The planar surfaces set at unusual angles scatter incoming radar beams instead of reflecting them to a source. What gives the F-117 its unusual look is its faceted design. It is not a close air support platform.” The Colonel concedes, however, that “it sure doesn’t look like any other aircraft.” “It is flown autonomously at night, to go after high-priority targets with pinpoint accuracy. “The F-117A is a one-mission, unique aircraft,” says Col. Rich and the entire Air Force/Skunk Works team this past spring. He adds that Lockheed did not attempt to deliver a “perfect” airplane, an effort that surely would have brought long delays in deployment of a “good enough” aircraft.įor developing and fielding the F-117 in complete secrecy and at such a rapid pace, the National Aeronautic Association awarded the 1989 Collier Trophy, the most prestigious award in American aviation, to Mr. “The Skunk Works gave us a perfectly usable product as quickly as possible,” says Lt. Many of the plane’s avionics black boxes were also taken directly off the shelf. The F-117’s two General Electric F404-GE-FID2 engines are nonafterburning derivatives of the powerplant in the Navy’s McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 fighter/attack aircraft.Įxamples of direct transfers include the F-117’s inertial navigation system (the same highly accurate one used on a B-52), its ejection seat (the McDonnell Douglas ACES II seat found in F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s), and its brakes (the same type used on a Gulfstream III executive jet). Some of the components modified for the F-117 include its quadruple- redundant flight-control system (based on the one in the General Dynamics F-16) and cockpit environmental control system (a portion of the ECS in a Lockheed C-130). “This gave us confidence to proceed concurrently with full-scale development and low-rate production.” Such components either were transferred directly to the F-117 or were used in modified form. “Using proven components from other aircraft allowed us to reduce risk,” notes Mr. The 37th Tactical Fighter Wing (known then as the 4450th Tactical Group) achieved initial operational capability with the F-117A on October 26, 1983, a mere twenty-eight months after first flight.
Bill Park, Lockheed’s chief test pilot, took the F-117 aloft for the first time on June 18, 1981, Mr. Using streamlined management methods and operating under tightest secrecy, cadres from Lockheed and Air Force Systems Command’s Aeronautical Systems Division cooperated closely to get the F-117 built and flying just two and a half years after work began. “It is an odd-looking flying machine,” says Ben Rich, Lockheed’s executive vice president and general manager of the Skunk Works, “but we got it operational in record time.” Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects (ADP) section–popularly known as the “Skunk Works “–got the task of building a production “stealth” fighter. Soon after, the Air Force decided to proceed into full-scale development. The classified program, called Have Blue, produced and flew several subscale proof-of-concept air vehicles. In the mid-1970s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provided funding for development of an airplane that would feature low radar, optical, and infrared signatures to counter the increasing sophistication of Soviet radar and surface-to-air missiles. It was the first time anyone outside the program, including the families of the unit’s pilots and maintainers, had seen the mysterious F-117 up close. They circled, touched down, and taxied to a reviewing stand filled with onlookers. On April 21, two F -117 pilots flew their planes from Tonopah Test Range, Nev., to Nellis AFB, Nev. This spring, the curtain of secrecy finally began to part. Only in November 1988, however, did the Pentagon even acknowledge that the F-117A existed, and then it said little more than that the aircraft had been built for maximum stealthiness.
Nearly a dozen years ago, in December 1978, the Air Force decided to develop a full-scale, radar-evading fighter. Now the world is getting its first close look at one of history’s most unusual combat aircraft. The Air Force and Lockheed got the F-117 A fighter built and flying in a mere thirty-one months, but kept it under wraps for eleven years.