The Air Force decided to retire the F-117 fleet because a new generation of stealth aircraft including the B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor and soon-to-be-fielded F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have better capabilities, and because the F-117 is expensive to fly and maintain. Holloman's pilot and maintenance teams will launch their last "4-ship" of stealth fighters on 21 April 2008. They made a brief overnight stop at the F-117s logistics support center in Palmdale, CA, for a final ceremony before retiring to Tonopah where their wings and tails removed and the aircraft stored in protective hangars.
The F-117s will be placed in storage at an airfield in the Tonopah Test Range, Nev., where the jets flew in total secrecy and only at night until November 1988. The F-117 is nearly completely covered with a radar absorbing material which is laborious and expensive to maintain. After each mission, maintenance specialists closely examine the aircraft's special coating to identify any needed repairs. If required, coatings were reapplied, allowed to cure, and re-inspected. A portion of the fleet will be rapidly recallable to fly again, if ever needed.
The F-117A Nighthawk was the world's first operational aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology. The F-117Awas a single-seat attack and defense suppression aircraft for the Air Force. The F-117 was designed to penetrate dense threat environments as well as attack high value targets with pinpoint accuracy.
The unique design of the single-seat F-117A provided exceptional combat capabilities. About the size of an F-15 Eagle, the twin-engine aircraft was powered by two General Electric F404 turbofan engines and has quadruple redundant fly-by-wire flight controls. Air refuelable, it supported worldwide commitments and adds to the deterrent strength of the U.S. military forces.
The F-117A could employ a variety of weapons and was equipped with sophisticated navigation and attack systems integrated into a state-of-the-art digital avionics suite that increases mission effectiveness and reduces pilot workload. Detailed planning for missions into highly defended target areas was accomplished by an automated mission planning system developed, specifically, to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the F-117A.
Constructed primarily of aluminum, the F-117A's fuselage comprises flat panels known as facets mounted on the aircraft's subframe, their purpose being to reflect radar energy away from the transmitter itself, thus denying the operators a visible 'return'. All surfaces were coated with various radar absorbent materials. All doors and panels have serrated edges to further minimize radar reflection. Grid covers on the intakes and the use of narrow-slot 'platypus' exhausts surrounded by heat-absorbing tiles further reduce the chances of IR detection. Ahead of the flat-plate five-piece cockpit glazing is a FLIR sensor, recessed in a mesh-covered housing; in the forward starboard underfuselage there is a retractable DLIR and laser designator. These sensors were used in conjunction with LGBs, two of which can be carried in the double-section weapons bay.
With the engines inside the fuselage, an extra effort must be made to inspect for loose objects or missing hardware before any engine run was attempted. This was not news to all those personnel who regularly work on or around this aircraft.
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