17 Facts About F-117

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 .

F-117 was widely publicized for its role in the Persian Gulf War of 1991.

F-117 was born after the Vietnam War, where increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles had downed heavy bombers.

All F-117 debris was replaced with remains of a F-101A Voodoo crash stored at Area 51.

Designation "F-117" seems to indicate that it was given an official designation prior to the 1962 U S Tri-Service Aircraft Designation System and could be considered numerically to be a part of the earlier "Century series" of fighters.

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F-117 believed smoothly blended shapes offered the best combination of speed and stealth.

Highly stealthy aircraft like the F-117 Nighthawk are aerodynamically unstable in all three aircraft principal axes and require constant flight corrections from a fly-by-wire flight system to maintain controlled flight.

The F-117 reduces IR signature with a non-circular tail pipe to minimize the exhaust cross-section and maximize the mixing of hot exhaust with cool ambient air.

The F-117 lacks afterburners, because the hot exhaust would increase the infrared signature, and breaking the sound barrier would produce an obvious sonic boom, as well as surface heating of the aircraft skin which increases the infrared footprint.

Each of the 558 Air Force pilots who have flown the F-117 has a Bandit number, such as "Bandit 52", that indicates the sequential order of their first flight in the F-117.

Leaflet drops on Iraqi forces displayed the F-117 destroying ground targets and warned "Escape now and save yourselves".

American sources state that a second F-117 was targeted and damaged during the campaign, allegedly on 30 April 1999.

F-117 was later used in the Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

In February 2019, an F-117 was observed flying through the R-2508 Special Use Airspace Complex in the vicinity of Edwards Air Force Base, escorted by two F-16 Fighting Falcons that may have been providing top cover.

An F-117 was photographed in 2019 carrying unit markings previously unassociated with the aircraft—a band on the tail bearing the name Dark Knights, suggesting either an official or unofficial squadron is maintaining the Nighthawks.

In March 2020, a spectator recorded an F-117 flying through the "Star Wars Canyon" in Death Valley, California.

The F-117 downing became a spot of Serbian pride with a phrase "We didn't know it was invisible" was coined.