F-117 "Cloaking Device"

One of the things you'll notice in the photos of my jet #818, is how the jet looks somewhat ratty looking, and with strips/pieces missing underneath the tail number of the vertical stab, as well as white chalk looking stuff around the cockpit. This was not the fault of any kind of maintenance, but merely a limitation of the jet itself.

F-117s at home station were not kept in combat-ready status. Their weapons attack systems were fully ready, but the jets themselves had to be prepared for combat if the call came, in terms of the stealth items and specifically the external coating of the fuselage. With these first generation stealth jets, the outer coating on the jet....the RAM, or Radar Absorbent Material.....came in "sheets" and had to be placed onto the metal fuselage of the jet by trimming to fit, then gluing into place, with a fairly long curing time. Because of this, bits and pieces of of RAM would come off inflight often, and it was alot of work to maintain it. To do so would have far too many jets out of service, so RAM was only replaced in larger sheets if need be. Smaller areas of missing RAM were either left missng temporarily until maintenance could get to it, or were filled in with the RAM putty, resulting in the worn look that some of the jets had, even though that was only a look. When off to combat or to an exercise like Red Flag, the jets were fully prepped and looked pristine, with their RAM coating perfect and Radar Cross Section for that particular tail number well within specs.

The RAM itself was one of those items that had to be removed in order to access panels and such on the actual airframe which were located underneath the RAM on the actual metal fuselage. Looking closely at a 117, everything is underneath that RAM, and there are no rivets, screws, or anything that protrudes when the RAM is on. Antennas retract flush into the fuselage when not needed, etc.
 
A Life Aloft said:
Beyond badass. One of a handful of pilots who have flown that beast and yet he is repeatedly told by a certain member here in multiple threads (much like that same member treats and speaks to all the other Military pilots on this forum) that he has no idea what he is talking about because he has never flown 121 ops that in reality, most any man off the street can do. There is character and actually being a man of distinction............then there is another person of well, not so much.
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It's pretty obvious that despite a long and storied career working for the Air Force, law enforcement and EMS, moderating an aviation forum and networking closely with professionals in the airline industry Mike would have little to no understanding of how flight operations in the 121 environment work. Frankly, I trust opinionated, new hire legacy pilots more than him when it comes to topics like safety and professionalism. Just like when I turn on Fox and Friends in the morning, fair and balanced.
 
MikeD said:
Crossing outbound to friendly territory to the south, he's getting his systems back on-line "Fencing out", and notices that his position (nav) lights are still on and thats how the gunners were seeing him: visually. Back then in the 117, there were 5 different switches controlling 5 different external lighting systems, located in 5 completely separate places in the cockpit. On fence-in, he'd forgotten the position lights switch. A few years later, the USAF installed a single "all external lights- extinguish" switch on the left wall panel for ergonomic sake, aptly named the "Klaus switch".
Click to expand...

Great story. Kind of reminds me of the paradigm in technology security where you can have all of the bells and whistles in the world...anti-virus, encryption, firewalls, access management, penetration testing, etc...but the human factor defeats them all because of complexity. Even if you have all of those things, but you force people to have passwords that are too complex and they have to write them down to remember, you are back where you started when someone finds that piece of paper.
 
MikeD said:
The raid on Libya in 1986 in response to Gadafi's sponsoring of terrorist attacks in Germany, would've been a perfect raid for the 117 to take part in, a type of deep-strike interdiction that was right up the Nighthawk's alley. F-111s were used and planned for, partly because mission planners didn't know of the existence of the 117 or it's capability at the time, which is part of why it wasn't used.
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I offer that half the value of the Libya raids was their overtness. Sending a strike package across 2,000+ NM just to send a message is something that only the US and the UK have ever done. If some airfields had just mysteriously blown up, the Libyans would have concocted some story and that would be the end of it. Regan couldn't have gotten on the nightly news to say "We just bombed Libya." unless he was willing to open up the knowledge of that capability.

It's one of the reasons the B-52 will be in service for years to come. It may not be the most advanced platform... but having it deploy to Guam or Diego Garcia is the national policy equivalent of putting on brass rings before a street brawl. In the programing phases of F-15E radar upgrades, we've had the discussion "Maybe we should make it more radar reflective... maybe we want them to know we're coming."
 
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Did you have any defensive capability at all? I realize there wasn't a gun, but did you ever carry Sparrows or anything just in case? Or was the stealth really the only defense you had?
 
F-117A Nighthawk production:

Test airframes, non flying:

79-0777, Test aircraft, Radar testing, non-flyer.

79-0778, Test aircraft, static testing, non-flyer

79-0779, Test airframe, weapons load testing, non-flyer partial airframe

Lot 1 aircraft

79-0780, Lot #1, Full Scale Development #1 (flight), first flight 18 June 1981, retired/display 16 May 1992, Nellis AFB.

79-0781, Lot #1, FSD #2 (performance) "Toxic Death", first flight 4 September 1981, retired 17 July 1991, USAF Museum.

79-0782, Lot #1, FSD #3 (avionics testing), first flight 18 December 1981, retired/display 5 April 2008, Holloman AFB

79-0783, Lot #1, FSD #4 (RCS testing), first flight 7 July 1982, retired/display 3 March 2008, Palmdale, California

79-0784, Lot #1, FSD #5 (IRADS/weapons system testing), first flight 10 April 1982, retired

Lot 2 aircraft

79-0785, Lot #2, FSD #6 (performance), crashed on first flight/takeoff 20 April 1982, wreckage retired to Lockheed Burbank as static fitting airframe

80-0786, Lot #2, aircraft #2 "War Pig", first flight 15 July 1982, retired 11 April 2008

80-0787, Lot #2, aircraft #3 "Pete's Dragon", first flight 20 July 1982, retired 12 October 2007

80-0788, Lot #2, aircraft #4 "It's Hammertime", first flight 8 September 1982, retired 1 April 2008

80-0789, Lot #2, aircraft #5 "Black Magic", first flight 27 October 1982, retired 13 March 2007

80-0790, Lot #2, aircraft #6 "Deadly Jester", first flight 11 Novermber 1982, retired 13 March 2007

80-0791, Lot #2, aircraft #7 "Lazy Ace", first flight 22 November 1982, retired 25 January 2008

Lot 3 aircraft

80-0792, Lot #3, aircraft #8 (no name), first flight 9 December 1982, crashed 11 July 1986, Bakersfield, CA, Maj Ross Mulhare KIA

81-0793, Lot #3, aircraft #9 (no name), first flight 20 January 1983, crashed 14 September 1997 KMTN Martin State Airport, Baltimore, Maryland

81-0794, Lot #3, aircraft #10 "Delta Dawn", first flight 4 March 1983, retired 12 October 2007

81-0795, Lot #3, aircraft #11 (no name), first flight 7 June 1983, retired 13 March 2007

81-0796, Lot #3, aircraft #12 "Fatal Attraction", first flight 16 June 1983, retired 25 January 2008

81-0797, Lot #3, aircraft #13 "Spellbound", first flight 3 August 1983, retired 12 October 2007

81-0798, Lot #3, aircraft #14 "Aces and Eights", first flight 25 August 1983, retired 12 October 2007

Lot 4 aircraft

82-0799, Lot #4, aircraft #15 "Midnight Rider", first flight 22 September 1983, retired 31 January 2008

82-0800, Lot #4, aircraft #16 "Black Sheep One", first flight 10 Novermber 1983, retired 22 April 2007

82-0801, Lot #4, aircraft #17 "Perpetrator", first flight 21 December 1983, crashed on takeoff/departure 4 August 1992, KHMN Holloman AFB, NM

82-0802, Lot #4, aircraft #18 "Black Magic 2", first flight 7 March 1984, retired 12 October 2007

82-0803, Lot #4, aircraft #19 "Unexpected Guest", first flight 8 May 1984, retired 23 March 2007 (first F-117 combat mission jet)

82-0804, Lot #4, aircraft #20 "Rammer", first flight 25 May 1984, retired 11 April 2008

82-0805, Lot #4, aircraft #21 (no name), first flight 5 July 1984, retired 12 October 2007

82-0806, Lot #4, aircraft #22 "Something Wicked", first flight 20 August 1984, shot down 27 March 1999 by Yugoslav/Serbian SA-3 Goa SAM. Pilot rescued.

Lot 5 aircraft

83-0807, Lot #5, aircraft #23 "The Chickenhawk", first flight 13 September 1984, retired 11 April 2008

83-0808, Lot #5, aircraft #24 "Thor", first flight 23 October 1984, retired 29 January 2008

84-0809, Lot #5, aircraft #25 (no name), first flight 3 January 1985, retired 22 April 2008

84-0810, Lot #5, aircraft #26 "Dark Angel", first flight 18 January 1985, retired 25 January 2008

Lot 6 aircraft

84-0811, Lot #6, aircraft #27 "Double Down", first flight 8 March 1985, retired

84-0812, Lot #6, aircraft #28 "Axel", first flight 1 May 1985, retired 29 January 2008

Lot 7 aircraft

85-0813, Lot #7, aircraft #29 "Toxic Avenger 2", first flight 7 June 1985, retired 25 January 2008

85-0814, Lot #7, aircraft #30 "Final Verdict", first flight 26 July 1985, retired 11 April 2008

85-0815, Lot #7, aircraft #31 (no name), first flight 13 Septemper 1985, crashed 14 October 1987, Area 10/Tonopah, Nellis Test & Training Range. Maj Michael Stewart KIA

85-0816, Lot #7, aircraft #32 "Lone Wolf", first flight 30 October 1985, retired 12 October 2007

85-0817, Lot #7, aircraft #33 "Shaba", first flight 9 January 1986, retired 13 March 2007

85-0818, Lot #7, aircraft #34 "The Overachiever", first flight 11 February 1986, retired 22 June 2007

85-0819, Lot #7, aircraft #35 "Raven Beauty", first flight 14 April 1986, retired 12 October 2007

Lot 8 aircraft

85-0820, Lot #8, aircraft #36 (no name), first flight 2 May 1986, retired 23 March 2007

86-0821, Lot #8, aircraft #37 "Sneak Attack", first flight 20 June 1986, retired 31 January 2008

86-0822, Lot #8, aircraft #38 (no name), first flight 18 August 1986, crashed 10 May 1995, Zuni, NM. Capt Ken Levens KIA

86-0823, Lot #8, aircraft #39 (no name), first flight 7 October 1986, retired 12 October 2007

84-0824, Lot #8, aircraft #40 (no name), first flight 13 novermber 1986, retired 22 April 2008

84-0825, Lot #8, aircraft #41 "Mad Max", first flight 29 January 1987, retired 12 October 2007

84-0826, Lot #8, aircraft #42 "Nachtflake", first flight 2 March 1987, retired 29 January 2008

84-0827, Lot #8, aircraft #43 (no name), first flight 7 April 1987, retired 12 October 2007

84-0828, Lot #8, aircraft #44 (no name), first flight 15 May 1987, retired 1 August 2008

Lot 9 aircraft

85-0829, Lot #9, aircraft #45 "Avenging Angel", first flight 10 July 1987, retired 22 June 2007

85-0830, Lot #9, aircraft #46 "Black Assassin", first flight 3 September 1987, retired 25 January 2008

85-0831, Lot #9, aircraft #47 (no name), first flight 20 October 1987, retired 11 August 2008

85-0832, Lot #9, aircraft #48 "Once Bitten", first flight 10 December 1987, retired 13 March 2007

85-0833, Lot #9, aircraft #49 "Black Devil", first flight 19 February 1988, retired 11 April 2008

85-0834, Lot #9, aircraft #50 "Necromancer", first flight 29 April 1988, retired 31 January 2008

85-0835, Lot #9, aircraft #51 "The Dragon", first flight 30 June 1988, retired 13 March 2007

85-0836, Lot #9, aircraft #52 "Christine", first flight 21 September 1988, retired 31 January 2008

Lot 10 aircraft

86-0837, Lot #10, aircraft #53 "Habu 2", first flight 8 December 1988, retired 31 January 2008

86-0838, Lot #10, aircraft #54 "Magic Hammer", first flight 17 March 1989, retired 12 October 2007

86-0839, Lot #10, aircraft #55 "Midnight Reaper", first flight 14 June 1989, retired 25 January 2008

86-0840, Lot #10, aircraft #56 "Black Widow", first flight 12 September 1989, retired 11 april 2008

Lot 11 aircraft

88-0841, Lot #11, aircraft #57 "Mystic Warrior", first flight 7 December 1989, retired 1 August 2008

88-0842, Lot #11, aircraft #58 "Hammertime 3", first flight 13 March 1990, retired 29 January 2008

88-0843, Lot #11, aircraft #59 "Affectionately Christine", first flight 11 May 1990, retired 22 April 2008. Last F-117A built and last F-117A retired.
 
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I'm not sure if you regret joining the AF, but it's cool to say you flew such such a storied aircraft. Do they have reunions like the WWII peeps?

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
 
hook_dupin said:
I offer that half the value of the Libya raids was their overtness. Sending a strike package across 2,000+ NM just to send a message is something that only the US and the UK have ever done. If some airfields had just mysteriously blown up, the Libyans would have concocted some story and that would be the end of it. Regan couldn't have gotten on the nightly news to say "We just bombed Libya." unless he was willing to open up the knowledge of that capability.

It's one of the reasons the B-52 will be in service for years to come. It may not be the most advanced platform... but having it deploy to Guam or Diego Garcia is the national policy equivalent of putting on brass rings before a street brawl. In the programing phases of F-15E radar upgrades, we've had the discussion "Maybe we should make it more radar reflective... maybe we want them to know we're coming."
Click to expand...

Agreed. Aircraft like the F-111, B-52, B-1, F-15E....when they go places, they do indeed send a certain message of seriousness.
 
killbilly said:
Did you have any defensive capability at all? I realize there wasn't a gun, but did you ever carry Sparrows or anything just in case? Or was the stealth really the only defense you had?
Click to expand...

Stealth was the only defense. No missile warning systems of any kind. No jamming systems as those are emitters and they show where you are. So nothing but "stealthing up", prior to crossing the line: emitters off, antennas retracted, lights out. Creepy thing was that you were operating alone, single ship. You crossed the line into enemy territory and "disappeared" to head to your target. You had an ingress point, and an egress point/time. While your route was known to/from the target when in enemy territory, there was no way for friendlies to track you. If you disappeared, shot down, etc; no one would know where it occurred on your route, or even if on your route if you happened to come off route for any reason.

No missiles on the jet, but there's an interesting story on that. In the bomb bay of the F-117, there are still umbilical connections on the bay wall that are labled "AIM-9". In the very early days, the F-117 was envisioned to be a killer for High Value aircraft such as the AWACS, specifically the Soviet Mainstay AWACS. Normal "aluminium jets" such as your F-4/15/16 couldn't get within many, many miles of an AWACS without being seen by its powerful radar, and it vectoring fighters to go engage you. The F-117 could get much closer to an AWACS. The F-117 would also eventually be seen by the radar, only because with the AWACS powerful radar, the RAM material can only absorb so much (like a soaked sponge), and the shape can only diffuse so much, before the waves that can't be absorbed/diffused, make it back to the AWACS as a radar return, and the F-117 is now "seen". But it was envisioned that the F-117 would be able to get close enough to shoot down the AWACS.

To do this, it was envisioned that the F-117 could launch an AIM-9 Sidewinder or two from its weapon bay, and make the kill after getting close to the AWACS. Backing up a bit, in the F-117 bomb bay, there is a "trapeze" setup. The bomb rack in each bay is on a trapeze that can be raised/lowered when the bay door is opened in order to facilitate bomb loading. Normally, bombs are loaded by ground crews, the trapeze rack is raised into the bomb bay, and the doors closed. While the trapeze can be lowered from the cockpit when the bomb bay door is manually opened, both of these are never done when dropping normal freefall ordnance. Bombs are simply dropped from inside the bomb bay, since the trapeze is pinned to the up position and thus "set" in place, and the bomb bay doors cycle automatically when the pipper is depressed for bomb drop.

The idea with the AIM-9, was to have the F-117 make the intercept of the AWACS, get into a position at its 6 o'clock, the pilot would then manually open the bomb bay door, manually lower the trapeze/rack (all being able to be done on the cockpit weapons panel...same as how stores would be jettisoned), thus loweing the AIM-9 out of the bay and to where it's seeker head can look for heat to lock onto, and launch the AIM-9 when it has a lock, thus shooting down the AWACS. None of this ever went past research stage, and maybe some light testing; but the tactic was never adopted. It was always interesting though, to see the umbilical connections for the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile seeker, still there and marked in the bomb bay, to maybe used if need be.
 
scoobs said:
I'm not sure if you regret joining the AF, but it's cool to say you flew such such a storied aircraft. Do they have reunions like the WWII peeps?
Click to expand...

The Stealth Fighter Association has reunions every now and again, normally up in Las Vegas.
 
MikeD said:
One of the things you'll notice in the photos of my jet #818, is how the jet looks somewhat ratty looking, and with strips/pieces missing underneath the tail number of the vertical stab, as well as white chalk looking stuff around the cockpit. This was not the fault of any kind of maintenance, but merely a limitation of the jet itself.

F-117s at home station were not kept in combat-ready status. Their weapons attack systems were fully ready, but the jets themselves had to be prepared for combat if the call came, in terms of the stealth items and specifically the external coating of the fuselage. With these first generation stealth jets, the outer coating on the jet....the RAM, or Radar Absorbent Material.....came in "sheets" and had to be placed onto the metal fuselage of the jet by trimming to fit, then gluing into place, with a fairly long curing time. Because of this, bits and pieces of of RAM would come off inflight often, and it was alot of work to maintain it. To do so would have far too many jets out of service, so RAM was only replaced in larger sheets if need be. Smaller areas of missing RAM were either left missng temporarily until maintenance could get to it, or were filled in with the RAM putty, resulting in the worn look that some of the jets had, even though that was only a look. When off to combat or to an exercise like Red Flag, the jets were fully prepped and looked pristine, with their RAM coating perfect and Radar Cross Section for that particular tail number well within specs.

The RAM itself was one of those items that had to be removed in order to access panels and such on the actual airframe which were located underneath the RAM on the actual metal fuselage. Looking closely at a 117, everything is underneath that RAM, and there are no rivets, screws, or anything that protrudes when the RAM is on. Antennas retract flush into the fuselage when not needed, etc.
Click to expand...

Did you have normal AMUs attached to the fighter squadrons? As a maintenance officer, I can't imagine having to brief to leadership the challenges that they must have faced from a mx perspective on this airplane.
 
mtrep09 said:
Did you have normal AMUs attached to the fighter squadrons? As a maintenance officer, I can't imagine having to brief to leadership the challenges that they must have faced from a mx perspective on this airplane.
Click to expand...

Yes. The two ops squadrons had their respective AMUs. The FTU/training squadron had one assigned aircraft for the CO, but really they had no jets and no AMU (no 117s, they had their T-38s). They borrowed aircraft from the ops squadrons for their training mission, as there weren't many students in training at any given time in their squadron.
 
@MikeD I didn't see any mentioned in your list of aircraft, but were any two-seat 117s manufactured/used for training, or was your first flight in the bird solo?

Thanks for sharing these stories, it's a fascinating airplane.
 
Here's part of an old mission card of mine, posted to highlight the TOLD data in the bottom left corner, namely some of the speeds. Namely the check speed of 108, Vr of 181, and liftoff speed of 192.

This jet did nothing slow. At all. Ever.

image.jpg
 
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JeppUpdater said:
@MikeD I didn't see any mentioned in your list of aircraft, but were any two-seat 117s manufactured/used for training, or was your first flight in the bird solo?

Thanks for sharing these stories, it's a fascinating airplane.
Click to expand...

No two seaters. First flight is a solo, chased by the IP in a T-38, or in the older days chased by an A-7D. First few flights are chased until your instrument checkride is complete. Numerous simulator sessions completed before this first flight.

Unlike the A-10 when I was in it, the simulator had been gotten rid of post-Desert Storm from schoolhouse. So the first flight in the A-10 was after ground school only. IP would be on the ladder of your jet as you got the engines started and before taxi checks accomplished, then he'd head to his jet and get started, then meet you in the arming area at the end of the runway.
 
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