F-117 Nighthawk | Stealth Attack Aircraft developed by Skunk Works
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2022
- The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircraft to be designed with stealth technology.
The F-117 was based on the Have Blue technology demonstrator. The Nighthawk's maiden flight took place in 1981 at Groom Lake, Nevada, and the aircraft achieved initial operating capability status in 1983. The aircraft was shrouded in secrecy until it was revealed to the public in 1988. Of the 64 F-117s built, 59 were production versions, with the other five being prototypes.
The F-117 was widely publicized for its role in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Although it was commonly referred to as the "Stealth Fighter", it was strictly an attack aircraft. F-117s took part in the conflict in Yugoslavia, where one was shot down by a surface-to-air missile (SAM) in 1999. The U.S. Air Force retired the F-117 in April 2008, primarily due to the fielding of the F-22 Raptor. Despite the type's official retirement, a portion of the fleet has been kept in airworthy condition, and Nighthawks have been observed flying since 2009.
In 1964, Pyotr Ufimtsev, a Soviet mathematician, published a seminal paper titled Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction in the journal of the Moscow Institute for Radio Engineering, in which he showed that the strength of the radar return from an object is related to its edge configuration, not its size. Ufimtsev was extending theoretical work published by the German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld. Ufimtsev demonstrated that he could calculate the radar cross-section across a wing's surface and along its edge. The obvious and logical conclusion was that even a large aircraft could reduce its radar signature by exploiting this principle. However, the resulting design would make the aircraft aerodynamically unstable, and the state of computer technology in the early 1960s could not provide the kinds of flight computers which would later allow aircraft such as the F-117 and B-2 Spirit to stay airborne. By the 1970s, when Lockheed analyst Denys Overholser found Ufimtsev's paper, computers and software had advanced significantly, and the stage was set for the development of a stealth airplane.
Aircraft parked inside an open hangar
F-117A painted in "Gray Dragon" experimental camouflage scheme
The F-117 was born after the Vietnam War, where increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) had downed heavy bombers.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 65 ft 11 in (20.09 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft 4 in (13.21 m)
Height: 12 ft 5 in (3.78 m)
Wing area: 780 sq ft (72 m2)
Airfoil: Lozenge section, 3 flats Upper, 2 flats Lower
Empty weight: 29,500 lb (13,381 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 52,500 lb (23,814 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × General Electric F404-F1D2 turbofan engines, 9,040 lbf (40.2 kN) thrust each
Performance
Maximum speed: 594 kn (684 mph, 1,100 km/h)
Maximum speed: Mach 0.92
Range: 930 nmi (1,070 mi, 1,720 km) ;
Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (14,000 m)
Wing loading: 67.3 lb/sq ft (329 kg/m2) calculated from
Thrust/weight: 0.40
Armament
2 × internal weapons bays with one hardpoint each (total of two weapons) equipped to carry:
Bombs:
GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bomb with 2,000 lb (910 kg) Mk84 blast/fragmentation or BLU-109 or BLU-116 Penetrator warhead
GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb with 500 lb (230 kg) Mk82 blast/fragmentation warhead
GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb with 2,000 lb (910 kg) Mk84 blast-fragmentation or BLU-109 or BLU-116 Penetrator warhead
GBU-31 JDAM INS/GPS guided munition with 2,000 lb (910 kg) Mk84 blast-frag or BLU-109 Penetrator warhead
B61 nuclear bomb
It was a black project, an ultra-secret program for much of its life; very few people in the Pentagon knew the program even existed. The project began in 1975 with a model called the "Hopeless Diamond" (a wordplay on the Hope Diamond because of its appearance). The following year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued Lockheed Skunk Works a contract to build and test two Stealth Strike Fighters, under the code name "Have Blue". These subscale aircraft incorporated jet engines of the Northrop T-38A, fly-by-wire systems of the F-16, landing gear of the A-10, and environmental systems of the C-130. By bringing together existing technology and components, Lockheed built two demonstrators under budget, at $35 million for both aircraft, and in record time.
The maiden flight of the demonstrators occurred on 1 December 1977. Although both aircraft crashed during the demonstration program, test data proved positive. The success of Have Blue led the government to increase funding for stealth technology. Much of that increase was allocated towards the production of an operational stealth aircraft, the Lockheed F-117A, under the program code name "Senior Trend".
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Cheers.
Perfect
The F-117 is one of the most badass looking aircraft ever made.
BEST
Nahh ugly ahh shit
Idc what you say this is cooler than any raptor could ever be. Look at this thing!!!
test pilots are a different breed. what a great interview
Glad you enjoyed it!
When I was a kid I had a toy version of the F-117 lol. I loved that thing.
👍
The humility shown by sharing the 1st flights with the other 2 test pilots on the F-22 & F-35 was the best part of the whole show. And I did not know the F-117 had been retired. I would have thought it could at least be regulated to a "Trainer" status.
What a beautiful plane
Beautiful? Nah, just another step on the way. The first LO aircraft was a thing of beauty. The interesting thing, stealth is passing from the scene as a dominant technology
@@theccpisaparasite8813 lmao in what world is stealth “passing from the scene with as dominate technology”? With the current 5th gen, and the 6th gen NGAD on the horizon, stealth is one of these planes top features and it's a major focus of American R&D. None of the other things they can do could be accomplished without stealth
Had a uncle pass away from cancer. He works with the stealth materials on the F117. He was a radar scientist. He never talked about his work.
So sorry for your loss. It’s mind boggling and saddening, to me, that just a few doctors couldn’t get past the security clearance requirement “Need to Know” and read into the program parts that can/could help with their post exposure healthcare.
Avionics at TTR 85-90 here. This brought back a lot of memories.
Awesome! If you can share any information, please do so.
@@Dronescapes I always called it "TRR" to Ski (EnE) cause it bugged him. Cones rule!
Avionics here too, TTR Red 88-92, Holloman Red 92-95, Palmdale 95-03. Go Coneheads.
Just for knowing that F-117 that got shot down was flying a target approach that had been used the two nights prior to the shootdown. The previous aircraft tracks had been followed by an old Wurzburg radar (560 mhz +/- 53 cm. wavelength), good enough to track but not to target. Complacency and illusions about invincibility lead to not changing the approach route. After that it was locate it twice or three times the you knew when and where to shoot.9
Wasn't it also some other luck that went into it? Like them using their SAM radar more than usual because of worrying about being detected. And another thing was bomb door was open when they shot the radar at it the last time?
@@awsomerestorations1791 pretty much. There are some videos and articles that talk about that shoot down and how the pilot had to hide and wait to be extracted.
That plane got shot down in central Serbia all it deed was bomb civilian targets US is great waging wars with countrys that have no planes and army's dressed in bed sheets like Afghanistan'send some in Ukraine see how many return a joke that one shot in Serbia Chinese paid some farmers to pick up all the parts and heavy parts picked up by Crans loaded up and put on a plane and of to China
They still shot it down. Stealth is bull shit. THINK ABOUT IT.
This video suggests that the F-117 was developed by "Kelly Johnson's Skunkworks" but it was Ben Rich , who took over for Johnson after he retired, that headed up the 117. Johnson at first told Rich to abandon the project because of the obvious difficulties they encountered.
The GT500 mustang was made after Henry Ford and Carol Shelby we’re already dead, but it’s still a Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang.
It’s a similar situation. Durr
Very true. Anyone who's read the book knows this was 100% Ben Rich. Johnson did indeed try and get Rich to abandon the project...
no wonder his knees hurt, look at that squat form 😅
Who squats like that?!
Derived from Have Blue, it had swepted wings and inward-canted vertical stabilizers. The airplane was called (The Hopeless Diamond). The Have Blue made its initial flight in December 1977. Kelly Johnson did not like the design calling it a God-Damn diamond in comparsion to his design, the steath drone D-21.
Kelly was Jelly that the Nighthawk looked better than the Blackbird.
The wobblin goblin..
I was able to see a stealth fighter with my own eyes , in a hanger at Holliman Air force base. My nephew was stationed there. He had to go in over the weekend to do some routine maintenance on another plane. We drove out to a remote location , on the base. I remember approaching a stop sign , that was a crossing with a runway . He told me to
" come a complete stop, and remain there for a few seconds, or you will be in trouble, and I will be in a lot of trouble. " He did his work for only a few minutes. I waited in the lunch room. When he finished, we sat and talked for a few minutes. ( I had a feeling that we were on camra and being listened to. ) He ask me if I wanted to see something that I have never seen before ? We walked a little wase into the hanger. I saw a few planes. I don't even remember what they looked like now. We walked a little further and he said " we have to stop now. " He said " look towards the back of the hanger." There it was. We were quite a ways off. I didn't dare to step any further back.
I will never forget looking upon that stealth fighter !
WHAT AN AMAZING SIGHT!
Ja imam komad jednog tog borca
"Permission to land?"
Air control: "Who said that?
Dale Zelko
That squat form 😵
Bro for real, I winced when I saw that.
I implore all to read "the skunkworks" by the great Ben Rich. It details his time working for the legend Kelly Johnson as well as his time after Kelly retired... The book is worth reading several times actually...
Brilliant video, also knowing the piece at the end about retirement however it's still flying
the best is the last interview with the testpilot...! Great!
22:45 "AhhHA! I'm your crew chief." Lmaaaooo you can see Chef next to the head dudes at the F-22 Raptors test flights. I imagine he is one of many men who had a truly pivotal role in operations that won't de-classified for many reasons. One of the great thankless unsung heroes of our many conflicts of interest. They're part of the larger cog that really maintains the motion in our power.
That is such a great bomber that it's still being used as training and used as a backup bomber if needed.
Huh?
You know Iraq was like "Where THE F are they coming from !!!! WHEEEEEERE!!!!"😂😂😂😂😂😂
A rock with stealth tech
Very informative and interesting video. Your channel is the best on TH-cam!
Wow, thank you!
Member when they were flying the F-117 over Belgium in the late 80's / early 90's? They would fly it at like 1000 feet and 5 knots over highly populated areas. Member? Sorry, had to make a little joke. Very cool plane, but it is NOT "responsible for most triangular UFO sightings".
Anyway, great vid. Skunk Works does such amazing things.
Wonderful channel. This was very interesting and educational as well.
Thank you very much!
“Real men don’t fly funny pastel airplanes”
Cool air plane.
👍
I love the F117 if i could fly id be tempted to steal one. I have a little model of it on my shelf, such a beauty
When you look at the design of the Nighthawk concept in 1977 .... one can only laugh at how crappy most cars were in that era !
interesting comparison
"radar cross section black magic" is a convenient way to avoid saying we used a book written in the soviet union..
Yup, except the soviets didn’t care to listen to their own scientists
well yes and also very much no. yes the math was made in the soviet union but it had nothing to do with stealth. and really only the simple math. the idea got looked at in the us and they took interest. the real advances was made in the us with the computer programs that could calculate rcs. again the file said nothing about ways to be stealth.
Wonderful ❤ the moment is peace ✌️ 🙏 in us world 🌎 God bless this soldiers 🙏 ❤
good job man
I used to get flown in and out of the Nevada test range during the testing of the F117 and I never saw it out there. That is not to say it was not there, but I or any others never saw it.
Book learning is obviously very important BUT I personally think when dealing with machinery of almost ANY kind my 35 years of REAL WORLD REAL TIME EXPERIENCE with various types of machinery....no not aviation...has taught me that a person with actual mechanical aptitude and at least average intelligence can quite acceptably match skills with the parchment holders in some cases BETTER....Especially when it comes to operating ,maintaining AND repairing machinery....I've literally seen a person with nothing more than a high school diploma and 2 years of vocational schooling outperform two MIT graduates to win a contract from a manufacturing company that dealt with very expensive alloys that manufactures parts for high end equipment and vehicles some used by the military and NASA....This person is still an outside contractor for this company to this day repairing and building machinery and equipment out of a pole barn type building behind their house ....Degrees and formal education is VERY important but NEVER underestimate hands on EXPERIENCE and common sense !
I have a buddy who flew them he always jokingly refered to it as the Wobbly Goblin.
as a kid growing up this was my favorite bird of the skies....... now its the sparrow......no shit aye
I worked on her at Area51 from 85-89. Great years.
Is any alien on area 51?
@@timothyalgernon 😅
@@timothyalgernon yes, if you come to visit...
Much respect and thanks for your wonderful service!
Yeah me too
36:04 "Just 'plane' missed". Mission accomplished.
great video!
Thank you
These guys need to not worry about the amount of reps they hit but quality reps. They should talk to Anatoly…
Nice.
I like this
Absultily so grate
56:07 Hiding in plain sight!! I love it!! 😈
Still see them on the range supporting test events.
That is a pure evergreen jets or superjets.
Very nice sir
Damn that was an S200 sam battery to I'm pretty sure it was able to get a weapons lock while the bomb bay doors was open that's about the only way I'd think with it's low frequency radar system
Realy I like this powerful fastest planes
You have to admire all these American heroes & there tales. Slainte
🇺🇸👍
Alan Brown led the team developing the F117 - he was British
Great
Just think, back when this plane was still top secret; everyone thought it was a UFO.😅😅😅😅😅😅 Same with the b2.
Is there a documentary on the new OCIP?
Jimmy Carter “ Do you mean the Stealth plane?” 😂😂😂
Altho retire from active service, some of it still flying today to train new radar operator?
God bless america 🇺🇸
Sweet 😋
They should paint the new one Vanta Black
Stealth Drones must be incredible. No pilot limitations
Serbs didn’t know it was supposed to be stealth, I guess that’s why they took three down in 1990
@@clintwestwood3539 you know its the exact oppesit reason they could take it down. the guy in lead knew they flew the same route and was ready when the f117's came, he got lucky when he did the search scan, which you cant use constantly because of getting spotted by sead. when he did te scan the f117 had its bombbay open, wich told them exactly where to look, because of that they could focus the radar to the correct spot. and thus they could shoot it down.
طائره شبح جميله ورائعه جداً جداً 💙🇺🇸🌼
Great video! Thank you.
Glad you liked it!
One flew over me . at about 200 ft. Passover 1994. I thought it looks like bat mans ship!!
When it banked it would change shape! True story! Oh! Forgot it had a deep red lite in the belly center. 50 yrs. Ago it would be a ufo?
Pub quiz: Why has this plane the prefix F, for fighter, altough it’s mission is delivering bombs?
One had to crash in the San Bernardino Mountains for us to find out about the F-117... Look Out Bad Guys....
I cant believe strikers are real
really sexy plane......stealth, okay, what are they supposed to do? take picts? honest, i don't know. however i can appreciate the majesty of such a machine. thx to all the individuals involved.
It’s very easy to go to work when you are making cool things…I kinda know.😊
You can’t call that a squat, that is a knee knocker push off
oh ok wow
Amazing story!
I'm here because I drove through Tonopah, and saw the little memorial for the 117, claiming to be the home of plane. I'm just trying to figure out what that means😂
Perhaps it means that one F-117 was lost while stopping a genocide. That F-117 was a small price to pay to stop a bunch of fanatics, and it is scary that people can make fun of that, especially these days
I Love This blog ❤️ 😅
Harold is the kind of person I could sit and listed to all day. Just this video alone, the things he say and the way he explain is very interesting.
I Agree
Just look at it
R.I.P
verygoodusa
GO Cubs Go❤😮😊😅
I swear that's a picture of Amelia Earhart at 1:04 48
15:58 I think ol dude found his ego.
Did he just say "Air-eee-oooh-nautical"?
Teamwork wins wars. God speed Security Council Forces.
Ahhhh skunk works
That's alien technology the stealth material it's made out of
Naw it's Fe50. Iron Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, and etc. But for extra credit what does 117 stand for? ( If you all don't know it will blow your mind :-))
@@SeedOfElijah element 117
@@mitchhifi9192 Tennessine? Well that's interesting. You wouldn't be one of them there DeLaneys would youse?
Anywho it's Matthew 1:17, because in scripture Jesus eventually ends up with an Iron Scepter. How it gets to him is interesting to say the least.
Right. Telling a tale we were all in.
Okay, so Lockheed built it, but skunkworks invented it. Now I get it, but does that mean skunkworks are situated in area 51? It's a very impressive bird for sure. 💯🇨🇦
Skunk works, is a advanced development program from Lockheed Martin
It's Elon musk's cybertruck with wings
Holloman AFB
Is this the plane shot down by the Serbs?
Yes, three of them, even tho USA recognises only one, but you can find three different one remains in Serbia, pretty cool stuff especially they story and how Serb hospitality befriended the American pilot (he said that he was treated like family and had a good laugh)
@@clintwestwood3539bull
they did come from the Serbs
It can't even shot down a ballon.!
You are quite confused…that was the F-22
G-Force-Strong
It got shot down by Russian missiles from the 60's in Serbia
GO Cubs Go😂❤😊😮
1:00:24
she is gorgeous
Alien fighter jet vertikal landing ,with gravine,
mind wipe
I identify with that 100% because I'm a sailor CV64' 82-86 you have to separate yourself from whatever is on your mind home other problems you have to concentrate on the situation the mission at hand at that point it's just you the mission and for me God but that's automatic once I pray it's in God's hands so I've been trained I know what to do I know what I'm supposed to do and I go from there
Did F117 shot down by S125 in Kosovo
The reason it has its goofy jagged Tesla "Cybertruck" look, is because the plane was designed by 1970s computers which couldn't render circular shapes for radar deflection. That's the best Lockheed could do back then to make a plane stealthy. If the F-117 was designed a bit later in the 1980s, it would look more like the B-2 Stealth Bomber.
This sort of makes it a pretty dumb design. It's also slow and flies like a brick. It's not surprising that an old Soviet SAM from the 1960s brought one down in Serbia in 1999.