f-117 night hawk -the black jet

8/17/2019 F-117 Night Hawk -The Black Jet

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OPERATING AT NIGHT AND VIRTUALLY INVISIBLETO RADAR, THE F-117 NIGHTHAWK RACKEDUP A NEAR-PERFECT COMBAT RECORDBY CHARLES W. SASSER

THE BLACK JET


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NIGHTHAWK IN ITS ELEMENT

Using a night vision imageintensifier, a photographercaptured this ghostly view ofcrews in Kuwait readying aLockheed F-117A for a missionover southern Iraq in 1998.


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AFTER CROSSING THE SERBIAN BORDER AT 18,000

FEET, U.S. AIR FORCE LIEUTENANT COLONEL WILLIAM“BRAD” O’CONNOR’S F-117 NIGHTHAWKINITIATEDA COMPUTER-PROGRAMMED HARD TURN WEST

of the night lights of Belgrade, toward his primary target, theBaric munitions plant on the Sava River. He completed his

Streams of silvery anti-aircraft rounds swung back and forth

tinge of yellow. O’Connor pitied the poor schmucks over in that him directly into the thick of it.

shooting at me

The Nighthawk was the world’s most invisible attack bomber;radar was nearly blind to it. So what the hell was going on? Someguy down there with a $200 pair of night-vision goggles?

campaign against Slobodan and O’Connor’s sixth sortie

The White House under cally ordered all agencies to

The latest round of car-nage in the former Republicof Yugoslavia involved theethnically Serbian part of

terror attacks either killedor displaced nearly a million

Secretary General JavierSolana directed the supremeallied commander Europe,U.S. General Wesley Clark,to initiate air operationsagainst the Federal Republic

-pable of continuing his per- key targets the next night with1,000 aircraft operating out of and from the aircraft carrierUSS Theodore Roosevelt in the the first U.S. conflict foughtentirely from the air and the

largest sustained action sinceVietnam, with more than days from March 24 to June the campaign.

Long before O’Connorever set eyes on thetop-secret Nighthawk,

Force pilots training out of airbases at Nellis, Holloman and

THE SECRET IS OUT

An F-117A arrives in Italy(above) in 1999 to supportoperations over the formerRepublic of Yugoslavia andKosovo. Lt. Col. William“Brad” O’Connor (opposite)poses with a Nighthawkafter completing his training.


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knew something

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FLYING THE F-117REMAINED TOPSECRET FOR MORETHAN A DECADE.PILOTS WEREFORBIDDEN TOTELL EVEN THEIR

FAMILIES WHATTHEY WERE DOING.


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SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE

2 General Electric F404-GE-F1D2

low bypass turbofan engines, at10,800 pounds thrust each

WINGSPAN

43 ft. 4 in.

WING AREA 479 square feet

LENGTH

65 ft. 11 in.

HEIGHT

12 ft. 5 in.

ARMAMENT

2 2,000-lb. laser-guided bombsor other guided weapons

WEIGHT 29,500 lbs. (empty)

52,500 lbs. (loaded)

MAXIMUM SPEED

603 mph at 35,000 feet

SERVICE CEILING

52,000 ft.

MAXIMUM RANGE

1,250 miles on internal fuelLOWER

INTAKE LIP

RUDDERVATORS

DRAG

CHUTE

OUTBOARD

ELEVON

INBOARD

ELEVON

SKIN OF RADAR-

ABSORBENT

MATERIAL

FACETED

ALUMINUM

INTERNAL

STRUCTURE

THE OPPOSITION

The S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile system was firstdeployed around Moscow in1961, but from 1964 on waseclipsed by the improved S-125Mand S-125M-1. Code-named“GA-3 Goa” by NATO, it consistsof two to four two-stage rocketscapable of hitting aircraft flying atlower altitudes, guided by threeradar systems. The F-117 wasspecifically designed to foilmissile systems such as these.

RIGHT MAIN

LANDING

GEAR

“PLATYPUS”

EXHAUST DUCT

TECH NOTES LOCKHEED F-117A NIGHTHAWK


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ADVANCED CREW ESCAPE SYSTEM

(ACES) II EJECTION SEAT

AERIAL REFUELING PORT

PILOT’SHEAD-UP

DISPLAY

FORWARD-LOOKINGINFRARED

TURRET

GENERALELECTRIC

F404-GE-F1D2LOW BYPASS

TURBOFANENGINES

PITOT TUBES

GRILLEDENGINEINLET

SPRING-LOADEDINTAKE SECTION

RELIEF DOOR

NOSELANDING

GEAR

PARTY CRASHER

Debuting as part of the F-117’sordnance during OperationDesert Storm in 1991, theGBU-27 Paveway III is alaser-guided weapon with

“bunker-busting” capability.The 2,000-pound guided bomb,which is 13 feet 10 inches long,can be precisely steered to itstarget within a range of 10miles—despite the lack of apropulsion system.


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1. HUD (head-up display)2. Dual FCS (flight control

systems) light3. Left multifunction

display4. Data entry panel5. Right multifunction

display6. Flight pressure hydraulic

indicator

LOCKHEED F-117A NIGHTHAWK COCKPIT

7. Liquid oxygen indicator8. Auxillary navigation panel9. IRADS (infrared acquisition

and detection system)sensor display

10. 24-hour clock11. Altimeter12. Armament control panel13. Radar altitude indicator14. Standby attitude indicator

15. Engine performanceindicator

16. Fuel quantity indicator17. Emergency gear T-handle18. Brake system select switch19. Brake anti-skid switch20. Landing gear control

handle21. Control column (buttons, from left):

Weapon release switch,trim switch, designateselect switch

22. Oxygen regulator panel23. Engine start panel24. CDNU navigation interface25. Throttle26. ACES II ejection seat27. Computer control panel28. Oxygen hose

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10 16

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25 26

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9

3 5

12

18 19

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6 7

11

17

1

13

23

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thus rendering it “invisible.”Using a process known as “faceting,” Rich’s team built a

single-seat jet with no curved surfaces whatsoever. It emerged

plates. The team further reduced the F-117’s infrared sig-nature with a slit-shaped tailpipe to minimize exhaust cross-sectional volume and maximize rapid mixing of hot exhaustwith cool ambient air. Afterburners were eliminated because ofthe hot exhaust they created. The Nighthawk would be subsonicsince breaking the sound barrier produced a sonic boom andheated up the aircraft skin, increasing its IR signature.

The oddly constructed “Hopeless Diamond” had neither intended to be. It was an attack bomber that emitted virtuallyno radar signature with landing gear retracted and bomb baydoors closed.

“No aircraft…that ugly could possibly be any good,” Kelly

Johnson commented, perhaps still dismayed because it didn’t

Many other inglorious names were subsequently attached tothe airplane: Roach, Wobbly Goblin, Stinkbug. Pilots simplycalled it the Black Jet.

N

triple-A lashed across the night sky. He recalled Win-ston Churchill’s comment about there being “noth-

ing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.”

a target. The stealth jet was inherently unstable, and required -

About three minutes out, O’Connor’s aircraft made a pre-programmed climb that took him above all the AAA except the57mm shells. At two minutes out, he focused on his target displayshowing the Baric munitions plant and ignored the pyrotechnics mixing tower at the plant. Now concentrating on his bombingrun, he tuned out urgent radio chatter in the background aboutsurface-to-air missile activity and ignored the fact that he waswell within SAM range.

Aloud, he talked himself through the procedure. “Level attack,Record, Ready, Narrow, Cued, MPT [manual point tracking].”

He felt the bomb bay doors open and the 2,000-pound laser- -

bol appeared. He counted down in unison with the computerthe seconds until impact.

waves that showed a direct hit. His Nighthawk then made a pre-programmed hard turn east toward Belgrade and his secondary of a way to make a living,” O’Connor muttered to himself.

Later he learned from pilots in adjacent zones that a barrageof AAA had followed him through the turn and that severalSAMs had been shot toward him, enemy radar having appar-ently glimpsed him when his bomb bay opened. Concentratingon his display screens coupled with a severely limited view out-side the cockpit had kept him blissfully unaware of threats com-ing his way, but now he felt an adrenaline rush.

Churchill was right.

Almost all the strategic mili-tary targets in Kosovo weredestroyed by the third day Serbs still refused to capitu-late and continued assaultingthe ethnic Albanians. NATOstrikes turned to strategic tar-gets such as bridges, govern-ment facilities, factories andindustrial plants.

Two Americans died dur-

ing the air campaign. Army Gibbs and Kevin Reichertwere killed when a techni-cal malfunction caused their explode during a night train-ing mission over Albania.

The only Nighthawk everlost in battle went down on

March 27, 1999, as the resultof a SAM fired from abouteight miles away. Nighthawks

were generally only visible toradar when their bomb baydoors opened to cast radar sig-natures. Lieutenant ColonelDale Zelko bailed out ofthe stricken aircraft and wasrecovered by a U.S. Air Forcerescue team.

The air campaign endedon June 11, 1999, with the was eventually arrested by hisown people and charged withcrimes against humanity. He

died in prison before his trialproduced a verdict.

The F-117 fought onceagain when the long waragainst Iraq began in March2003. The first U.S. war-plane constructed entirely ontop-secret stealth technologyremained the most invisibleand most deadly aircraft inthe world until the Air Forceretired it on April 22, 2008,replacing it with the F-22Raptor and soon the F-35.

Lieutenant Colonel BradO’Connor retired from activeduty in 2007. He went from -teer for the WWII AirborneDemonstration Team inFrederick, Okla. The plane he Boogie Baby, previ-ously delivered paratroopersonto drop zones in Normandy

Charles W. Sasser spent 29 years

in active and reserve ser vice withthe U.S. Navy and Army Special Forces before retiring. He is theauthor of more than 60 booksand some 3,500 magazine arti-cles and short stories. Additionalreading: Stealth Fighter: AYear in the Life of an F-117Pilot , by Lt. Col. William B.O’Connor (USAF, ret.).

ON TARGET The arrow marksa guided bomb droppedby Lt. Col. Brad O’Connor’sF-117, just before itdestroys a mixing tower atthe Baric munitions plantnear Belgrade in April 1999.

f-117 night hawk -the black jet

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