Posted on 08/06/2025 5:05:40 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
The F-117 Nighthawk, the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, was officially retired in 2008 but continues to fly regularly. The U.S. Air Force still uses the iconic jet as a cost-effective platform for several key missions. Primarily, it serves as a unique “aggressor” trainer, simulating foreign stealth aircraft like China’s J-20 to prepare U.S. pilots for modern threats.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...
We wouldn’t have to worry about simulating J-20 attacks if we weren’t shoveling money into China non-stop.
Kinda ridiculous that we have to spend cubic dollars just to defend ourselves from our so-called Numbah One trading partner, isn’t it?
I don’t think any aircraft ever had a more impressive introduction to the world.
I remember watching it live on CNN.
You never saw the aircraft but you sure did see a light show.
The Knighthawk began development in the 70s....if that kind of technology was underway back then......what do we have now that nobody knows about I wonder.
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It’s no wonder people are seeing UFOs all over the place....and Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs) as well for that matter.
The only wonder is ‘I wonder if they are ours?’...
There is an excellent book “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed” by Ben Rich, the man who took over when Kelly Johnson retired.
It is a fantastic read...
There are a few parts that are worth mentioning. He talked about how they set up a range in the desert with a full scale early mockup of the plane to test the concept of stealthiness, and they had a guy show up to calibrate the radar system to be used in the testing. His calibration gear was a small suitcase with various sizes of steel ball bearings from golf ball size down to BB size. They were going to set the BB size ball bearing five miles away on a the post they would put the mockup on to test it!
They ran into a problem...they thought there was something wrong, because after they put the plane up on the post, they could still see it on radar. Turned out it wasn’t the plane they were seeing, it was the post it was sitting on, and they had to spend money to develop a post that didn’t have a radar return.
The other part was when they did a real world test with an early version of the fighter. They set up a USMC Hawk Air Defense Missile system out in the desert. For this first test, they told them what direction the plane would be flying over from. The USMC battery officer was quite smug about the capabilities, and they were joking in the unit of how easy this was going to be to see it and lock onto it.
Then, the officer triumphantly called out that they had a radar target from the expected sector and were tracking it. Apparently, the missiles began to slew as it tracked, and there was some snickering and minor celebration among the Hawk crew.
What they didn’t know was that the F-117 had already flown over undetected, and they were tracking the chase plane.
The F-117 has been replaced by the F-22 & F-35 (3 variants: USAF, USN & USMC) so the F-117 is a Demonstration Model and can/will be used at Top Gun and Red Flag training and being oh display at Museums.
An FYI on the F-117 is actually a Bomber not a “Fighter” it has no Gun or Air to Air Weapons and was designed that way. The only things that the F-117 has in the way of Defense capabilities is the Stealth factor, and the Pilot making quick maneuvers to dodge any threat.
Personal note. At the last Air Show held at Bergstrom AFB in the Austin, TX (what is now the public Airport) there was an F-117 on static display. The Pilot was Capitan Wes Wyrick one of the Bad Boys of Bagdad, the first flight to Bomb key locations in the Capitol of Iraq. I was asking all of the Pilots/Crew members for their Autographs as I was going from Display to Display and Capitan Wyrick was kind enough to give Me His. I wish I still had that shirt. Thanks to My Exwife (and I am biting My tongue and fingers right now) being the B!TC}{ that she is, found it and BLEACHED IT HEAVILY ON PURPOSE until it was white and starting to fall apart from the Bleach !!! I had probably at least 100 Autographs on that shirt from pretty close to every Pilot and Crew Member that was at that Airshow including Captain Wyrick, Thunderbirds Pilots, Crew Members, Helicopter Pilots !!! Should I ever happen to see her on the sidewalk the vehicle I’m driving will have a sudden steering problem that will end up on the sidewalk...
Some of the stealth technology lies in the engine exhaust signature.
I worked in the Quality department of a Navy depot level rework facility that overhauled the engines (F1D2) for the Nighthawk in the early 2000s.
I attended a conference with a coworker once that was the technical liason for that engine platform.
When the conference attendees (GE and the Air Force among others) began to discuss the engine exhaust configuration, they politely kicked us out.
“Need to know”.......and we didn’t need to. 😏
Take what you think we have, add 100 years, and you start to get close.
Completely invisible to the eye, ear and all radar while flying unmanned at mach 20 sounds about right. 😏
My quote was from my uncle.
Hey was career Air Force intelligence. Then he went to work doing security for the DOE. He ended up working for Sandia and Los Alamos labs. He briefed President Bush on the Chinese/thumb drive security breach at the labs. We know he worked on the atomic aircraft project and “tunneling”.
I tend to believe him.
-Some of the stealth technology lies in the engine exhaust signature.-
I was at the first public veiw of the F-17 at Holloman AFB, NM. It was very cool and the auto focus on my camera (before cell phones) would not focus on the jet.
Also the jet engine outlet was not obvious as it was spread across the tailing edges of the wing. It didn’t look like, to me, that outlet could possibly work.
Well, I guess it does as I have seen them fly.?
Make that a F-117 vs a F-17
In late 1989 or early 1990, I was a young Navy CTT going to NAS Fallon, NV to train pilots on signals security processes and procedures.
We drove past the Tonopah Test Range, which was the home of the F117 Nighthawks.
Pretty cool memories.
NAS Fallon! Indeed, FRiend...cool memories!
bandit 158 was in my family.
good stories were told but more was held back.
was told he did something huge from a 3-star at Arlington.
more significant than Armstrong landing on the moon.
always wondered what it was.
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