Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth ground-attack aircraft previously operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). Its first flight was in 1981, and it accomplished first operating capability status in October 1983. A product of Lockheed Skunk Works and a development of the Have Blue technology demonstrator, it became the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology. The F-117A was widely revealed during the Persian Gulf War of 1991. It was commonly called the “Stealth Fighter” although it was a ground-attack aircraft.

The F-117 was born after combat incident in the Vietnam War when gradually more sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) downed heavy bombers. It was a black project, an ultra-secret program for much of its life, until the late 1980s. The project started in 1975 with a model called the “Hopeless Diamond”. The very next year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issued Lockheed Skunk Works a contract to build and test two Stealth Strike Fighters, under the code name “Have Blue”. These subscale aircraft included jet engines of the Northrop T-38A, fly-by-wire systems of the F-16, landing gear of the A-10, and environmental systems of the C-130. By bringing together existing technology and components, Lockheed built two demonstrators under budget, at $35 million for both aircraft, and in record time.

The decision to manufacture the F-117A was made on 1 November 1978, and a contract was awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, popularly known as the Skunk Works, in Burbank, California. The program was led by Ben Rich, who called on Bill Schroeder, a Lockheed mathematician, and Denys Overholser, a computer scientist, to exploit Ufimtsev’s work. The three designed a computer program called “Echo”, which made it possible to design an airplane with flat panels, called facets, which were arranged so as to scatter over 99% of radar’s signal energy “painting” the aircraft.

During the program’s early years, from 1984 to mid-1992, the F-117A fleet was based at Tonopah Test Range Airport, Nevada where it served under the 4450th Tactical Group. Because the F-117 was classified during this time, the 4450th Tactical Group was “officially” located at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada and equipped with A-7 Corsair II aircraft. The 4450th was absorbed by the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing in 1989. In 1992, the entire fleet was moved to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, where it was placed under the command of the 49th Fighter Wing. This move also removed the Key Air and American Trans Air 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 Force pilots who have flown the F-117 has a Bandit number, such as “Bandit 52″, that indicates the sequential order of their first flight in the F-117.

The F-117 has been used several times in war. Its first mission was during the United States invasion of Panama 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 approximately 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq over 6,905 flight hours. Initial claims of its effectiveness were later found to be gaudy. For instance it was claimed that the F-117 made up 2.5% of Coalition tactical aircraft in Iraq and they attacked more than 40% of the strategic targets; this ignored the fact that only 229 Coalition aircraft could drop and designate laser-guided bombs of which 36 F-117 represented 15.7%, and only the USAF had the I-2000 bombs intended for hardened targets, so the F-117 represented 32% of all coalition aircraft that could deliver such bombs.

Following its move to Holloman AFB in 1992, the F-117A and the men and women of the 49th Fighter Wing were deployed to Southwest Asia on multiple occasions. On their first deployment, with the aid of aerial refueling, pilots flew non-stop from Holloman to Kuwait, a flight of approximately 18.5 hours – a record for single-seat fighters that stands today.

The F-117 was subsequently used in Operation Desert Thunder (Part of Operation Southern Watch) from 1997 to 1998, Operation Allied Force in 1999, Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Although officially retired, the F-117 fleet remains intact, and photos show the aircraft carefully mothballed. F-117s have been spotted flying in the Nellis Bombing Range as recently as 2010

Lockheed F-117 Night Hawks: A Stealth Fighter Roll Call by Don Logan is a pictorial book is a history of the F-117 Night Hawk Stealth Fighter containing over 400 color photographs. It also includes a short program history; operating locations and air force bases, production sites associated with the F-117; F-117 Units, F-117 aircraft, and Information and photos of the A-7 and T-38 aircraft used to support the F-117 program.

Specifications

Crew: 1
Length: 65 ft 11 in (20.09 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 4 in (13.20 m)
Height: 12 ft 9.5 in (3.78 m)
Wing area: 780 ft² (73 m²)
Empty weight: 29,500 lb (13,380 kg)
Loaded weight: 52,500 lb (23,800 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × General Electric F404-F1D2 turbofans, 10,600 lbf (48.0 kN) each
Maximum speed: Mach 0.92 (617 mph, 993 km/h)
Cruise speed: Mach 0.92
Range: 930 NM (1720 km)
Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,716 m)
Wing loading: 65 lb/ft² (330 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.40
Armament:

• 2 × internal weapons bays with one hardpoint each (total of two weapons) equipped to carry:

• Bombs:

• GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bomb with 2000lb Mk84 blast/fragmentation or BLU-109 or BLU-116 Penetrator warhead

• GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb with 500lb Mk82 blast/fragmentation warhead

• GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb with 2000lb Mk84 blast-fragmentation or BLU-109 or BLU-116 Penetrator warhead

• GBU-31 JDAM INS/GPS guided munition with 2000lb Mk84 blast-frag or BLU-109 Penetrator warhead

• B61 nuclear bomb