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Something worth mentioning...
March 11, 2008The Air Force is retiring the F-117 on Tuesday.
Not that it came as a big surprise or anything, just something that is worth talking about.
Here is the AP story that talks all about it...
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, Ohio, 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 F-117s scheduled to fly will leave Holloman on April 21, stop in Palmdale, California, 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 money to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology.
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.
This was one of the highlights of the October 2007 Sheppard AFB Air Show for me. I have always been fascinated by the stealth technology.
I have always loved going to air shows and seeing this crazy looking black bird fly around. It's going to be a sad day to have all 52 remaining F-117s in the middle of the Nevada desert. The thing is... the Air Force can probably have all of them back in the air and in combat within 48 hours if need be.
Of course, the plane that's replacing the F-117 is the ridiculously cool F-22 Raptor. Folks at the air show were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the capability of the F-22 during the flight demonstration...
Which, by the way, was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in the history of air show history.
So... in honor of this sweet sweet bird, here are a few extra photos from the Air Show... unless the Air Force saves a few of them for demonstrations... it may be the last time we'll ever see it in the air.
Enjoy...
Posted by Jason Palmer at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
