[Enchante]

Is it still functional?? I'd give or sell 'em all to Israel or Japan or South Korea if they can use 'em. Hate to see this baby grounded forever, even if we do have better options for the USA.

p.s. Saw SIX F-22s this summer flying for the air show at Hill Air Force base - an utterly amazing aircraft!! WOO, WOO....

[Names Ash Housewares]

Wow. I'm stunned. Didn't know about this coming.

[Ben Mugged]

[pabianice]

The years had snuck up on it.

That's "sneaked," doofus.

[rottndog]

Hard to believe this is 25 years old already.

[NonValueAdded]

Whoa! Stealth to the very end! We had them out at Patrick AFB for an air show. There's the ocean, highway A1A, and the end of the runway right near the O club. I was driving by in a convertible when a pair flew over at about 50 ft. heading in for touchdown. 2nd most amazing thing I've seen in my life!

[FreedomProtector]

The F-117A Stealth fighter was in service for six years before the Air Force admitted its existence.

Makes you wonder what they have now that is a secret.

There has been development of low frequency radar along with improved noise removal (signal processing) algorithms the last 10 years. At lower frequencies the radar cross section increases, however there is much more radar return from undesirable sources.

I wonder if the primarily motivation for the retirement was the advancement of enemy low frequency radar, or our own better aircraft.

[WayneM]

When the Nighthawk made its Toronto debut in 1993, as it whispered over Ontario Place the crowd went crazy, pointing and yelling, "Stealth! Stealth!"

I was at this air show. I remember the woman behind me saying, "It looks so sinister."

[Grut]

I suspect it's a pretty awful airplane by current standards, with the performance severely compromised to get the needed stealth characteristics. Remember what dogs the first-generation 'desmogged' cars were? Like that.

[GreyFriar]

ping.

[Chili Girl]

waaaahhhh

[faq]

You should have mentioned this is an excerpt from the article. There is more at the link.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

America's F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter has retired from active duty.

Was the F-117A really a fighter? I had only ever heard of it filling more of a ground attack role. Did it have any air-to-air weaponry and did it ever engage an enemy aircraft?

[Chode]

ultimate cruise missile...

[longtermmemmory]

How do you know a super secret radar invisible plane is not being still used?

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

["Sorry, we thought you were invisible"]


Oh well, so goes another story in military history.

[MarkL]

the crowd went crazy, pointing and yelling, "Stealth! Stealth!"

I don't know, but this just strikes me as really funny...

Mark

[Moonman62]

The retirement is not surprising. The only advantage was stealth. Despite its designation it was used as a bomber, not a fighter, and it was strictly subsonic.