Sorin F-117 Nighthawk Page
The F117 Nighthawk was not the first Stealth plane to fly, but it was the first one to be a fully operational extremly advanced Stealth plane in active service that also saw live action
...being one of my favourite TOP 10 planes, the F-117 Nighthawk is only one out of a long series of aircraft which made Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Division so famous...

Here you can find the most detailed and accurate information about the first operational active service Stealth plane. Designated F from Fighter, it's rather a bomber built to penetrate the most heavily defended targets on Earth

Information obtained by Sorin°
The F117 Nighthawk is actually more of a bomber rather than a fighter. Designated F due to some more or less secret reasons that will be explained later on in this site.
With it's alien shape, the F117 Nighthawk is one of the wonders of the XXth century technology, and also of the ingenuity of man-kind.
F117 Nighthawk
The deflective fuselage, stealthy engines and reduced electromagnetical signature digital equipment make it hard to detect by enemy forces
However, the Pratt&Whitney engines with the help of thrust vectoring also make manoeuvrable enough to perform some missions which requires accuracy and also to evoit enemy SAMs and flack

The F117 Nighthawk has limited its detectability by:

  • Radar
  • Infrared
  • Electromagnetical signals
  • Sound
    ...and many more

    Pictures with the F117 Nighthawk 5th 806 that got shot down in March 17th, 1999 over Yugoslavia
    F-117 Nighthawk tail 806 belonging to 5th AF was shot down above Yugoslavia in 1999 At first the international press and military analysts claimed that it was shot down by the Romanian Air Defenses at Jimbolia, because the radar at Timisoara was (and still is) the only one advanced enough to "detect" and "track" such an aircraft

    The blades of the jet engines are hidden inside the fuselage, making it harder to detect by enemy radar. It was proved that one of the most visible parts of an aircraft are the blades of its engines.

    Hiding them makes the radar signature of the aircraft much smaller. Also, the cockpit is surrounded by a shield of deflective titanium armor

    		 USAF F-117 Fact Sheet

     You can find some magnificient pictures in huge numbers at the US Air Force site and the links from there.

    There simply isn't enough space for me to put all the great pics that I have of the '17 online here...

    Back to Bombers | Back to index

    This page is 1999-2006 by Sorin A Crasmarelu from Sorin® Air Group

    Thanks for reading this stuff ! Visit this page again soon !

    Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

    1