F-117 flying again?

We Now Know Why The F-117 Is Still Flying | Intercepts | Defense News

 

How many are in inventory?

 

Brian- Looks like about 50 or so, since they started with 62 operational birds (cockroaches). There were three full scale development aircraft that were upgraded to the production configuration and 59 regular production aircraft. Several have been lost in accidents, one in combat. Not sure how many of those were put in storage, but I think most of them.

 

I didn't think there were many but I didn't know it was that few.

Had not heard about the one shot down. Just read up on it. Know why the wreck wasn't destroyed or have they quit consulting you on such matters?

 

Iirc the group who shot it down got to it pretty quickly.

 

All the more reason to order a strike. A really big one if you are going to bait it that well.

 

You might want to read Paul Crickmore's new book about the F-117. In particular, he nicely details the how and why of the one shot down in the Balkans.

Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter (Air Vanguard): Paul Crickmore, Adam Tooby: 9781472801166: Amazon.com: Books

 

ROE prohibited such action at the time.
http://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/research/4500003200.pdf

 

Dumb mission planning that resulted in using the same ground track every day (like the December 1972 B-52 raids on Hanoi) was the reason for the loss. If you are predictable, you will get your rear end shot off, even if you are stealthy.

 

Same as the A-6 over Lebanon in 83'

 

Yea I kinda got that too in the version I read. Seems like a violation of mission planning rule #2. #1 being have enough fuel.

 

Yea well, another reason I couldn't be a politician. I grew up in Oakland. There's only one way to fight.

 

gez- $11 for a 64 page kindle book. guess i'm too cheap since i'd read that in an hour or so.

I really liked Ben Rich's book about the U-2 and F-117 development.

"Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed" $10 bucks and 370 pages.

 

Brian- I do not remember if they tried to take out the wreckage or not. That stealth technology was about 3 generations old when she went down. Unlike the stealthy RQ drone that went down in Iran. Stealth coatings are difficult to reverse engineer, at any rate, and everybody already knew what they looked like.

 

Ok

Thanks, that's why we keep you around.

Still think it was a missed chance to kill some bad guys but then again I don't think anyone knew who the real bad guys there were. Just another muddied up mess created by poorly advised politicians with an ax to grind and poorly related by an equally biased news media.

 

I live between Nellis AFB and the Nevada National Security Site. I haven't seen an F-117 flying for six or seven years now. To the best of my knowledge, all the planes are stored in the original hangers at the Nevada National Security Site outside of Tonopah.

 

Brian- It certainly is not for my knowledge on Ferrari repair.

Have to remember one thing, too, on the shoot-down. There were SA-6 batteries where she went down that had been set up for that particular purpose. So that was a pretty high threat environment for an attack

 

Posted today by Tyler Rogoway at Foxtrot Alpha - some unique pics and history on operating the program while in the black:

Keeping Stealth Stealthy: The F-117's Secret Life At Tonopah Test Range Airport

 

Flying today - Feb 27, 2019. Flyover video as well.

http://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26662/behold-the-most-detailed-photo-taken-of-an-airborne-f-117-nighthawk-in-over-a-decade

https://combataircraft.keypublishing.com/2019/02/27/f-117-nighthawk-still-out-there-still-flying-clearest-photos-yet/

 

Here's the vid on twitter.

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Great photos and video.

79-10783 was on display at the Palmdale museum next to the A12 and SR71. They removed it not long before I visited that place to see it...I guess the rumors were true and they were going to fly again.

 

The F-117 makes a particularly good testbed for new LO materials and coatings because it is mostly planar because we did not have a good LO 3D code back in the late 70s, early 80s. The 3D codes use on the F-22A, B-2, and F-35 used curved surfaces, so the panels are much more difficult to duplicate. Plus there are fewer available for that kind of work.

 

I consider myself lucky to drive past the aircraft carrier Intrepid every day on my way to work and I am always in awe on the SR71 on the deck. I try to imagine it screaming through the air and imagining where it's been.

It dwarfs the F16 next to it

 

Actually that is an A-12 not an SR-71. A rarer CIA operated recon plane with less payload and only a single seat compared to the -71.

 

Thanks for that! Such a sleek and menacing looking thing. To me it pretty much looks like a horizontal rocket.

Getting ready for work....I will be looking at it 1/2 hour from now