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Highly unlikely the F-117 shot down in 99 over Serbia was because of the bomb doors being open. Is it possible the plane was located over target due to this yes, but the doors wouldn’t be open long enough for the missile to track on the F-117. Likely all that was needed were multiple mobile radars moved to general carelessly repeated flight path locations, in this way they could “burn through” the stealth advantage both being knowingly close to the aircraft heard flying overhead - (remember they knew fairly accurately the timing and heading of the flight so they can roughly know where in the sky the jet is from sound, f-117 are still loud especially overhead as they flew over where I lived in NM frequently in the 90s), so if they know audibly where in the sky the radar can be focused to that area, multiple close radar’s especially pointed at rear of F-117 where its not as stealthy as the front, and they can get more frequent blips through raw power of closer radar scans. Even close by the radar might not be able to get consistent track but launching multiple SAMs, very close, at least one SAM would be close enough its oen tracking radar would get consistent enough return as its radar energy is too powerful to be fully redirected away. Another plausible case that still requires having accurate prediction of timing and flight path of the F-117 was the rumor that even though the Serbs shot it down with a older SAM system, the Serbs added a more modern IR and optical manual sigting capability that might not work against the F117 further out due to it having reduced IR, however again knowing where to look especially in comms with other listening teams, train the IR sight on known small area of the sky and its plausible on even the F-117 to spot a small heat blume of turbulent air behind the exhausts, and this could also aid inlaunching multiple SAMs, while those SAMs would still require being launched close to thr aircraft so that they can get strong radar return. The key to all of this is rumors being true that NATO command carelessly had F-117 pilots fly same routes in and out many nights repeatedly, and even dramatically worse another rumor stating that some nights EA-6 prowler jammers were not tasked to cover F-117s which they were used in addition to the stealth of the F-117 in very high threat dense radar areas. The flight predictability in combination with possible rumored enhanced IR sighting capability of SAM launch system might negate prowler use regardless, the point is complacency away from normal F-117 tactics of planning constantly changing routes and timing is a problem especially combined with further rumors of a lot of spies/plane spotters at Aviano AB seeing F-117s take off and the timing of this being communicated to the Serbs! There are reports hinted at by an F-117 pilot from that war stating that on a certain mission an F-117 co-flight was successfully hit by SAM a second time though that plane made it back to base damaged. There are interviews posted if you search for second F-117 shot over Serbia. The state paraphrased is a nighthawk pilot saw several SAMs launch right in the target area a fellow nighthawk pilot was on timing to be flying and he saw one of the SAMs exlpode. He suspected trouble. Later on the egress both pilots were suposed to meet up at the same tanker but only the interviewed pilot got there on time. After fueling he told the tanker he’d stay with the tanker to wait for thr other F-117. After a long wait a somewhat slow F-117 made it up to tank. It seemed as though the F-117s comms where down or not allowed ro radio at all but should communicate wpwith tanker when plugged in to thr fuel probe, yet supposedly no comms with tsnker either when plugged in. The nighthawk seemed to have great difficulty lining up and plugging in to the tanker as well and then when flying away, again looked slightly unstable like there was some flight control damage or systems damage even if not external, a close explosive concussion might damage the actuator mechanisms/motors in the wing or tail control surfaces. The interviewed pilot however never heard a confirmation which is odd in a small F-117 community, unless the supposed shot at pilot was not allowed to discuss the incident. The interviewed pilot didn’t reveal anything either, he simply stated what he saw both the missile exploding and also the facts about his friend showing up late to tanker and struggling to get to the tanker boom, it was more or less hinting at it without directly stating. Handland I believe is the last name of thr pilot interviewed.
Remembering how secret this thing was when it came out, it's almost unbelievable to me that you can now actually sit in the cockpit of one. This was a real treat.
I was just about to say the same thing. I saw it at an airshow back then and it was surrounded by armed guards. My dad said "son they'll shoot you if you cross that line."
A lot of it is still secret, and I bet a lot of foreign agencies will be seeing this video too, just in case they could learn something, its worth the try XD Still feels crazy to have access to this kind of footage.
I remember seeing one at an airshow in the UK. It was the only plane that had armed guards. At the time, I remember wondering if it was misdirection as it did look a bit like a plywood mockup.
@@reggieziet A lot of them wouldn't be able to gain much. The aircraft fly by wire is nothing new, and anyone with some expertise can create the overall design of the F-117. Perhaps not as effective. Her real prize is the coating that was used on her which none of the museum craft will have, The eternal tech such as radar and other US computer systems which likely would be highly advanced even now, The Engine performance of course. The material used that assisted with the coating. I pointed out overall shape but its very unlikely any current power except maybe Japan and some in Europe could recreate the designs of the F-117 and replicate it. The Stealth fighter was designed based on years of testing of other designs before her. As a result the fighter has a very unique design and choices that would be difficult to replicate and more importantly the fighter is so unstable you need a top of the line computer system to keep her in stable flight. I believe the Chinese stealth bomber the H-20 suffers from this given that it was supposed to be a flying wing but its overall design from concepts and models seen indicates that it has stability issues and that its severe enough they had to give it a hybrid design that gave it a tail in certain times in flight indicating a flight issue.
It's such a perfect representation of the aerospace engineering practices of the time. Just a bit early for computational fluid dynamics, just modern enough for real "off the shelf" economics, and a good first try for iterative development
My brother was in the USAF security forces at Hill AFB in Ogden, UT, and in 1986 he and his whole squadron had to 19:49 go pickup all the mangled pieces of a crashed F-117 north of Bakersfield, CA. I was a Navy Ordinance man and we talked regularly, but he was required to sign and NDA because he'd handled the materials and we only talked about it much later. He also told me that they would blackout the base and a strip of Ogden's streetlights for F-117 approach and landing.
I truly never expect such a close up and personal tour. I had seen the stealth back in its operational days at an AF Open House. There was no getting even close to the plane at that time. Now here we are close enough touch and inspect nearly every nuance of the planes airframe. Not only that but in the drivers seat look at the systems. Incredible job Paul. Every time you post I watch. It doesn’t matter old or new I love everything about aviation.
Great job yet again Paul! There are a few details that are wrong, but not worth quibbling about honestly. Here's a fun little fact about 833 most people don't know, it once had a hydraulic failure on landing that caused the right brake to lock up , causing the tire to blow and the wheel to be ground down flat. Surprisingly, the magnesium the wheel is made of didn't ignite, otherwise it would have been one hell of a hot fire. It also, destroyed the right main landing gear follow-up door on that side as well. The last time I signed off any major maintenance on her was during the 10 hr inspections that came from missing fasteners on the inboard elevon that required a fleet wide grounding and inspection, as well as speed and g limits for the pilots to follow. Pretty sure I was the one who signed off on her final servicing pre flight inspections as well, since I was the only 7 level on mid-shift as we began retiring them. Best fact about the F-117A that other fighter crew chiefs will hate and deny. During 2006-2008 we had the highest FMC rate of all ACC aircraft. Not an easy feat to accomplish with a dwindling budget, shortage of personnel, parts and the smallest fleet out of them all. I have to Presidential Outstanding Unit awards to prove it. I still love my beautiful bundle of mismatched parts from all over the military parts bins.
@ninus17 FMC=Fully Mission Capable. Essentially, it had nothing mechanically wrong that affected its ability to perform its mission. You also have others code such as PMC=Partially Misson Capable which are inop sub systems that may affect some aspects of the plane but is still overall flyable and the worst which is NMC=Not Mission Capable which means the planes broke. We base maintance statistics based off several factors but we strive to have a high FMC rate across a fleet. ACC=Air Combat Command. It's the MAJCOM (Major Command) responsible for Air Combat Operations.
@@C-L-A-W Thanks for explaining what I should have done. Regardless of age, once you've been in the military (especially the US military) Acronyms become such a common thing that you don't even notice you use them. Even when talking to current friends who work professionally in general aviation maintenance don't always get them.
Awesome stories, thanks for sharing. Fun to see the maintenance parallels from the stealth world and mine as a former 7 level on AFSOC on birds. Cheers.
This always annoyed me being on the flightline. Official rule is you can't photograph aircraft taking off or landing, sounds good? Except for the plane spotters 30 ft outside the fence taking high quality photos on their big fancy cameras...😅
I had the F-117 poster too! I still remember around the first Gulf War (90/91) when the Stealth Fighter was revealed. It was a big deal at the time. At airshows they were heavily guarded and you couldn't get remotely close to it. I actually got a couple of Blacksheep patches and a baseball cap from the guys visiting from Holloman AFB. Now it's possible to walk around, sit in it, and film the whole thing! It makes me feel old! From what I've read, the F-117 has been certified to refuel from the KC-46 now. So "retired"... makes one wonder.
They’re retired buuuuut yet still maintained in climate controlled hangers and are still actively flown. Seriously an incredible aircraft even if it’s decades old at this point. Stealth design has advanced significantly since its construction and yet the USAF keeps them easily accessible so one must wonder if there’s more to the story than we know - perhaps they’ve undergone significant upgrades to reduce their RCS.
@@cruisinguy6024 They have better coatings now. And with how much Russia has shown themselves to be a paper tiger I think it's worth it to keep some of them around for a total war situation. They may be obsolete compared to a few other aircraft but they are obviously not obsolete compared to our adversaries so why not keep a few of them around just in case? Imagine a few of them up the butt of this current Kursk breakthrough... I'm generally the type who detests war and wants spending to go down but I'm also a realist and know a bit about warfare so it's hard to blame them for keeping these birds in the air. Even after all these years, they're still effective.
Im originally from St Louis Missouri. One early evening in 1989 (around Christmas time) I was walking home from work headed south through Tower Grove Park. The Sun had just set, the sky was crystal clear and violet black with fine pinpoint stars above. I heard the distinct sound of military jet engines approaching behind me from the north. I looked up and back and saw something very peculiar. Four aircraft flying wingtip to wingtip. The two outer planes had their anti collision lights on. They were easily identifiable by their silhouettes against the sky as F-15 Eagles. The others however, were not. They had no lights on at all. However their pitch-black color scheme against the deep violet night sky revealed their diamond shapes. Hmm, I thought. It was only a short while later that the F-117 was unveiled to the public, which when I saw it, understood. They apparently took off from Lambert Airport in St Louis County and were being escorted by the Eagles while flying in blacked out conditions. Ive often wondered how people waiting on board passenger flights at the airport looked out their window to watch the F-15's take off, and saw two black aircraft with no lights taking off as well.🤔
I was assigned to the Senior Trend program from 1986-89 while the program was still "black". I worked with the COMSEC custodian (keeper of the codes to scramble the radios, etc) and every 6 months we had to go sit in the cockpits and check the serial numbers on the encryption devices to make sure the airplanes had the ones they were supposed to have. An interesting assignment, no doubt, but the time away from home (fly up on Mon and come home Thur) was a deal breaker for a lot of marriages. Upon my retirement, I was presented a flag flown on the first daylight flight by Col Anthony Tolin.
Nice retirement present. I was assigned to them just after they arrived at Holloman, so sadly I missed the TTR shenanigans. However, those maintainers who transferred down there with the aircraft were the ones who gifted me with their knowledge on the systems of that jet. Some were the beyond definition of "subject matter experts" in the things they new. They are still among the best group of maintainers I've ever met and worked with.
@@LRRPFco52 I worked in base communications centers my first 6+ years at McClellan, George, Udorn, NKP, and Don Muang AB's (Thailand). After that, I spent a year at Shaw working in plans and programs in tactical communications. Spent a few years on flying status at Keesler and Hickam, 2 years in North Dakota as a contract monitor before going to TTR. 11 PCS moves in 20 years made for an interesting career but I think my family hated all the moves.
One of these came to my base in Korea in 93', I worked w/a guy that came from that program when it was black. We crew chiefs got to get a look at it and I remember when i looked in the cockpit thinking...."this is so old and analog" reminiscent of the "A" model F-16's I used to crew. Amazing we made this tech way back when we did and kept it so secret.
At some point in the F-117's development it was found that a lavender or pinkish color would make the aircraft least visible against a typical night sky. But the top brass took one look at that, shook their heads and said, "Just make it black."
When coming out of southern Arizona heading back to Omaha I'd come thru Alamogordo NM. I'd swing in to the Walmart parking lot with the truck and watch the F-117's do touch and goes at Holloman AFB. There were usually 4-5 running patterns at the same time. Cool stuff!!!
One of the greatest stories about the F-117A is not about the aircraft but Lockheed program lead Ben Rich whose wife suddenly passed away from a heart attack in the middle of development (1980). Rich only took off two days for bereavement and burial, his Lockheed colleagues and two children were a little concerned about his state of mind but he explained the best way for him to cope with losing his wife was to get back into the tenacious technical challenges of his work. Rich's work ethic and commitment to the Skunk Works and the tremendous advances they made which brought Lockheed back into the tactical aircraft business.
Yeah he also gave a speech at UCLA where he told everyone there that "we have the means to take et home but it's locked behind black projects and it would take an act of God to release them to benefit humanity".. funny that someone in the shadows seems to be doing exactly that when it comes to all the uap hearings..
Two things of interest about the angles of the surfaces and how they deflect a radar signal. If you toss a tennis ball anywhere at the fuselage, the ball will never bounce back to you. Also, though bats aren’t completely blind, they do rely on the return of high frequency signals, to navigate. I have seen bats fly into the F-117 because their signals are deflected away.
Travel pods are generally mounted on the external wing hardpoints of other aircraft. It must be aerodynamically shaped to alleviate unnecessary fuel costing drag. Everything about the Nighthawk was repurposed from existing hardware including those travel pods.
Oh, and then there are the training bomb pods. The F-117 carries two bombs. Big bombs. They may hit hard, but you won't get a lot of value in training your pilots if they can only drop twice while out on the training range. So, there's a pod in which you can install multiple 25-pound training bombs in the underbelly and have them drop out one at time. When this pod is mounted in the bomb bay, it will impart the same aerodynamic effect of a full-sized bomb, but you get to do more than one training shot on the range.
Taking a tour of the Boneyard in 2006 I got very annoyed when one of the guides called out an F-117 "stealth fighter" on the opposite side to where I was looking. I spun around to see an empty concrete slab with a plaque near it. I was 16, a nerd, and very gullible. Glad you can see them up close for real now! Amazing tech.
Just shared this video with my 4450th TG Facebook friends group. I had the honor of working on this aircraft back in the black world days and really miss it.
The engineering and development of this thing is so neat. It's a great representation of several shifting paradigms in aerospace - complex computer modeling, the use of "off the shelf" solutions, and early hints of iterative development.
wow I had to do a double-take when I saw the video title! I've never seen such a close-up video of the F-117 and thought this was some other jet! Thanks for putting this together and the museums for letting you film it!
I stumbled upon this video as a TH-cam recommendation. Great work! My father worked on the F-117 as maintenance officer in the 'black" times and on through Desert Storm and the relocation to New Mexico.Two notes: RAM is is radar absorptive material, not absorbent. Dad always stressed that for whatever reason haha. And yes, the putty was a huge pain for the maintenance crews. The F-117 shared a large number of parts with other aircraft. That served two purposes. To reduce costs, as you note. But more importantly, it buried the purchases in the Air Force logistics system and help conceal the black project from notice. Thanks for the great video! The F-117 will always be my hero aircraft too. It was strange not knowing a thing about what Dad was doing growing up. But knowing he worked on one of the coolest projects in the world at the time always fills me with pride for him.
The exact specs were on my Commodore 64 stealth fighter game. This plane was a leap that is vital in today's planes. Shoutout to Ian. My mate from tamborine. He loves that B2
Awesome...... really do love your aircraft tours. The mention of the design being 40 yrs old, you can still see what is used today in the F22 and F35 with the jagged edge of the canopy, as an example. Oh, and at around 14:00 right next to a Vulcan too!!
You can intuit just how much Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works philosophy influenced this aircraft’s development by the borrowing of proven existing components from other aircraft. Excellent video, Paul. 👍👍👍
While Kelly Johnson was present during the aircraft’s development, all the shots were called by Ben Rich who took over from Kelly, and this was his first new project
Honestly, there's nothing in there that's particularly noteworthy. It's the same set of instruments that you'd see in any other aircraft except maybe the dedicated screen for the IR/Targeting equipment. I think the only really "unusual" thing that I noticed is the lack of a RWR instrument. Whilst many aircraft of that generation did have it integrated into the MFD's there would usually be a backup display. This lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole as to if the F-117 even had radar warning receiver equipment. So it turns out that it quite likely did not. At least in the usual sense. It did have something called RLS (Radar Location Sensor) which were two pop out sensor arrays on either wing which would allow for radar direction finding. But this system was more of an attack sensor array rather than a defensive system. Its use on the aircraft is in some doubt as it was suggested that it was part of a secondary DEAD functionality for the aircraft that was dropped from the program and some airframes had the equipment missing and the panels blanked off.
My first Airframe when I was a young airman. Remember seeing one flying with a t-38 next to it when I started my drive down into the Alamogordo basin from the mountains. I was a weapons troop. It’s nice to see a detailed video of the old jet. 1998 was the last time I got to be around them before I went to the reserves. Thank you for your video.
Wow! I can't believe how well kept the cockpit is! It barely looks used. Super cool opportunity to see the cockpit of such an illustrious and secretive beast.
The military took unused spare parts with anything sensitive and removed and installed those parts as you can see the second most flown plane wouldn't have shiny parts lol. It looks so nice because it was just finished being restored so they took all the wear marks from thousands of hours and painted them. And those shiny screens are identical to different fighter aircraft screens so easy swap. This one was restored at the SAC museum in Nebraska and I saw it. All the coating was removed and it was shiny like you get a glimpse of here.
This was one of my childhood favorites as well. In the early 90s I lived in the desert outside of El Paso, TX, which isn't too far away from where these were based, at Holloman AFB in NM. My father and I frequently spotted them in the air around dusk, and I always thought it was cool that we couldn't really hear them very well until they had passed overhead. Thanks for the great close-ups!
I remember being on a a airshow back in days, it was guarded by 6 soldiers with loaded rifles. Today we can see every knob in the cockpit on youtube. Time is flying :)
I got to see these (and probably this exact jet) growing up on Holloman AFB in New Mexico as a kid. Running track and field at the middle school these would land right over my head.
Just yesterday I visited the F-117 at the Palm Springs Air Museum as seen in the video. It is well worth the tour. I kind of wish I watched this first. Great informative video.
I was fortunate enough to see one of its very first airshow performances in the early 90’s… was an awesome experience to witness it. It flew right over me at the end of the runway several times. Thank you for this video.
First time I saw one of these in person was at an air show when I was a kid. It was literally cordoned off and surrounded by armed military guards. Funny to see you sitting in the cockpit.
I was an air traffic controller at Holloman AFB tower. Spent years working the stinkbugs around the pattern but I was never permitted to be anywhere near these jets. Over 20 years later I get an up close look at it.
I got to see one of these beauties at my local airport when she had a technical issue and had to land....the amount of security around her was insane!!!
I am still impressed at what the engineers were able to do with this plane, when they did it. The fact that it is still one of the stealthiest designs out there, and remains to be used... Albeit off the books... Is just really cool. I've always been enamored by the view from the cockpit, so I can't imagine how cool it would be to actually experience that in person! Great video of what I would have to consider my childhood hero plane, too. Didn't have a poster, but I did have a model kit.
Thanks -- a rare bird to get this much of a close-up view. It's still so alien looking. That engine is relatively tiny, and it's amazing those exhaust ports could allow those things to get off the ground!
Really cool video, just learned a lot about this plane. Little side note, your viewers from around the world (myself included) surely would appreciate that you include metric units too, great video man, keep it up.
Cheers! Yes fair comment. I've usually avoided saying both metric and imperial measurement as it prolongs the video and most europeans/aussies knows the conversions them selves. Back when I started this I used to use metric but upset the Americans :) My next video will be the 747SP SOFIA and I've included both metric and imperial for most of it :)
@@PaulStewartAviation cool man, I’m Mexican so I’m not that familiar with imperial, I do understand it it’s just not intuitive for me, still, great that you listen to feedback and include both units, keep up the good work!
Neat video on the 'frizbee'. That slab sided stealth technology went on to effect automobile and motorcycle design for decades (that cool stealth look.) Thanks for the nice video.
A Sea Shadow version of the F-117 would have been terrifying for the enemy. Imagine that flying off of a Super Carrier. And not being able to spot it before it’s too late 🔥 😮
👍Thank you for this detailed view/explanations. I remember when it was first revealed to the public, it looked like s.th. from outer space. A lot was still wrapped in secrecy at this time and it would have been a dream to see it in this detail. What amazed me most, was that at this time it was already more than 10 years in service, because even experts at this time thought, that a stealth aircraft is just in its early prototype phase ...
😮When I was a kid I used to argue that this was the best fighter ever and could destroy anything! Cut to 30 years later and knowing it was a bomer 😢. Still one of the best looking design ever!
What an amazing dream to fulfill!!! I am truly jealous. I never thought I would see one fly, let alone two! That was in Alaska during exercise season...2023.
13:40 - Correction, it's three times *an insect.* It's about _one third_ a small bird! (That diagram just puts animals first.) Even the F-35 (according to that diagram) has a radar visibility about half that of a small bird!
F-35 since Lot 4 frontal RCS is smaller than F-117A. F-117A has certain aspects that spike its return values. They were always looking for ways to reduce its signature though, so it isn't a set of static values. It went through 3 different iterations of RAM upgrades, for example. Its final RAM was similar to what was used on F-22A and was easier to maintain, more durable. Only a few got it though, with the grey paint scheme.
Crazy. I remember seeing one of those for the first time at an airshow in Alaska. I was just a kid, but loved jets and aircraft and we got to go see an F117 parked. It was roped off with probably like 50 or so yards of space between the roped perimeter and the jet. Armed guards with M16s. I think a couple K-9 units, and lots of signs and people walking around saying that there were no pictures to be taken. Digital cameras didn't exist back then, much less any kind of smartphone. It's wild that we get to see stuff like this.
This was the last project my Dad worked on before retiring from Lockheed. He only told us about it after the aircraft was used in Panama. The old Lockheed could definitely keep a secret.
It's awesome you got access to the one being restored at the Strategic Air Command Museum. I live near by. Also I see that Avro Vulcan hiding on the side!
Back in the late 90's a F117 crashed in Essex Maryland that was taking off from a local ANG base. The pilot safely ejected, but police and military completely locked down our neighborhood until every surviving piece of the aircraft could be recovered.
Good job describing all the off the shelf parts on the airplane. You are correct on the ECS system coming off a C-130. There was even a part on the ECS that came off a Fiat G.91 😉
A couple of these were here in Fresno a year or so ago for some sort of training. All kinds of people were out at the airport getting pics and video. Was cool to see in the sky over town
I did a little work on one the sensors for this (re-engineering something because of a maintenance issue, I’m not old enough to have designed it initially).
The F-117 is the bumble bee of aircraft. If it wasn't for the flight computers it would tumble out of the sky. Even today, with the modern stealth aircraft, this plane is still impressive.
"F-117A is so advanced!" F-117A literally just a hodge podge of already existing pieces put together in a polygon like casing to deflect radar. This isn't an insult either, it shows the serious ingenuity of the engineers back in the day.
What good timing. I wouldn't say I'm a super big aviation person, but if a plane catches the eye, I like to look into it. This is such a cool plane, especially with its development. It is odd to thank a Call of Duty game for leading me to this as the newest one takes place during the Gulf War. One of the locations is an air base with one of these in a hangar.
WOW! I can't believe you got to sit in it! AND got to share the footage! I saw the one in the USAF museum but it was roped off so I couldn't go around back, so that was pretty awesome to see finally! Also seeing the naked one was amazing! I saw them stripping it on instagram but never saw what became of it, so that is super nice to see those details! I also wasn't aware that they took the leading edge of the wings too! The one at the USAF museum had a small chunk taken out of it and I was worried it was stolen for espionage. lol I remember the silver one had issues like that too, needing to recreate a good bit of it. Thanks for this! Well done! *Edited my statement out about the pitot tube, was wrong. Apparently all active have it.*
The amount of engineering this thing has is mind blowing. I wonder what videos will come in after another 20years of declassified planes parked in the museums. Nice vid!
Thanks for watching everyone! Please help support me making these videos by joining my channel and/or giving the video a thumbs up. This encourages TH-cam to share my video, so I make more advertising revenue (which is still less than it costs me to make these videos... but I love making them), and I can make more of these. Cheers!
@@PaulStewartAviation May the algorithm be with you
cheers :D
thanks!
Highly unlikely the F-117 shot down in 99 over Serbia was because of the bomb doors being open. Is it possible the plane was located over target due to this yes, but the doors wouldn’t be open long enough for the missile to track on the F-117. Likely all that was needed were multiple mobile radars moved to general carelessly repeated flight path locations, in this way they could “burn through” the stealth advantage both being knowingly close to the aircraft heard flying overhead - (remember they knew fairly accurately the timing and heading of the flight so they can roughly know where in the sky the jet is from sound, f-117 are still loud especially overhead as they flew over where I lived in NM frequently in the 90s), so if they know audibly where in the sky the radar can be focused to that area, multiple close radar’s especially pointed at rear of F-117 where its not as stealthy as the front, and they can get more frequent blips through raw power of closer radar scans. Even close by the radar might not be able to get consistent track but launching multiple SAMs, very close, at least one SAM would be close enough its oen tracking radar would get consistent enough return as its radar energy is too powerful to be fully redirected away. Another plausible case that still requires having accurate prediction of timing and flight path of the F-117 was the rumor that even though the Serbs shot it down with a older SAM system, the Serbs added a more modern IR and optical manual sigting capability that might not work against the F117 further out due to it having reduced IR, however again knowing where to look especially in comms with other listening teams, train the IR sight on known small area of the sky and its plausible on even the F-117 to spot a small heat blume of turbulent air behind the exhausts, and this could also aid inlaunching multiple SAMs, while those SAMs would still require being launched close to thr aircraft so that they can get strong radar return. The key to all of this is rumors being true that NATO command carelessly had F-117 pilots fly same routes in and out many nights repeatedly, and even dramatically worse another rumor stating that some nights EA-6 prowler jammers were not tasked to cover F-117s which they were used in addition to the stealth of the F-117 in very high threat dense radar areas. The flight predictability in combination with possible rumored enhanced IR sighting capability of SAM launch system might negate prowler use regardless, the point is complacency away from normal F-117 tactics of planning constantly changing routes and timing is a problem especially combined with further rumors of a lot of spies/plane spotters at Aviano AB seeing F-117s take off and the timing of this being communicated to the Serbs! There are reports hinted at by an F-117 pilot from that war stating that on a certain mission an F-117 co-flight was successfully hit by SAM a second time though that plane made it back to base damaged. There are interviews posted if you search for second F-117 shot over Serbia. The state paraphrased is a nighthawk pilot saw several SAMs launch right in the target area a fellow nighthawk pilot was on timing to be flying and he saw one of the SAMs exlpode. He suspected trouble. Later on the egress both pilots were suposed to meet up at the same tanker but only the interviewed pilot got there on time. After fueling he told the tanker he’d stay with the tanker to wait for thr other F-117. After a long wait a somewhat slow F-117 made it up to tank. It seemed as though the F-117s comms where down or not allowed ro radio at all but should communicate wpwith tanker when plugged in to thr fuel probe, yet supposedly no comms with tsnker either when plugged in. The nighthawk seemed to have great difficulty lining up and plugging in to the tanker as well and then when flying away, again looked slightly unstable like there was some flight control damage or systems damage even if not external, a close explosive concussion might damage the actuator mechanisms/motors in the wing or tail control surfaces. The interviewed pilot however never heard a confirmation which is odd in a small F-117 community, unless the supposed shot at pilot was not allowed to discuss the incident. The interviewed pilot didn’t reveal anything either, he simply stated what he saw both the missile exploding and also the facts about his friend showing up late to tanker and struggling to get to the tanker boom, it was more or less hinting at it without directly stating. Handland I believe is the last name of thr pilot interviewed.
Remembering how secret this thing was when it came out, it's almost unbelievable to me that you can now actually sit in the cockpit of one. This was a real treat.
I was just about to say the same thing. I saw it at an airshow back then and it was surrounded by armed guards. My dad said "son they'll shoot you if you cross that line."
A lot of it is still secret, and I bet a lot of foreign agencies will be seeing this video too, just in case they could learn something, its worth the try XD Still feels crazy to have access to this kind of footage.
I saw one at an air show in the late 90s or early 2000s and you couldn’t get close or take pictures.
I remember seeing one at an airshow in the UK. It was the only plane that had armed guards. At the time, I remember wondering if it was misdirection as it did look a bit like a plywood mockup.
@@reggieziet A lot of them wouldn't be able to gain much. The aircraft fly by wire is nothing new, and anyone with some expertise can create the overall design of the F-117. Perhaps not as effective.
Her real prize is the coating that was used on her which none of the museum craft will have, The eternal tech such as radar and other US computer systems which likely would be highly advanced even now,
The Engine performance of course.
The material used that assisted with the coating.
I pointed out overall shape but its very unlikely any current power except maybe Japan and some in Europe could recreate the designs of the F-117 and replicate it.
The Stealth fighter was designed based on years of testing of other designs before her. As a result the fighter has a very unique design and choices that would be difficult to replicate and more importantly the fighter is so unstable you need a top of the line computer system to keep her in stable flight.
I believe the Chinese stealth bomber the H-20 suffers from this given that it was supposed to be a flying wing but its overall design from concepts and models seen indicates that it has stability issues and that its severe enough they had to give it a hybrid design that gave it a tail in certain times in flight indicating a flight issue.
The F-117 is literally low poly stealth, and its an icon worthy of preservation
4-bit textures suitable for downloading over 7200 baud modems.
It's such a perfect representation of the aerospace engineering practices of the time. Just a bit early for computational fluid dynamics, just modern enough for real "off the shelf" economics, and a good first try for iterative development
A radical design. Such a beauty. I'm sure they are working on a modernized F-117 right now.
My brother was in the USAF security forces at Hill AFB in Ogden, UT, and in 1986 he and his whole squadron had to 19:49 go pickup all the mangled pieces of a crashed F-117 north of Bakersfield, CA. I was a Navy Ordinance man and we talked regularly, but he was required to sign and NDA because he'd handled the materials and we only talked about it much later. He also told me that they would blackout the base and a strip of Ogden's streetlights for F-117 approach and landing.
fascinating!
Utah streetlights are non existent as is lol
I truly never expect such a close up and personal tour. I had seen the stealth back in its operational days at an AF Open House. There was no getting even close to the plane at that time. Now here we are close enough touch and inspect nearly every nuance of the planes airframe. Not only that but in the drivers seat look at the systems. Incredible job Paul. Every time you post I watch. It doesn’t matter old or new I love everything about aviation.
Great job yet again Paul! There are a few details that are wrong, but not worth quibbling about honestly. Here's a fun little fact about 833 most people don't know, it once had a hydraulic failure on landing that caused the right brake to lock up , causing the tire to blow and the wheel to be ground down flat. Surprisingly, the magnesium the wheel is made of didn't ignite, otherwise it would have been one hell of a hot fire. It also, destroyed the right main landing gear follow-up door on that side as well.
The last time I signed off any major maintenance on her was during the 10 hr inspections that came from missing fasteners on the inboard elevon that required a fleet wide grounding and inspection, as well as speed and g limits for the pilots to follow. Pretty sure I was the one who signed off on her final servicing pre flight inspections as well, since I was the only 7 level on mid-shift as we began retiring them.
Best fact about the F-117A that other fighter crew chiefs will hate and deny. During 2006-2008 we had the highest FMC rate of all ACC aircraft. Not an easy feat to accomplish with a dwindling budget, shortage of personnel, parts and the smallest fleet out of them all. I have to Presidential Outstanding Unit awards to prove it. I still love my beautiful bundle of mismatched parts from all over the military parts bins.
Thats awesome. Excuse my ignorance but what is the FMC and ACC at the end you are referring to?
@ninus17 FMC=Fully Mission Capable. Essentially, it had nothing mechanically wrong that affected its ability to perform its mission. You also have others code such as PMC=Partially Misson Capable which are inop sub systems that may affect some aspects of the plane but is still overall flyable and the worst which is NMC=Not Mission Capable which means the planes broke. We base maintance statistics based off several factors but we strive to have a high FMC rate across a fleet. ACC=Air Combat Command. It's the MAJCOM (Major Command) responsible for Air Combat Operations.
@@C-L-A-W
Thanks for explaining what I should have done. Regardless of age, once you've been in the military (especially the US military) Acronyms become such a common thing that you don't even notice you use them. Even when talking to current friends who work professionally in general aviation maintenance don't always get them.
Awesome stories, thanks for sharing. Fun to see the maintenance parallels from the stealth world and mine as a former 7 level on AFSOC on birds. Cheers.
@@C-L-A-W thanks 😊
Me in the Air Force while working on the flightline and an F-117 flies in: "don't look!"
Paul Stewart on TH-cam: "Check this out boys!"
🤣
This always annoyed me being on the flightline. Official rule is you can't photograph aircraft taking off or landing, sounds good?
Except for the plane spotters 30 ft outside the fence taking high quality photos on their big fancy cameras...😅
@@myst8817
"Common sense and logical thinking will NOT be tolerated.
I had the F-117 poster too! I still remember around the first Gulf War (90/91) when the Stealth Fighter was revealed. It was a big deal at the time. At airshows they were heavily guarded and you couldn't get remotely close to it. I actually got a couple of Blacksheep patches and a baseball cap from the guys visiting from Holloman AFB. Now it's possible to walk around, sit in it, and film the whole thing! It makes me feel old! From what I've read, the F-117 has been certified to refuel from the KC-46 now. So "retired"... makes one wonder.
They’re retired buuuuut yet still maintained in climate controlled hangers and are still actively flown.
Seriously an incredible aircraft even if it’s decades old at this point. Stealth design has advanced significantly since its construction and yet the USAF keeps them easily accessible so one must wonder if there’s more to the story than we know - perhaps they’ve undergone significant upgrades to reduce their RCS.
@@cruisinguy6024 They have better coatings now. And with how much Russia has shown themselves to be a paper tiger I think it's worth it to keep some of them around for a total war situation. They may be obsolete compared to a few other aircraft but they are obviously not obsolete compared to our adversaries so why not keep a few of them around just in case? Imagine a few of them up the butt of this current Kursk breakthrough...
I'm generally the type who detests war and wants spending to go down but I'm also a realist and know a bit about warfare so it's hard to blame them for keeping these birds in the air. Even after all these years, they're still effective.
Im originally from St Louis Missouri.
One early evening in 1989 (around Christmas time) I was walking home from work headed south through Tower Grove Park. The Sun had just set, the sky was crystal clear and violet black with fine pinpoint stars above.
I heard the distinct sound of military jet engines approaching behind me from the north. I looked up and back and saw something very peculiar.
Four aircraft flying wingtip to wingtip.
The two outer planes had their anti collision lights on. They were easily identifiable by their silhouettes against the sky as F-15 Eagles. The others however, were not. They had no lights on at all. However their pitch-black color scheme against the deep violet night sky revealed their diamond shapes.
Hmm, I thought.
It was only a short while later that the F-117 was unveiled to the public, which when I saw it, understood.
They apparently took off from Lambert Airport in St Louis County and were being escorted by the Eagles while flying in blacked out conditions.
Ive often wondered how people waiting on board passenger flights at the airport looked out their window to watch the F-15's take off, and saw two black aircraft with no lights taking off as well.🤔
Back when McDonnell Douglas was still around.
@@PhilipReeder Excellent story.
Nice story... there are really beautiful and modern planes
❤
I was assigned to the Senior Trend program from 1986-89 while the program was still "black". I worked with the COMSEC custodian (keeper of the codes to scramble the radios, etc) and every 6 months we had to go sit in the cockpits and check the serial numbers on the encryption devices to make sure the airplanes had the ones they were supposed to have. An interesting assignment, no doubt, but the time away from home (fly up on Mon and come home Thur) was a deal breaker for a lot of marriages. Upon my retirement, I was presented a flag flown on the first daylight flight by Col Anthony Tolin.
You had me at "COMSEC". Great story all around. Thank you👍🙂
Nice retirement present. I was assigned to them just after they arrived at Holloman, so sadly I missed the TTR shenanigans. However, those maintainers who transferred down there with the aircraft were the ones who gifted me with their knowledge on the systems of that jet. Some were the beyond definition of "subject matter experts" in the things they new. They are still among the best group of maintainers I've ever met and worked with.
I was there at the same time you were.
@@billirvin9057 What did you do prior to working up at Tonopah?
@@LRRPFco52 I worked in base communications centers my first 6+ years at McClellan, George, Udorn, NKP, and Don Muang AB's (Thailand). After that, I spent a year at Shaw working in plans and programs in tactical communications. Spent a few years on flying status at Keesler and Hickam, 2 years in North Dakota as a contract monitor before going to TTR. 11 PCS moves in 20 years made for an interesting career but I think my family hated all the moves.
One of these came to my base in Korea in 93', I worked w/a guy that came from that program when it was black. We crew chiefs got to get a look at it and I remember when i looked in the cockpit thinking...."this is so old and analog" reminiscent of the "A" model F-16's I used to crew. Amazing we made this tech way back when we did and kept it so secret.
@jumpingjeffflash9946 I was a load toad at Kunsan in '86.
At some point in the F-117's development it was found that a lavender or pinkish color would make the aircraft least visible against a typical night sky. But the top brass took one look at that, shook their heads and said, "Just make it black."
Batman would agree.
It was difficult enough to get fighter pilots to fly it as is, no pilot is signing up to fly a lavender or pink airframe.
@@razorbackblood06 Yeah, I've read that when pilots got their first look at it, most of them weren't exactly enthusiastic.
WW2 British SAS have entered the chat.
They drove pink range rovers in the North African desert and gave Rommel hell.
Pink RAF attack aircraft were used in Desert Storm.
When coming out of southern Arizona heading back to Omaha I'd come thru Alamogordo NM. I'd swing in to the Walmart parking lot with the truck and watch the F-117's do touch and goes at Holloman AFB. There were usually 4-5 running patterns at the same time. Cool stuff!!!
One of the greatest stories about the F-117A is not about the aircraft but Lockheed program lead Ben Rich whose wife suddenly passed away from a heart attack in the middle of development (1980). Rich only took off two days for bereavement and burial, his Lockheed colleagues and two children were a little concerned about his state of mind but he explained the best way for him to cope with losing his wife was to get back into the tenacious technical challenges of his work. Rich's work ethic and commitment to the Skunk Works and the tremendous advances they made which brought Lockheed back into the tactical aircraft business.
Sounds like Mr. Rich enjoyed stealth aircraft more than his own wife.
avoidant attachment style as one would expect from a top engineer ;-)
Not sure the sacrifice will be honored soon
Yeah he also gave a speech at UCLA where he told everyone there that "we have the means to take et home but it's locked behind black projects and it would take an act of God to release them to benefit humanity".. funny that someone in the shadows seems to be doing exactly that when it comes to all the uap hearings..
Gotta keep the military industrial complex, endless wars, and waste of taxpayer money going!
Two things of interest about the angles of the surfaces and how they deflect a radar signal. If you toss a tennis ball anywhere at the fuselage, the ball will never bounce back to you. Also, though bats aren’t completely blind, they do rely on the return of high frequency signals, to navigate. I have seen bats fly into the F-117 because their signals are deflected away.
There’s one 117 I love. Not a jet, not a Nighthawk. No… none of those. My 117, my hero, is *A SPARTAN*
I like how it comes with custom luggage shaped like a bomb for the pilot.
Travel pods are generally mounted on the external wing hardpoints of other aircraft. It must be aerodynamically shaped to alleviate unnecessary fuel costing drag. Everything about the Nighthawk was repurposed from existing hardware including those travel pods.
Oh, and then there are the training bomb pods.
The F-117 carries two bombs. Big bombs. They may hit hard, but you won't get a lot of value in training your pilots if they can only drop twice while out on the training range.
So, there's a pod in which you can install multiple 25-pound training bombs in the underbelly and have them drop out one at time. When this pod is mounted in the bomb bay, it will impart the same aerodynamic effect of a full-sized bomb, but you get to do more than one training shot on the range.
Taking a tour of the Boneyard in 2006 I got very annoyed when one of the guides called out an F-117 "stealth fighter" on the opposite side to where I was looking. I spun around to see an empty concrete slab with a plaque near it. I was 16, a nerd, and very gullible. Glad you can see them up close for real now! Amazing tech.
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.
Seeing this thing no longer a secret tells this old guy the secret stuff today is truly mind-blowing.
Just shared this video with my 4450th TG Facebook friends group. I had the honor of working on this aircraft back in the black world days and really miss it.
Salut de France 👋🏻🇫🇷👋🏻. Il y a 30 ans, j'avais les magazines et j'ai fabriqué la maquette du Nighthawk. Maintenant il est au musée, C incroyable.
The engineering and development of this thing is so neat. It's a great representation of several shifting paradigms in aerospace - complex computer modeling, the use of "off the shelf" solutions, and early hints of iterative development.
It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
wow I had to do a double-take when I saw the video title! I've never seen such a close-up video of the F-117 and thought this was some other jet! Thanks for putting this together and the museums for letting you film it!
Glad you liked it!
I stumbled upon this video as a TH-cam recommendation. Great work! My father worked on the F-117 as maintenance officer in the 'black" times and on through Desert Storm and the relocation to New Mexico.Two notes:
RAM is is radar absorptive material, not absorbent. Dad always stressed that for whatever reason haha. And yes, the putty was a huge pain for the maintenance crews.
The F-117 shared a large number of parts with other aircraft. That served two purposes. To reduce costs, as you note. But more importantly, it buried the purchases in the Air Force logistics system and help conceal the black project from notice.
Thanks for the great video! The F-117 will always be my hero aircraft too. It was strange not knowing a thing about what Dad was doing growing up. But knowing he worked on one of the coolest projects in the world at the time always fills me with pride for him.
To add to that. RAM in my experience did not need to be temperature controlled. FYI
The RAM was a carcinogen and the birth defect rate of babies born to maintenance personnel at Holloman AFB skyrocketed due to exposure to RAM.
The exact specs were on my Commodore 64 stealth fighter game. This plane was a leap that is vital in today's planes. Shoutout to Ian. My mate from tamborine. He loves that B2
A beautiful machine. Nothing will come close to the new upcoming f35 upgrade, but the nighthawk was a big step towards perfecting the technology.
Awesome tour! I logged many, many hours on the MircoProse F-117A simulator in my youth.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome...... really do love your aircraft tours. The mention of the design being 40 yrs old, you can still see what is used today in the F22 and F35 with the jagged edge of the canopy, as an example. Oh, and at around 14:00 right next to a Vulcan too!!
Yep. Why "fix" the parts that don't matter for aerodynamics? Use the computer power to make the aerodynamics-important parts aerodynamic.
You can intuit just how much Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works philosophy influenced this aircraft’s development by the borrowing of proven existing components from other aircraft. Excellent video, Paul. 👍👍👍
While Kelly Johnson was present during the aircraft’s development, all the shots were called by Ben Rich who took over from Kelly, and this was his first new project
i would of guessed the cockpit would still be classified. this is a treat!!
Honestly, there's nothing in there that's particularly noteworthy. It's the same set of instruments that you'd see in any other aircraft except maybe the dedicated screen for the IR/Targeting equipment.
I think the only really "unusual" thing that I noticed is the lack of a RWR instrument. Whilst many aircraft of that generation did have it integrated into the MFD's there would usually be a backup display. This lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole as to if the F-117 even had radar warning receiver equipment.
So it turns out that it quite likely did not. At least in the usual sense. It did have something called RLS (Radar Location Sensor) which were two pop out sensor arrays on either wing which would allow for radar direction finding. But this system was more of an attack sensor array rather than a defensive system. Its use on the aircraft is in some doubt as it was suggested that it was part of a secondary DEAD functionality for the aircraft that was dropped from the program and some airframes had the equipment missing and the panels blanked off.
Classified? Serbs had a good peek at the cockpit like 30 years ago lmaoo.
This has such a futuristic design for its time, up until today's standards.
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
My first Airframe when I was a young airman. Remember seeing one flying with a t-38 next to it when I started my drive down into the Alamogordo basin from the mountains. I was a weapons troop. It’s nice to see a detailed video of the old jet. 1998 was the last time I got to be around them before I went to the reserves. Thank you for your video.
Strength to carry on despite the odds means you have faith in your own abilities and know how.
Wow! I can't believe how well kept the cockpit is! It barely looks used. Super cool opportunity to see the cockpit of such an illustrious and secretive beast.
The military took unused spare parts with anything sensitive and removed and installed those parts as you can see the second most flown plane wouldn't have shiny parts lol. It looks so nice because it was just finished being restored so they took all the wear marks from thousands of hours and painted them. And those shiny screens are identical to different fighter aircraft screens so easy swap.
This one was restored at the SAC museum in Nebraska and I saw it. All the coating was removed and it was shiny like you get a glimpse of here.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Fantastic video. Always fantasized about these as a kid. Incredible aircraft; had no idea so much of it came from other systems! Thank you!
I didn't know Moby was now an F117 expert!! no wonder he didn't release any new hits!! Good for him!!!!!!!
😂
This was one of my childhood favorites as well. In the early 90s I lived in the desert outside of El Paso, TX, which isn't too far away from where these were based, at Holloman AFB in NM. My father and I frequently spotted them in the air around dusk, and I always thought it was cool that we couldn't really hear them very well until they had passed overhead. Thanks for the great close-ups!
I remember being on a a airshow back in days, it was guarded by 6 soldiers with loaded rifles. Today we can see every knob in the cockpit on youtube. Time is flying :)
Guarded by 6 airmen you mean?
The Airmen with loaded weapons were very polite to us tax payers while at Andrews AFB's Joint Forces Day years ago.🫡
I was mesmerized by the nighthawk as a kid. I heard it was a real challenge to fly.
The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.
Spent two years with TTR Fire Dept. Loved protecting the coolest plane in the USAF.
Thanks for the stories as well as the video - I had no idea they had a wrecked plane on standby...
I got to see these (and probably this exact jet) growing up on Holloman AFB in New Mexico as a kid. Running track and field at the middle school these would land right over my head.
fun to see lots of A-10, F-16 and F/A-18 components!
And the B-52 parts.
Just yesterday I visited the F-117 at the Palm Springs Air Museum as seen in the video. It is well worth the tour. I kind of wish I watched this first. Great informative video.
I was fortunate enough to see one of its very first airshow performances in the early 90’s… was an awesome experience to witness it. It flew right over me at the end of the runway several times. Thank you for this video.
First time I saw one of these in person was at an air show when I was a kid. It was literally cordoned off and surrounded by armed military guards. Funny to see you sitting in the cockpit.
I used to fly this in the gulf war on my computer simulator. Go Microprose - What a dream to see one in person. Thanks for sharing.
You had us in the first half not gonna lie :D
Played that game a lot too.. but we were attacking Iran, not Iraq.
Thank you for your service 😂
I miss old school mircroprose flight sims. Gunship 2000 was my favorite.
@@erics8192 a great game, I played on the c64 in the early 80’s then the remake on the pc. They don’t make em like that anymore.
I was an air traffic controller at Holloman AFB tower. Spent years working the stinkbugs around the pattern but I was never permitted to be anywhere near these jets. Over 20 years later I get an up close look at it.
You should see the F-117 at the Museum of Aviation, Robins AFB, GA. It has all of the RAM removed and is fascinating to study.
Oh the nights I spent in one via Jane’s USAF back in the day ❤😂. Much appreciated m8, amazing
Glad you enjoyed
The HUD looks more like a F-16 but the fuel and engine gauges are very close to the F/A-18A/B. Great video!
I got to see one of these beauties at my local airport when she had a technical issue and had to land....the amount of security around her was insane!!!
This was a long time coming video for me to watch about the F-117! I learned a ton and it was fun to watch. Thank you for this tour.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am still impressed at what the engineers were able to do with this plane, when they did it. The fact that it is still one of the stealthiest designs out there, and remains to be used... Albeit off the books... Is just really cool. I've always been enamored by the view from the cockpit, so I can't imagine how cool it would be to actually experience that in person! Great video of what I would have to consider my childhood hero plane, too. Didn't have a poster, but I did have a model kit.
They used parts from other aircraft not only to keep costs down but also to maintain secrecy. Pretty cool
Thanks -- a rare bird to get this much of a close-up view. It's still so alien looking. That engine is relatively tiny, and it's amazing those exhaust ports could allow those things to get off the ground!
Really cool video, just learned a lot about this plane. Little side note, your viewers from around the world (myself included) surely would appreciate that you include metric units too, great video man, keep it up.
Cheers! Yes fair comment. I've usually avoided saying both metric and imperial measurement as it prolongs the video and most europeans/aussies knows the conversions them selves. Back when I started this I used to use metric but upset the Americans :) My next video will be the 747SP SOFIA and I've included both metric and imperial for most of it :)
@@PaulStewartAviation cool man, I’m Mexican so I’m not that familiar with imperial, I do understand it it’s just not intuitive for me, still, great that you listen to feedback and include both units, keep up the good work!
Neat video on the 'frizbee'. That slab sided stealth technology went on to effect automobile and motorcycle design for decades (that cool stealth look.) Thanks for the nice video.
A Sea Shadow version of the F-117 would have been terrifying for the enemy. Imagine that flying off of a Super Carrier. And not being able to spot it before it’s too late 🔥 😮
👍Thank you for this detailed view/explanations. I remember when it was first revealed to the public, it looked like s.th. from outer space. A lot was still wrapped in secrecy at this time and it would have been a dream to see it in this detail. What amazed me most, was that at this time it was already more than 10 years in service, because even experts at this time thought, that a stealth aircraft is just in its early prototype phase ...
Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.
Cool bot
😮When I was a kid I used to argue that this was the best fighter ever and could destroy anything! Cut to 30 years later and knowing it was a bomer 😢. Still one of the best looking design ever!
Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.
What an amazing dream to fulfill!!! I am truly jealous. I never thought I would see one fly, let alone two! That was in Alaska during exercise season...2023.
Cheers I'm very lucky :) (sorry the previous comment was in response to another post)
You do such a good job describing the plane and instruments that I feel like I’m ready to suit up and get airborne in one of these!
Thanks
Radar Op: sir, i have a formation of 5 bumble bees going 500 knots at FL320.
Commander: meh, must be nothing.
13:40 - Correction, it's three times *an insect.* It's about _one third_ a small bird! (That diagram just puts animals first.)
Even the F-35 (according to that diagram) has a radar visibility about half that of a small bird!
F-35 since Lot 4 frontal RCS is smaller than F-117A. F-117A has certain aspects that spike its return values. They were always looking for ways to reduce its signature though, so it isn't a set of static values. It went through 3 different iterations of RAM upgrades, for example. Its final RAM was similar to what was used on F-22A and was easier to maintain, more durable. Only a few got it though, with the grey paint scheme.
Insects are animals.
What about the F22?
That gorgeous, padded, custom moulded bucket seats looks very comfortable.
Crazy. I remember seeing one of those for the first time at an airshow in Alaska. I was just a kid, but loved jets and aircraft and we got to go see an F117 parked. It was roped off with probably like 50 or so yards of space between the roped perimeter and the jet. Armed guards with M16s. I think a couple K-9 units, and lots of signs and people walking around saying that there were no pictures to be taken. Digital cameras didn't exist back then, much less any kind of smartphone. It's wild that we get to see stuff like this.
Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.
This was the last project my Dad worked on before retiring from Lockheed. He only told us about it after the aircraft was used in Panama. The old Lockheed could definitely keep a secret.
It's awesome you got access to the one being restored at the Strategic Air Command Museum. I live near by. Also I see that Avro Vulcan hiding on the side!
Excellent tour! She looks a bit antiquated compared to our modern stealth aircraft but she was state-of-the-art for her time.
Hard to believe this was conceptualized in 1976. The Skunk Works story is a fascinating one.
Back in the late 90's a F117 crashed in Essex Maryland that was taking off from a local ANG base. The pilot safely ejected, but police and military completely locked down our neighborhood until every surviving piece of the aircraft could be recovered.
Good thing I watched to the end!
The Spruce Goose wasn't a stealth aircraft?! The learning never stops.
A product of some very intelligent and creative people....
Good job describing all the off the shelf parts on the airplane. You are correct on the ECS system coming off a C-130. There was even a part on the ECS that came off a Fiat G.91 😉
A couple of these were here in Fresno a year or so ago for some sort of training. All kinds of people were out at the airport getting pics and video. Was cool to see in the sky over town
I did a little work on one the sensors for this (re-engineering something because of a maintenance issue, I’m not old enough to have designed it initially).
The F-117 is the bumble bee of aircraft. If it wasn't for the flight computers it would tumble out of the sky. Even today, with the modern stealth aircraft, this plane is still impressive.
More often than not, anger is actually an indication of weakness rather than of strength.
"F-117A is so advanced!" F-117A literally just a hodge podge of already existing pieces put together in a polygon like casing to deflect radar.
This isn't an insult either, it shows the serious ingenuity of the engineers back in the day.
Fantastic insights and appreciation for a remarkable aircraft - thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
What good timing. I wouldn't say I'm a super big aviation person, but if a plane catches the eye, I like to look into it. This is such a cool plane, especially with its development. It is odd to thank a Call of Duty game for leading me to this as the newest one takes place during the Gulf War. One of the locations is an air base with one of these in a hangar.
An incredible design! I still think it is SO COOL!
Pretty cool, Paul.
It's great that's been declassified, so we can all get to see some of this beauty !😊
I saw that same f117 at SAC air museum. Beutiful plane!
Awesome! Bravo! Thanks for the tour! It was my favourite plane when I was a child too. Kind regards from Argentina!
Great clip again, a lot of insides. Keep on going!
Thank you so much for the look in the cockpit. Its pretty hard to find good pictures. That video is like i win in the lottery :)
WOW! I can't believe you got to sit in it! AND got to share the footage! I saw the one in the USAF museum but it was roped off so I couldn't go around back, so that was pretty awesome to see finally!
Also seeing the naked one was amazing! I saw them stripping it on instagram but never saw what became of it, so that is super nice to see those details! I also wasn't aware that they took the leading edge of the wings too!
The one at the USAF museum had a small chunk taken out of it and I was worried it was stolen for espionage. lol
I remember the silver one had issues like that too, needing to recreate a good bit of it.
Thanks for this! Well done!
*Edited my statement out about the pitot tube, was wrong. Apparently all active have it.*
Yep I'm credibly fortunate! You can imagine how excited I was to, on a single day, sit inside a B-36, B-47 and F117.
The amount of engineering this thing has is mind blowing. I wonder what videos will come in after another 20years of declassified planes parked in the museums. Nice vid!
Fun fact: The travel pods are actually napalm canisters from the Vietnam war. BLU-1 I believe.
He stepped gingerly onto the bridge knowing that enchantment awaited on the other side.