The end of an era

[dscrite]

To anyone interested, the following article may prove interesting.

F-117 stealth fighter to be retired

March 11, 2008: 09:33 AM EST

Mar. 11, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) --

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology is slipping quietly into history.

The inky black, angular, radar-evading F-117, which spent 27 years in the Air Force arsenal secretly patrolling hostile skies from Serbia to Iraq, will be put in mothballs next month in Nevada.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, which manages the F-117 program, will have an informal, private retirement ceremony Tuesday with military leaders, base employees and representatives from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The last of Lockheed Martin's (NYSE:LMT) F-117s scheduled to fly will leave Holloman on April 21, stop in Palmdale, Calif., for another retirement ceremony, then arrive on April 22 at their final destination: Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, where the jet made its first flight in 1981.

The government has no plans to bring the fighter out of retirement, but could do so if necessary.

'I'm happy to hear they are putting it in a place where they could bring it back if they ever needed it,' said Brig. Gen. Gregory Feest, the first person to fly an F-117 in combat, during the 1989 invasion of Panama that led to the capture of dictator Manuel Noriega.

The Air Force decided to accelerate the retirement of the F-117s to free up funding to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology. The F-22s are being built by Lockheed Martin, Boeing (NYSE:BA) and United Technologies Corp.'s (NYSE:UTX) Pratt & Whitney unit.

Fifty-nine F-117s were made; 10 were retired in December 2006 and 27 since then, the Air Force said. Seven of the planes have crashed, one in Serbia in 1999.

Stealth technology used on the F-117 was developed in the 1970s to help evade enemy radar. While not invisible to radar, the F-117's shape and coating greatly reduced its detection.

The F-117, a single-seat aircraft, was designed to fly into heavily defended areas undetected and drop its payloads with surgical precision.

A total of 558 pilots have flown the F-117 since it went operational. They dub themselves 'bandits,' with each given a 'bandit number' after their first flight.

Feest, who is Bandit 261, also led the first stealth fighter mission into Iraq during Desert Storm in 1991. He said the fire from surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns was so intense that he stopped looking at it to try to ease his fears.

'We knew stealth worked and it would take a lucky shot to hit us, but we knew a lucky shot could hit us at any time,' he said.

Incredibly, not one stealth was hit during those missions, he said.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press.

Can't believe it has been 27 years already.

Monty

[jmel]

I was there today. Pretty somber occasion, made worse by the miserably dark, foggy weather. The only upside was the flag painted on the bottom of one of the jets.

Jake

[Rigid Rotorhead]

Hello All,

I, too, was fortunate enough to attend today's ceremony at Wright-Patt. As mentioned, the weather was quite foggy, which didn't make the best photographic opportunity for the flyby, but I shot several photos anyway. The American flag adorning the entire underside was SPECTACULAR!! After seeing it in several books over the years, I never thought I'd get to see it in person. What a sight! Naturally, the weather broke literally within about two minutes of the aircraft landing, with a pretty bright (although overcast) atmosphere as the aircraft taxied and parked right in front of the crowdline. I took a moment to shake the pilot's hand and get a quick portrait of him with his dark steed in the background.

The ceremony inside the hangar was a good one - not too long, not too short, but just right. It's always sad to say farewell to such a historically significant aircraft, but it's especially disheartening in this case, since the Nighthawk was the world's first true Low Observable aircraft. I'll sure miss her...

[yardbird78]

All good things must come to an end sooner or later. The F-117 definately made its mark in the aviation world and will be sorely missed.

Darwin

[Chappie]

Damn. I held out hope until the very end that I might see a 117 one last time at the Andrews JSOH. Glad I got the shots last year. It is incredible, one of my very last shots of the F-117 in 2007 was IDENTICAL to one of my first shots taken in 1991.

Chappie

[Jay Chladek]

Kind of an interesting bit of irony as this talk about Stealth had me special ordering a 1/48 Tamiya F-117 kit last week. It arrived on Tuesday and I picked it up at the LHS. I've won one once in a model contest door prize drawing, but never saw fit to keep it, opting instead to donate it to our own club's door prize drawing about a year later. But as the plane came closer to retirement, I decided I couldn't let the plane stop flying without building a model of it for my collection.

Seeing as how I was in the seventh grade when the Testors F-19 kit hit the shelves and I was in high school when the F-117 was revealed, Stealth has been a part of my life. I even wrote a couple of reports on it in high school and digested everything I could about the fighter and bomber programs at the time. It was fascinating to read about how something visible could be invisible on a radar screen (or tough to detect).

I remember how cool it was to see one in person at the Offutt AFB open house in the late summer 1990, just a few weeks before they deployed during Operation Desert Shield. I think I saw one fly once, but I can't recall. Of course, this plane wasn't exactly known for a stellar flight display akin to say an F-14B, F-15C or a Vulcan bomber. Its looks were the big attraction. Somewhere in my stash I have those old photos I took of it that year.

So once I finish work on my Testors B-2, I am going to do a little side by side build of a couple models separated by about 14 years of history. The first will be the Testors F-19, issued in 1984. The second will be (to my knowledge) the last kit of a Stealth Fighter ever issued, the Tamiya F-117. They in a sense will be the Alpha and the Omega of Stealth models.

So I raise my glass to the F-117. It will be sad to see it go, but hopefully we won't have a need to pull them out of mothballs for another fight. The old birds did their job quite well and changed the world of warfare as we know it at the same time.

[Mad Viper]

Hopefully they bring one to RIAT for the last time.

[Eri]

I didnt know about the F-117 till Gulf War 1. I was 10 years old then, i remembered my dad telling me that this black jet is invincible. I didnt get it then, but the thought of it as black and flying at night thus thats why its "invincible" As i grow up, when i turn 14, I saw a demonstration on RAM (Rader Absorbing Material) and deflection principles at the local Air Force school. Was a cadet at that time and from there, i kind of understand more or less the concept of stealth.

ANd i got older, during my diploma days, i took up Electronics and Computer Engineering and one of the modules, we had to learn about Radar, and thus more on stealth...

But sadly, i might never gonna see it flying here anytime soon...i ve seen the B1 and B2 here but never the F-117..so i guess if i want to touch it, i ll have to fly to the states and visit one of the aerospace museum.

[JayCee]

The American flag adorning the entire underside was SPECTACULAR!! After seeing it in several books over the years, I never thought I'd get to see it in person. What a sight!

You lucky sod! Did you happen to notice the tail number on the Flag adorned A/C? Got any photos you'd like to share?

John

[blackhawk7]

Well, at least it's being retired with its dignity, as the first true stealth plane; and not after a series of unfortunate accident or crashes related to over-use or age.

Tom

Edited March 12, 2008 by blackhawk7

[jmel]

Hopefully they bring one to RIAT for the last time.

The final flights are in late April.

Jake

[Rigid Rotorhead]

You lucky sod! Did you happen to notice the tail number on the Flag adorned A/C? Got any photos you'd like to share?

John

John,

Per your request, the tail number of the flying display ship was #843, while the static one in the hangar adjacent to the stage was #824, with a '49th OG' tailcode. I took several photos, so I will upload them into the Kodak viewing gallery and post a link to it here, probably tomorrow. There are plenty of pretty decent ones, but there are many that I need to delete simply because the lighting in the hangar wreaked absolute havoc with my exposure meter.

For now, check out this article on AF Link which includes photos shot during the ceremony and during the flyby and subsequent recovery of the aircraft:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123089834

Just click on 'View All Images' under the single photo that's posted there.

Enjoy,

Ray :-)

By the way, you've got to be a Brit, using the term "sod". Whereabouts are you from? I spent six terrific years at RAF Mildenhall - loved it! I wouldn't trade those years for anything.

[Eri]

Lets have a group build as a tribute to the black jet?

[Colin W]

Lets have a group build as a tribute to the black jet?

Why not have a black jets sub section in the upcoming "Gone but not forgotten GB"

I quite liked the idea of the GB but haven't decided what to make yet. I have an Academy 1/48 oin the stash and its a good reason to pull it out.

Colin W

[Eri]

Why not have a black jets sub section in the upcoming "Gone but not forgotten GB"

I quite liked the idea of the GB but haven't decided what to make yet. I have an Academy 1/48 oin the stash and its a good reason to pull it out.

Colin W

I ll make a trip down to the local hobby store to get a kit. Hopefully, i ll get an Academy 1/48. I m 27 this year..man...the Black jet finally ends her tour..

[catfan]

i have been a f-117 scince i heard about it but i got to see 1 in 1990 right after the gulf war ended and got the pilots auto graph but ever scince the i have seen the black jet in differnt places and the last f-117 i saw in person was aircraft #782 with the us flag on it and i do have video of it i plan on buliding 4 of the in 1/48 scale any ideas on what kits to buy to do this??

[Jay Chladek]

i have been a f-117 scince i heard about it but i got to see 1 in 1990 right after the gulf war ended and got the pilots auto graph but ever scince the i have seen the black jet in differnt places and the last f-117 i saw in person was aircraft #782 with the us flag on it and i do have video of it i plan on buliding 4 of the in 1/48 scale any ideas on what kits to buy to do this??

Opinions differ on which kit is the best combination of accuracy and price. But the Tamiya 1/48 F-117 is at the top of the heap in terms of accuracy and also at the top of the heap in terms of price as they go for full retail in the $50 range. A little sleuthing of vendors, model shows and eBay might be able to get you an example in the high $30 range though if you are patient.

The Monogram kit is much less expensive and also decent, even though it is less accurate in spots. According to Netz, the Revell Monogram kit is a little better choice if you plan to do a Gulf War 1 build as the gear was beefed up a little after Desert Storm and Tamiya's kit represents this. Of course, one could easily acquire RM kit and put the gear from it on a Tamiya kit I suppose if one wanted to do a Gulf War era and prior F-117.

I did throw a proposal in this forum for a Stealth GB last weekend which would cover the operational Stealth aircraft that have flown (B-2, F-117, Have Blue etc...) in addition to the fictional kits of the F-19, ATB and some of the bizzare kit interpretations of that first F-117 photo. But the only real response it got was crickets. If an F-117 is eligable for the GBNF Group Build though, I will build one for it.