F-117 Nighthawk: The First Stealth Aircraft

Video from the channel SkyShips en Español about Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 6:56. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

Presentation of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, a United States tactical bomber and the first operational aircraft based on stealth technology.

Following earlier trials, such as those of the SR-71 Blackbird, DARPA and Lockheed started the Have Blue program in 1975, and its Skunk Works prototype flew in 1977. Those results gave rise to several programs, among them Senior Trend, from which the F-117 emerged. According to the video, the F designation with a three-digit number helped conceal its true role. The Pentagon acknowledged its existence in November 1988 with a blurry photo, and the first public appearance of two aircraft was in April 1990.

It has swept wings, a V-tail and a fuselage made of flat, triangular panels. The flat air intakes have absorbent partitions, and the flat exhaust nozzles reduce the infrared signature. Only 10% of the structure is metal, and its radar cross-section is put at between 0.001 and 0.025 m². In exchange, it is unstable, subsonic and not very maneuverable. It carries two guided bombs in its bay (GBU-10, GBU-12, GBU-27 or GBU-31) and could employ the B61 nuclear bomb. By around 1990, 64 had been delivered to the Air Force. Seven were lost: six in accidents and one shot down over Yugoslavia. It took part in Panama (1989), Desert Storm (1991), Desert Fox (1998), Yugoslavia (1999) and Iraq (2003). It was retired in April 2008.