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Monday, March 10, 2008
F-117A Stealth Fighters Retired
It”s difficult to believe, but the U.S. Air Force is retiring the F-117A Nighthawk. The odd looking fighter was formulated in the early 80’s at the Lockheed Skunk Works after significant brain and computing power devised the faceted shapes that could reflect radar, making the jet almost invisible to radar.
Operating in secret from the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada starting in 1983, the Stealth Fighter was not acknowledged publicly until 1988. The jet made it’s local public debut at the 1990 Dayton Air Show where it was surrounded by an awestruck public throughout the show.
In 1993 Dayton Daily News reporter Tim Gaffney and I traveled to the Link simulator plant in Binghamton, New York, to be the first journalists to see the cockpit of the Nighthawk. With it’s standard fighter jet layout: center stick and left-hand throttle, the most interesting part of the control panel was the green-colored infrared targeting and acquisition screen, seen at the center of the panel in this photo. Just like the grainy videos of bombs striking their targets we had seen from the first Gulf War, symbols on the green screen could be locked onto targets in the simulator, but we didn’t get to drop any laser-guided bombs. The simulator was fixed to the floor, so I didn’t get the “wobbly goblin” sensation that many early Stealth Fighter pilots described about the jets handling characteristics. I did try my hand at flying the instrument landing system and landing. Let’s just say I’m glad it was a simulator.
The Stealth Fighter will be officially retired during a private ceremony at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 after 27 years of service.
One Nighthawk from the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base will be on display and one will fly over Wright-Patterson at approximately 10:30 a.m. as a salute to the workers in the program office at the base.
Ten of the Stealth Fighters were retired last year and 27 so far in 2008. The remainder will be placed in storage next month according to Diana Filliman, director of the 650th Aeronautical Systems Squadron at Wright-Patt.
