The Stealth is invisible for enemy radar, thanks to its strange shape, everything that has a round shape has been avoided. That's why it has a screen in front of the round FLIR, also the intakes are masked by screens as well. The Lockheed F 117-A Stealth is an American built single-seat bomber/attack aircraft.

PERFORMANCE:

Wing span: 13,18 m.

Length: 20,06 m.

Height: 3,78 m.

Max. speed: Mach 0.9

Empty weight: 29,750 lbs.(13495 kg.)

Max. weight: 53,000 lbs.(24040 kg.)

Powerplant: two General Electric J404-GE-F1D2 turbofans

Thrust: 10,800 lbs.(4898 kg.) (each)

F 117-A Nighthawk serial no. 80-10789 of 37th TFW (Tactical Fighter Wing) based at the secret Air Force base Tonopah in Nevada (USA). The V-tail is new for combat aircraft in the U.S. "TR" on its tail is the code for Tonopah.

First flight of the F 117 was on the 18th of June in 1981. The existence of the Stealth was officially released by the USAF on the 10th of November 1988. Its first public appearance was at Nellis Air Force base (USA) on the 21 of April in 1990.

The F 117 was the best kept secret in the U.S. military history. The Lockheed F 117-A Stealth is an American built single-seat   bomber/attack aircraft.

It is for curious people (like aviation enthusiasts) impossible to  approach Tonopah Air Force base, the base is sandwiched between two mountain ridges in the middle of the desert.

For nine years they only flew during the night, this is the way to keep it secret for nine years.

The secret base was not significant anymore that's why they moved to a "normal" base. What's flying at Tonopah now?  The base is still operational.

Three Nighthawks during the Edwards Air Force base Airshow in 1992. The 410th Flight Test Squadron at Plant 42 (near Palmdale CA close to Edwards) flies and test four F 117's.

The F 117-A Nighthawk's flew during the Gulf War more than 1,200 sorties, not one hit was recorded on one of the Nighthawks during these sorties. 36 F 117's were stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. (only 2,5% of the total forces deployed in the Gulf but accounted 40% of all strategic targets attacked) The F-117 and the Cruise Missile were the only thing that ever flew over Bagdad.

The F 117 has two separate bays for weapons, on these photo's they are both one open. In each bay it can carry one 907 kg (2000 lbs.) GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb. A total of 5,000 pounds can be accommodate to the F-117. It has a coordinated infrared sensors positioned in front of the pilot in the FLIR mode as well as on the bottom of the aircraft to the right of the nose gear in the DLIR mode.

In comparison with other planes the F 117 can't carry very much armament but the chance that these bombs hit their targets is more than 95 %.

A total of 61 F 117's were built, 2 pre production models which still fly with the 410th and 59 production models. Four F-117's are crashed, two crashed in the early 80's and one in New Mexico and one on the East Coast during an Airshow, pilot ejected safely with his ACES II ejection seat, which you could see on TV. Three F-117's are preserved in museums. One at Nellis (Nevada) and one at the USAF museum at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Ohio (USA) and one in front of the Skunk Works as a tribute to Ben Rich.

In the F 117 the pilot sits relatively high but the view is pretty good. To trap signals for enemy radar's all movable panel lines are covered by zig-zag strips, as you can see on this photo. The transparencies of the canopy are manufactured with a gold film layer.

During the Central Enterprise exercise held at June 1993 in Europe, eight F 117-A's were deployed at Gilzen Rijen in the Netherlands.

This photo was taken during an evening landing of one of the Nighthawks at Gilzen Rijen. They caused many traffic problems around Gilzen Rijen, for four weeks the roads were jammed. Everyday thousands of people from all around Europe came to see these mysterious planes. All F 117-A's are getting modernized,  new avionics and electronics are installed in the Nighthawks to keep them up-to-date.

F 117-a Serial No.81-10794 of 8th Fighter Squadron (FS), part of the 49th Fighter Wing (FW) based at Holloman in New Mexico (USA), during its landing at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada.

Why this F 117 is wet at the bottom remains a mystery, probably it has a little fuel leak. The Lockheed F 117-A is an American built single-seat bomber/attack aircraft.

To keep the price of the F 117 "low" ($ 42.6 million a piece) Lockheed used parts of existing planes. The engines are of the F 18 Hornet, landing gear is of the F 15 Eagle, flight control system are of the F 16 Falcon and the F-18 Hornet, the ECS (environmental control system) is from the C-130 Hercules and the INS (Inertial Navigation system) is from the good "old" B-52 Bomber.

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If you like these photo's as large scans, most of them are available on the CD-roms from UGA/Media

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