used several times in war. Its first mission was during the in 1989. During that invasion two F-117A Nighthawks dropped two bombs on Rio Hato airfield.During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the F-117A flew approximately1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq over 6,905 flight hours.
Only 2.5% of the American aircraft in Iraq were F-117s, yet they struck more than 40% of the strategic targets.F-117As dropped over 2,000 tons of precision-guided munitions andstruck their targets with over an 80% success rate. 'Although the 37thTactical Fighter Wing Provisional and its 42 stealth fightersrepresented just 2.5 percent of all allied fighter and attack aircraftin the,the F-117As were assigned against more than 31 percent of the strategicIraqi military targets attacked during the first 24 hours of the aircampaign.' F-117 Nighthawk USAF videoIt was one of very few U.S. Or aircraft types to strike targets in downtown Baghdad. Its stealth characteristics protected it from the and -saturatedenvironment of the city, and due both to its precision-guided weaponryand its avoidance of having to jettison ordnance in defensive maneuversF-117 missions proved less likely to cause civilian casualties andcollateral damage.Following its move toin 1992, the F-117A and the men and women of the 49th Fighter Wing weredeployed to Southwest Asia on multiple occasions. On their firstdeployment, crews flew non-stop from Holloman to Kuwait, a flight ofapproximately 18.5 hours – a record for single-seat fighters that standstoday.The F-117 was subsequently used in in 1999, in 2001, and in 2003.Combat lossOnly one F-117 (AF ser.
82-0806) was lost to enemy action. It was shot down during a mission against the on 27 March 1999, during. About 8:15 pm local time, SA-3s were fired from about 8 miles (13 km) away, launched by a Yugoslav version of the Soviet (NATO name SA-3 'Goa') anti-aircraft missile system. The launcher was run by elements of the 3rd Battalion of the under the command of Colonel. According toand other NATO generals, Dani detected F-117s by operating his radarson unusually long wavelengths, making the aircraft visible for briefperiods.
According to Dani in a 2007 interview, his troops spotted theaircraft on radar when its bomb-bay doors opened, raising its radarsignature. One of the missiles detonated near the F-117 by its.Dani said he kept most of his missile sites intact by frequently movingthem, and had spotters looking for F-117s and other NATO aircraft. Heoversaw the modification of his targeting radar to improve itsdetection.He later recanted this claim, saying that it was meant as atongue-in-cheek jab to his former American adversaries and theircustomary boastfulness. Canopy of F-117 shot down in in March 1999 at theAfter the explosion, the aircraft became uncontrollable, forcing the pilot to eject. The pilot was recovered a short time later by a U.S.
Marine Corps team.Photos show that the aircraft struck the ground at low speed in aninverted position, and that the airframe remained relatively intact.U.S. Forces decided not to bomb the wreckage because civilians werenear. The Serbs are believed to have invited Russian personnel toinspect the aircraft's remains, compromising the then 25-year-old U.S.stealth technology.The F-117's pilot was initially misidentified.
A pair of specially painted F-117 Nighthawks fly off from their last refueling by the 's.Unlike most other Air Force aircraft which are retired to for scrapping, or dispersal to museums, most of the F-117s were retired to their original hangars at the. At Tonopah, their wings were removed and the aircraft are stored in their original climate-controlled hangars.The decommissioning occurred in eight phases, with the operationalaircraft retired to Tonapah in seven waves beginning on 13 March 2007,and ending with the last wave's arrival on 22 April 2008.Four aircraft were kept flying beyond April by the 410th Flight TestSquadron at Palmdale for flight test. By the beginning of August, twowere remaining. The last F-117 (AF ser. 86-0831) left Palmdale tofly to Tonopah on 11 August 2008. This was the last flight of an F-117. With the last aircraft retired, the 410th was deactivated in a ceremony on 1 August 2008.Through 2009, one F-117 had been scrapped.
79-0784 wasscrapped at the Palmdale test facility on 26 April 2008. The aircraftwas the last F-117 at Palmdale and was scrapped to test an effectivemethod for destroying F-117 airframes.Although officially retired, the F-117 fleet remains intact, and photos show the aircraft carefully mothballed. No further aircraft have been scrapped, or transferred to museums.Variants F-117N “Seahawk”In the early 1990s, Lockheed proposed an upgraded, carrier capable variant of the F-117 dubbed the “Seahawk” to theas an alternative to the canceled A/F-X program.
The unsolicitedproposal was received poorly by the Department of Defense, which hadlittle interest in the single mission capabilities of such an aircraft,particularly as it would take money away from the Joint Advanced StrikeTechnology program, which evolved into the.The new aircraft would have differed from the land-based F-117 inseveral ways, including the addition “of elevators, a bubble canopy, aless sharply swept wing and reconfigured tail'. The “N” variant would also be re-engined to use turbofans instead of the older.Furthermore the aircraft would be optionally fitted with hardpoints,allowing for an additional 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of payload, and a newground attack radar with air-to-air capability. In that role the F-117Ncould carry air-to-air missiles.After being rebuffed by the Navy, Lockheed submitted an updatedproposal that included afterburning capability and a larger emphasis onthe F-117N as a multi-mission aircraft, rather than just an attackaircraft. In efforts to boost interest, Lockheed also proposed an F-117B land-based variant that shared most of the F-117N capabilities. This variant was proposed to both the US Air Force and the. This renewed F-117N proposal was also known as the A/F-117X. Neither the F-117N or the F-117B were purchased by any party.Operators USA.
–. 4450th Tactical Squadron (1981–1989). 4451st Tactical Squadron (1981–1989).
4453rd Test and Evaluation Squadron (1985–1989). – Tonopah Test Range Airport. (1989–1993). (1989–1993). (1989–1993). –.
(1991–2006). (1992–2008). (1993–2008)Notable accidents. F-117 serial number 79-0785 was lost on 20 April 1982 during takeoffon its maiden flight. The cause was incorrect assembly following amajor design change to the flight control computer's inputs sequence,different to that of previous aircraft. As a result, the aircraft wentout of control on takeoff, and crashed. Pilot Robert L.
Riedenauer wasunable to eject in time, and was seriously injured, requiring eightmonths of hospitalization and was forced to retire from flying. Thebattered airframe was taken to Skunk Works plant at Burbank, Californiafor use as a functional engineering testbed for component testing. F-117 S/N 80-0792 was lost on 11 July 1986. The aircraft suffered acontrolled descent into terrain, and was destroyed on impact. The pilot,Maj Ross E. Mulhare, was killed in the crash. The cause was determinedto be.
F-117 S/N 85-0815 was lost on 14 October 1987. The aircraft suffereda controlled descent into terrain, and was destroyed on impact about100 miles north of,just east of Tonopah.
The pilot, Maj Michael C. Stewart, was killed inthe crash. The cause was determined to be spatial disorientation. F-117 S/N 82-0801 Perpetrator was lost on 4 August 1992. The aircraft crashed approximately eight miles northeast of,and was destroyed on impact. The pilot, Capt John B. Mills, 416th FS,ejected safely.
The cause was determined to be an improperly installedbleed air duct. F-117 S/N 86-0822 was lost on 10 May 1995.
The aircraft suffered acontrolled descent into terrain, and was destroyed on impactapproximately seven miles south of, New Mexico on the.The pilot, Capt Kenneth Levens, was killed in the crash. The cause wasdetermined to be spatial disorientation following autopilot failure. F-117 S/N 81-0793 was lost on 14 September 1997 during an airshow at in,Maryland. The aircraft suffered a catastrophic wing failure, resultingin the port wing completely separating from the fuselage. The aircraftwas destroyed on impact. The pilot ejected safely. The cause wasdetermined to be missing wing bolts.Aircraft on display.
F-117A aircraft from the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at, VA, prior to being deployed to Saudi Arabia for. The first YF-117A (79-0780) is currently on pedestal display at, Nevada. ( ) It was placed on display on Nellis Boulevard on 16 May 1992, and was the first F-117 to be made a gate guardian. The second YF-117A (79-0781) 'Scorpion' is currently on static display at the at, Ohio. It was delivered to the museum on 17 July 1991. The third YF-117A built (79-0782) 'Scorpion 3' is on static displayat Holloman Air Force Base, repainted to resemble the first F-117A usedto drop weapons in combat. This aircraft was used for acoustics andnavigation system testing.
While wearing a flag painted on its bottomsurface, this aircraft revealed the type's existence to high-rankingofficials at Groom Lake on 14 December 1983, the first semi-publicunveiling of the aircraft. It was placed on display at Holloman on 5April 2008. The fourth YF-117A (79-0789) 'Scorpion 4' is currently on static display in the Blackbird Airpark at in Palmdale, California.
It was used for avionics integration tests. It was moved to the Airpark on 3 March 2008.
The remains of the F-117A (82-0806) 'Something Wicked', downed over Serbia (see 'Combat losses'), are displayed at the close to.NicknamesThe aircraft's official name is 'Night Hawk', however the alternative form 'Nighthawk' is frequently used.As it prioritized stealth over aerodynamics, it earned the nickname'Wobblin'-Goblin' due to its alleged instability at low speeds;according to F-117 pilots, the nickname is undeserved. 'Wobblin' (or wobbly) Goblin' is likely a holdover from the early Have Blue / Senior Trend(FSD) days of the project when instability was a problem. In the USAF,'Goblin' (without wobbly) persists as a nickname because of theaircraft's appearance. During, Saudis dubbed the aircraft 'Shaba', which is the Arabic word for 'Ghost'.Specifications.