Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk: The Futuristic Ghost Plane
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- The F-117 Nighthawk was a super-secret Lockheed project that stayed secret throughout the course of its secrecy so that the US could secretly execute air missions in secret.
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I have to admit that if I had seen the F-117 flying around before its existence was publicized, I would have been certain that it was an alien spaceship.
Especially considering the times (MIB, area 51 hysteria)
didn't one of these attempt to nuke an alien spacecraft over Houston on July 3rd, 1996?
@@jedi_minion_bartender1434 No, that was a B-2
@@PassiveSmoking ah, good to know. At least I got to fly one on the NES
@@jedi_minion_bartender1434 Ah, I thought you were referring to Independence Day. ua-cam.com/video/yvQt-4YyeuU/v-deo.html
Fun fact: in the book “Skunk Works” by Ben Rich, he describes selling what would become the F-117 to the Pentagon by rolling a ball bearing across the desk to one Air Force general after another and saying “here’s your new fighter plane.” The point was that it’s radar cross section was equivalent to that ball bearing.
Apparently 0.003m^2 or -30dBsm!
SUPER low RCS!
If I remember the book right they were able to detect an 1/8th inch ball bearing in front of the test radar model. Point being if the plane rcs was higher they shouldn't have been able to detect the ball at all. Crazy
Am reading the book right now !
Really makes you wonder what crazy shit they've built now that we won't find out about for another 30 years
Well, we just found out about the existence of the very first 6th generation fighter which the US recently flew for the first time. There must be amazing shit flying around but hidden from the public, you are absolutely right.
aliens conspiracy will be disappointed
I mean what do you think people are seeing when they see UFOs? You don't think someone who saw this (especially out in the middle of nowhere) 20 years before the public knew about it would've said it was anything other than a UFO? I mean even if other pilots had seen this in the late 70's and early 80's who didn't have top secret clearance they would've thought it was something out of this world since there was no way it could fly.
Which is why just cause some UFO sightings or videos feature pilots doesnt mean jack since they don't have security clearance to know what skunk works is up to.
@@Jaqen-HGhar i realized few years ago out here in the arizona desert the shit i been catching on my phone at night was most likely military, and alot less likely alien haha triangle crafts that seem to be able to dissapear or look transparent in a second, no noise, and one of them which i still think may of been alien pull like a zig zag move where it literally just took a step to the side and sped off faster then anything i seen
Drones. Lots and lots of drones.
That's your next channel: "The History Of Every War Ever"
Ox carts of war threw the ages
Id watch that
Oh yes
Oversimplified? ;)
Yes
Enemy radar technician: why is that bird traveling at 2000km/h?
most modern jets can go up to that speed and even higher
@@darko_lengkeek-jakupovic thats not what hes saying
You let that comment go over you didn't you?
@@darko_lengkeek-jakupovic /r whoosh
@@darko_lengkeek-jakupovic the point is that the plane comes up on radar with a similar signature size to a bird.
One of my favorite details about this plane is that its distinctive look came from said flat panels, which were necessary because computer modeling software was not yet powerful enough to do the radar return calculations on a traditional curved design, so instead they calculated each panel separately then assembled them together. That's how far ahead of its time this plane was.
My favourite details of this garbage plane stay on Serbian air museum.. 😅😅😅 Beat down from Serbian army! 🇷🇸🇷🇸💪🏻💪🏻1999 Never forget!
@@marvi6603 no one gives a shit seriously you shot down ONE PLANE
@@marvi6603 Did it stop the bombs?
Great Job Serbia lol
You shot down one plane, which you couldn't reconstruct, and you failed to even capture the pilot.
Did anyone mention that this was during a DAYTIME operation for the NIGHT HAWK? lol!!!...
@@ESAPOWER "Did anyone mention that this was during a DAYTIME operation for the NIGHT HAWK?"(sic)
Incorrect.
Simon, you didn't cover the time Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell used an F-117 to save Halle Berry from terrorists
Yeah, the 2nd F-117 combat loss!
Damn he died fast in that one 😂
@@djuanbenjamin9149 Thank goodness.
With entire squad on board.
That was the Lamprey F117 I think it was only prototype
If I had chance to own any plane just as a display piece, this would be my third choice behind the SR-71 and F-14.
TOMCATS!
@@Dylan_Sterling - Great plane. Pride of the Iranian Air Force 🇮🇷
Thats not ok. I should in first : [
@@f117nighthawk8 - Sorry I don’t understand what you mean. Can you elaborate?
the SR-71 is still the most beautiful thing humans have created
You forgot to mention the famous incident where the F-117 did a mid-air transfer of a group of navy seals on to an hi-jacked 747 through a hatch underneath the 747’s belly. Tragically Lt. Colonel Austin Travis was killed during the transfer, the F-117 pilot was able to make a safe landing however the SEAL team onboard the 747 was successfully able to retake control of the aircraft and perform a safe landing.
wow
Hahahaha
I've heard Steven Seagal was a dead-ringer for the Lieutenant Colonel.
Lol. Wasn’t this from a movie?
That would seem difficult with a single seat aircraft
Whenever I'd be trucking through Alamogordo I'd park at the Walmart and watch the 117A's do touch and go's all afternoon. It was like getting a private air show, what a treat! Those were the days. Also got to watch the shuttle land at Edwards one day while parked along hwy 58 beside the base, good times!!
Sad they were retired, awesome planes!!
"F-114 Nighthawk": Invisible
Some Serbian guy with old soviet rocket system in 1999: I didnt know that
A 1960's missile modernized in the 80's against an aircraft that lacked any form of countermeasures save for being stealth and flying the same flight path two other aircraft did that same day. The Serbians were and are capable militarily- but don't ignore key details for the sake of a good story.
@@peterson7082
Let's not ignore any given comparative ratio between the two sides, and let's not ignore the success rate of it's combat deployment history before the mentioned case.
Furthermore, let's not ignore several previous empires which had gotten fatally scratched in the conflicts with Serbs, and had been since declining until their respective falls. All of them were technologically superior, and all of them were confidant in their respective analyses.
I understand that you're talking about the plane, and that I'm talking about the controversial Serbian warrior history, but the plane was initially made for war, and is flying away to history.
Not to repeat that our warrior history goes much beyond any vision of any aircraft, though we had been flying just a few years after the Right brothers, and had a small air fleet entering the WWI.
Don't worry, we'll not be invading or bombing you, our power lays below your radar. We'll just contribute in managing the tides of power to induce a tsunami within your ranks.
Nothing personal, just ко се не освети, тај се не посвети!
Sorry, untranslatable.
Actually, it was a Hungarian guy, member of Yugoslav Army.
@@stefansavic4799 vidim ovi amerikanci volie srati malo ali samo sam htjeo da kazem normalno nasa retardirana mala drzava je mogla to uciniti, jebes ove amerikance koje ne znaju da je jugoslavia nilo jedna od najjaca drzava na svijetu tada samo nas je ubio nacionalizam
Pozdrav iz Mostara
@@peterson7082they had to turn on the radar for 20 seconds max before detection, see the type (by radar cross section), altitude, height and direction, turn it off, then do the quick maths on paper before firing.. so 3 days after the downing of that one, they reported a probable hit of another F-117A (Which the pentagon denied until recently), yeah.. and the second one three days later was also a coincedence ..
I've had the incredible good fortune to have been provided a detailed tour of this bird and was even allowed to sit in the cockpit (static of course). What totally amazed me was the plethora of standard (i.e analog) instrumentation, considering the futuristic designs of every other facet of the ac (mind, this was many years ago).
Now, I'm all for the idea of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I'm also keenly aware that digital presentation of instrument readings are in some cases, actually slower that analog (again, at that time) but it did really surprise me.
I suspect current Nighthawk's panels are fully 'glass' at this time but I did find this a surprise. Incredible ac regardless and I feel privileged to have a friend who was a pilot of it provide me such an opportunity.
When they were testing them at Area 51 the Russians saw heat negatives of them from infrared cameras on their satellites and they sent us a sketch of the outline of them. After that the staff at Area 51 would drag plywood cutouts of weird and wild shapes on to the aprons and before their satellites would fly over they would drag them back into the hangers leaving weird and wild heat negatives to mess with them.
That is good thinking.
But...why would the Soviets send us those sketches proving that they were spying on Area 51 so we could take countermeasures to foil them? That just makes no sense. I'd like to see some more proof of that if you could supply it.
@@rogerhinman5427 In a documentary about the plane, someone involved with the program said that the Soviets did something I cannot believe we didn't foresee, but apparently we didn't. The F-117 shape was put up on a slender tower shaped to avoid radar returns with the ability to move the aircraft into different orientations with respect to the radar illuminating it from a distance to test the reflected radar signal's return strength. The shaded area under the F-117 shape remained cooler than the unshaded desert areas around it and even though the aircraft was hidden before passes by Soviet spy satellites, the heat difference could be seen with reconnaissance satellite IR sensors. How he said we found out about this I do not recall. About this kind of testing:
Skunk Works' Helendale Radar Signature Test Range Is Where Stealth Dreams Become Reality
Some of the biggest leaps in modern combat aircraft design have been made with the help of these facilities, many of which remain classified.
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15746/lockheeds-helendale-radar-signature-test-range-looks-right-out-of-science-fiction
Roger Hinman it was in the book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base” by Annie Jacobsen. Great read
@@rrg991981 Thanks. I just researched her and her book a little. I guess I'm going to buy it.
You are the DaVinci of UA-cam, Simon. Fighter aircraft, battleships, individual biographies, theoretical objects, the intricate programs of dictators; you do it all. Massive thanks and respect for all the time and effort. A+ content.
he just reads scripts my dude, he's not writing everything. I mean, I still like the guy and he's very good at reading scripts (which sounds like I'm being sarcastic but I'm really not, idk how many videos I've been unable to finish because I couldn't handle the narration) . he's more like Da Vinci's publicist or something lmao.
@@realwiggles LOL! Love it!
Computers, they don't get tired.
My computer dying anytime it plays a game at minimum graphics: "KILL ME PLEASE"
Read "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich if you want to know how they did it!
Side note about Ben Rich's book. Ben explains why President Carter cancelled the B-1 project. Then Reagan bringing it back (B-1).
Definitely a great book
Such a fantastic book. Both ben rich and kelly Johnson were unbelievable engineers
Loved that book
I have an original hardcover still in plastic I bought this summer and read. Got Kelly's book in audio form after a Amazon seller tried to rip me off on a hard cover of his. Incredible stuff.
An interesting bit of history about the F-117:
Most people have heard that the F-117 was not an actual fighter- that the "F" for "fighter" designation was a lie, either to deceive the Soviets or to attract fighter pilots who would otherwise be turned off by an "attack" aircraft.That is actually an urban legend and not true. The F-117 is a fighter, capable of shooting down other aircraft.
One of the missions that the F-117 was supposed to do on the first night of WWIII was to shoot down Soviet AWACs and tanker aircraft. The plane is capable of carrying the Sidewinder missile and it's forward-looking infrared system would be used to locate and track large aircraft at night. The F-117 was not a dogfighter like the F-16, or an air superiority aircraft like the F-15. It didn't carry massive 2000lb anti-bomber LRMs like the F-14. The F-117 was a night fighter and bomber, able to attack large support aircraft and then escape undetected.
Thankfully, we did not have to witness the F-117's air-to-air capability as the Cold War never went hot. The F-117 found its niche as an invisible bomber that could strike high-value targets
Source: Fighter Pilot Podcast - Episode 072 - F-117 Nighthawk
Oh we finally got some new music, I like it.
I remember watching one of these fly in the 90's at an airshow. Security was insane, but was still so cool to see.
I also have the old ERTL diecast that was based off the grainy photo, and it's so funny how far off the dimensions are on the toy.
"Where do you buy your clothes?" "Why, Senior Trend of course. Everybody over 50 goes there!"
Good coverage on an aircraft that is so well documented over the years. Look back at those years working on it as highlight of my USAF career.
US: "We have a plane that is invisible to radars."
.
.
.
Serbia: "Hold my rakija."
@rsiffredi It literally wasn't anything like that lmao
@rsiffredi the surrender was not unconditional lol
@rsiffredi do you realize tiny shitty country, shot down pride of US AF ? and you still talk shit, just keep your mouth shut.
Nobody has ever called it "invisible to radar"....... ever!! Stealth technology has never been touted as "invisible to radar" either, no aircraft is totally invisible. Stealth technology is "reduced visibility" with a much smaller RCS than any other aircraft and infrared tracking..... end of. As an example, the pretty sizeable B-2 Spirit has the RCS of a large bird with much reduced infrared signature and reduced visibility in the sky by the human eye.
That shoot down was a combination of many many factors if you research into it properly...... it was the proverbial "lucky day" for the switched on radar operator on duty.
Had the weather been better, had there been more aircraft in the skies as there was supposed to be, had the F-117 been on a different flight plan instead of on the well known and published ones available to the Serbs, had it not been that particular very clever operator who was playing around with his equipment as there was absolutely nothing else to do...... it was down to this combination of factors that the Nighthawk got hit.
This has always been one of my favorite aircraft in the US Military Arsenal... I was actually lucky to have seen one when I was younger... It was still so classified that it only did a fly-by for an Airshow here in Jacksonville FL... I think it literally made one pass back and forth across the airstrip and was gone just as quickly as it had appeared... I don't even think that it's appearance was listed on the event schedule...
I've worked on A10 warthogs and have seen almost every jet while in the air force, and the F117 will always be my favorite.
My Dad was a F-117 test pilot. I grew up around this, but it's still cool hearing about it. Great show!
Jeez I know some fast jet test pilots but an F-177 pilot is a unicorn. Crazy stuff!
Simon's next channel: history of every war ever😂
Nick VanRegenmorer at this point I’m surprised this hasn’t already happened
something on pornhub about step siblings lol, today I found out about my step bro
That's more the Sabaton History channel :D
“Might not have heard of this plane”
*grew up where the thing was built and saw it flying almost every day* hehehe
They didn’t exist, remember? lol.
Same here, well, in Vegas anyway
Never heard (or saw) it coming
@katie rae well, I was in Palmdale, CA. I don’t know where they were built. But I’m assuming somewhere close by. I SAW them.
@katie rae Palmdale, CA
Could you please do some of these:
The American Navy's mass expansion during WW2- essentially turned war ship building into an assembly line process
The creation of the Polio vaccine
The building of the trenches in WW2 (probably a side project video, but since it's so vast, I figured it could fit)
I worked for a company call The Talley Corp back in the early 90's. We built the canopy actuators for the 117. There were two of them connected by a flex shaft. We sold them to a company called the Harry Diamond Corp. We didn't know it was a stealth AC till the 117 came out of the Black and we got a nice letter from Lockheed Advanced Projects thanking for our help in the 117 project.
I like that Simon kept calling them "ghosts." He didn't go into it, but during the gulf war in the early 90s, the Saudi military referred to the the F-117 as "Shaba" or "Ghost"
Sorry. We didn't know it was be a invisible. Hahahah 🇷🇸🇷🇸💪🏻💪🏻 Serbian power 1999! Never forget.
Flying one of these across Europe during the Cold War earned me my only Congressional Medal of Honor on the Amiga
I’m disappointed that you didn’t mention that in order to test the radar cross-section, the military ordered Skunkworks to remake the mounting pole used for testing aircraft models because the cross-section of the pole was larger than that of the model. A much better description of the project can be found in the book “Skunkworks” by Ben Rich and Leo Janos. Ben Rich was the director of Skunkworks during the development of the F-117.
Was the 117 these are the model of the plane was on the test stand, the engineer said the model must haves
Model must have fallen off, but then a bird landed on it and the engineer said, ok I see it now on the radar.
BocaDelCielo Playa exactly. Lockheed proceeded to complain that the tests didn’t match their predictions and suggested the pole was the problem. The military, having none of it, said, “make us a better one then.”
also that it have all angled forms just because computer power limitations at that time,they know it could be achieved with curves but the programs couldnt handle curves,only poligons.
@@xiro6 - And you can bet your ass the calculations include lower frequencies of VHF radars which is what was used to shoot down the F117. That plane was pretty good at UHF and microwave but VHF not so much. That is why you see the log periodic antennas there at the test site... they are for sweeping it with the lower frequencies to evaluate performance at VHF.
You want to see something crazy? Look up Soviet VHF radar truck. The massive arrays they used to get a focus on planes, but very effective against these stealths. That truck is what they used as the guidance radar for the missiles.
I saw one of these at an Airshow in 1993, they're insane. They had one do a flyby and even though it was flying sub-sonic, you did not hear it until it passed over you.
Dude. Same....but in a very different circumstance....hand to God; I saw one pass under the Oakland Bay Bridge early one morning while sailing towards the Fleet Week air show between SFand Alcatraz. I remember so clearly how stupidly quiet it was when it passed by. Hear a quiet 'ssssshhhhhh' coming at you, expect a big SSSXXXXXGGGHHHBBOOOMM that you feel....but no. It's just a subtle whisper to a more quiet 'ssssshhhhh'
Doppler effect
My favorite aircraft of all time!" Man I miss my Air Force days! They honestly thought during the Gulf War that a percentage of our Jets weren't gonna make it back.... They forgot we trained for damn near 6 months before they released the hounds! We were so ready for action it wasn't funny!
I remember the pilot interviews: "All that AA you see on the film clips of Bagdad were blind firing after we had made our pass. Nowhere near us." The stealth technology worked.
“The history of ever war ever” !!!! Do this.
It would be a Mega project to put together so I think it counts for this channel.
I'll take what he's having
How wars start? Quick condensed conflicts from the first known to today?
Better podcast idea than video I reckon.
There are still 6 of these planes flying from two different bases. Four are used for testing and improving radars onboard the f15/f22 to detect stealth aircraft. The remaining two were used to test fully automated flight computers.
Probably because the sleek Sr-71 already flew over & saw what paper you read on the toilet back in 1965. Wonder what 4 of the existing "lit & fueled" Sr-71 Jets are doing today. Ukraine only needs one to monitor their airspace.
According to the Sandboxx channel ‘Airpower’,there are many that have been retrofitted for different uses.
As has the beard grown, so has the quality of this show. Bravo Simon.
''sorry we didn't know he was invisible'',popular graffiti in Belgrade I don't know why
Because they crush one or two of ,, invisible" planes with 30 years old rocket.
someone worded it perfectly in the comment above with more likes,it was impressive but shouldnt shame the plane for what was basically cheating how it operates
@rsiffredi two years later popular graffiti and New York ,, why me ,, the twin tower is gone I don't know why
@rsiffredi If they did not give a fuck why did they get here and bomb us then? What are you saying man
@@sevasthvostanski5588 It wasn't supposed to be invisible.
The History of every war ever? Now that's a channel I'd watch.
I used to see and hear these birds all the time growing up. My childhood home was about 10 miles from Holloman Air Force Base. They were replaced by the F22 there. We even had a classic rock station named after them; 103DOT7, the stealth. It became 103.7, the raptor in 2008 and became an oldies station.
John Cena in this ghost plane would be the ultimate stealth combo
Fun fact, both the F22 and F35 are even more stealthy than the F117a.
You forgot to mention that Serbs said: sorry we did not know that f-117 is invisible!
Hungarian shot it down.
Wasn't pilot error to blame for that?
@@daeladub No, Zoltan was an exceptional battery commander while Zelko, the pilot, proved to be resourceful in a avoiding capture. The story seems never to be completely told with more and more details coming out over the years.
@@daeladub The Serbs had spies in Nato and the US was also using the same flight routes every night that's how it was shot down.
There was a latch that had become stuck which greatly reduced the stealth capabilities and allowed Serbian radars to detect the plane
"The development of the Nighthawk fell into this category:" -Simon
"Blacker than the blackest black, times infinity!" -Nathan Explosion
"There's something about this that's so black. Its like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black. " Nigel Tufnel
Finally, a vid with NO sponsor section! I wouldn't mind so much if those ads were kept to the end of the video, so we were given the option of avoiding them if we're not interested, or even the beginning, where we can skip them and still keep focused on the subject of the video, but this constant effort of putting the ads directly in the middle of a video to SHOVE product DOWN OUR PROVERBIAL THROATS, keep us from focusing (and thus learning by promoting ADHD tendacies), and disrupting the flow of information is absolutely absurd! Thank you for finally diverting from that schema.
Love the Nighthawk! Yes the F-22 and other stealth planes that came after it are vastly superior to the F117, but none looks so SciFi and is inspiring imagination like the Nighthawk.
the SR-71 blackbird looked Sci-Fi and sinister looking
@@adithyansunil1153 Indeed. The A12 and SR71 look so alien when you keep in mind these were developed and put into service when people were driving cars with huge fins and excessive chrome bumpers and still flying on piston engined planes commercialy :D
I was a pilot, a Lieutenant Colonel, in this plane back in 1989. I flew almost 100 missions in Libia, the Persian Gulf, the North Cape, and Central Europe.
I was awarded quite a few ribbons and medals through my career.
Regretfully I was shot down and crashed.
Unfortunate that it didn't have a save-game nor reload capabilities.
Thank you for letting me reminisce my f-19 Stealth Fighter days Mr. Simon sir.
Based MicroProse reference.
There was footage shot earlier this year at Death Valley of 2 F-117s doing low level passes through the valley, the pictures and video are insane
When my family moved to Las Vegas in 2003, I remember the awe from seeing one of these in the air from Nellis AFB.
A few decades ago my mom had some b2 bombers on her base and I was allowed to see them up close and personal. Pretty awesome stuff.
12:37 I have a friend that's a Lt. Col in the Army who told me that, in part, it was shot down because command had gotten lazy in planning bombing raids and was sending them over the same flight plans, giving hostile SAM sites some critical lead time on 'where it's going to be'.
True plus the Serbs had bribed a French officer assigned to CAOC in Vicenza to leak ATOs to them and LtGen Michael C. Short canceled standing ATOs sending the airborne EA-6Bs, F-16CJs and F-15s providing SEAD north and the Knighthawks south unaccompanied.
Many years ago, while visiting my brother in the California desert, he pointed out a black triangle winking out stars in the night sky. He smiled and said "that doesn't exist yet".
It went public a year later.
UA-cam mfs love to lie
Thats such crap😂
tonight on shit that didn’t happen
make racist cry again
Sorry, we didn’t know it was invisible. 🇷🇸
الله اكبر يا وحش
Won the battle lost the war lmao
@@north-shoregcs3894 imagine a tiny country lost a war against the largest and strongest military in history..
@@north-shoregcs3894 Winning a battle like that is bigger than winning a war against a country with limited Armaments.
I just came here to wrote the same ;)
A GAP ad immediately after Simon's quip about Senior Trend...priceless
Hell yeah
One of my favorite planes ever
Just because of how unique it looks and the fact that I got a toy version when I was at the hospital
I love you to cover the B2 stealth bomber, love how alien it looks compared to other planes.
It doesn't look very alien compared to the XB-35 and YB-49. And speaking of aliens, when you see 1953's War of the Worlds, look carefully at the plane.
By 1985 "stealth aircraft" was such an open secret that it was mentioned in the movie "Spies Like Us"
Fun fact: pilot that was shot down and officer that shot it became friends after war. Shows great hospitality of Serbs
Just remember, anything that’s no longer secret is so old it’s no longer your ace in the hole. F22 raptor? 30 years old. It was designed before cellphones were a thing. Think of how far our tech has come in 30 years.
The wobblin goblin 😂
Thanks for this detailed look. This is a great story!
I was a radar tech stationed on the Nevada ranges and was tasked to shoot down the Prototypes (only with the radar signals). At first, we just used the IFF signal to find it - till the switched it off. Then we had a much harder time finding the aircraft with our radar; so one of us would stand outside with binoculars and tell the other operator where to point the antenna. Then they started flying them at night; so we added an infrared sensor to our antenna to detect the exhaust. It worked for a while, but they changed something on the exhaust to make it much harder for us to detect.
A few years later, I was stationed in Idaho and I would go hunting in the mountains with some friends. The locals had lots of stories of the “big bats” that flew around below the mountain tops at night. My friends and I just looked at each other and laughed.
It was a great aircraft but it really couldn't do anything needed by the Air Force - it was more of a "Proof of Concept " than a real combat weapons system.
Pertaining to it's 42.6 million, I graduated college last year on May 23, 2019 here in Fair Field Ca. at Solano College in pursuit of a BA in Psychology a BS in Business as a English and Kinesiology degree followed. Me graduating my eight semesters on a Bachelor's format while staying on a JR. College level with innovation and doing so because of the times in history. Terrill TC!
the story behind the one that shot down was really cool, and the pilot has met the guy responsible for it :)
I used to have a model of this airplane. I just loved the way it looked.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. AKA the best in the business by far.
My absolute favorite fact of the development of the F-117A was that Northrop and Lockheed were both vying for the contract to make the first operational stealth fighter. Lockheed's "Have Blue" prototype was so stealthy, when they put a model of it on a pylon to test actual radar against it, the _pylon_ was more reflective than the aircraft. So Lockheed designed a new pylon that was itself stealthy. Reportedly, a Northrop employee, in the process of putting _their_ prototype on the pylon, quipped "If they had to redesign the pylon, how stealthy *IS* their design!?" Needless to say, Lockheed's design won.
Northrop did get the last laugh, though - in the later competition for a stealth heavy bomber, Northrop's B-2 Spirit won over Lockheed's design. (A program worth a lot more money.)
"You might not have heard of it" - know your audience!
Love the amazing shape of this aircraft! It comes in #2 on design, first being the SR-71 Blackbird. IMHO
9:20 The FBW system keeps the aircraft from departing controlled flight. The airframe is aerodynamically unstable, you need constant subtle inputs from all control surfaces to keep the aircraft flying controllably (I don't know the sample rate of FBW system is gathering data and outputs control signals, but it's many times per second). No human would be able to do it without automation. In fact flying F-117 is like flying F-16, it's really easy, basically when you let the stick go the FBW will keep the velocity vector constant. Without the FBW system the plane would just tumble out of control in a matter of moments. The fact that the pilots had to fly so long is different matter entirely.
I heard, but do not know how true it is. That when they where testing it for the radar profile, a bird landed on the mockup and the engineers could not figure out why the radar return was larger than it should have been. But not sure how true this story is.
Opposing pilots encountering an F-117 must have felt somewhat starstruck, now even more so!
"Wow, what an honor that you're sending THIS to deal with ME!! This is like misbehaving at a roadhouse and Swayze himself comes over to throw you out"
Could you do a video on the V Bombers built for the RAF in the 1950s.
Curious Droid has made a great video about them.
Back in the 90s every boy I knew, including myself, had a combination of these posters on their bedroom walls: Ferarri's, Lamborghini's, Shaq, Wayne Gretzky, Ken Griffey Jr, Jenny McCarthy and the F-117.
That operation name could be taken the wrong way.
"Why did we drop those bombs?"
"Just Cause"
Simon, here in Kalamazoo, MI our Air Zoo just received one of these, to go along with their SR-71.
“Nothing can match the nighthawk”
F-22 raptor *grins teeth* “hello!” After raptor has creeped up behind it and fired. 😂 😂
It wouldn’t be able to since it wasn’t really a fighter. They called it that to deceive the enemy. It’s a small bomber that disables SAM sites
Dap P why do you think I posted this O great one?? Whyyy????
After reading this again I actually have no idea what your talking about. Anything the 117 can do the 22 can betterrrr. Jam radars. Whatever. Why you think these are being retired (117’s)
Garrett Poppell I still prefer the A-10. Being a marine veteran and being saved by the brrrt it’s definitely something that’ll never change when it comes to other aircraft’s
Dap P what does that have to do with this
You should've mentioned how Serbs took it down with a Russian SAM from the 60's lol. There's even a popular line they made "Sorry we didn't know it was invisible".
A 1960's missile modernized in the 80's against an aircraft that lacked any form of countermeasures save for being stealth and flying the same flight path two other aircraft did that same day. The Serbians were and are capable militarily- but don't ignore key details for the sake of a good story.
I heard it wasn't supposed to be invisible in the first place.
The Soviet scientist didn't Find out that geometry mattered when it comes to radar signature. That was blatantly obvious to any radar operator at the time. What he found, or created, was a method of quantifying and measuring it.
Great video. Of course, now you have to do the F-22 Raptor.
U missed the part why they call it F-117 for fighter instead B for bomber.
It's pretty common knowledge at this point the F-117 carried AIM-120s, and was a Beyond visual stealth interceptor as a secondary rule. You can ask any pilot that has ever been around the thing it's not even classified.
Of course this video comes out right when I buy a model! You're great Simon
Some respect (read: megaproject video) on the B-2 would be nice
He's got that covered 👍
m.ua-cam.com/video/NwWrTEBxM-A/v-deo.html
Simon has the best method for choosing videos!! "It looks cool, we're doing it" lol 👍
@12:07 that was Owen Wilson. He was alright in the end though.
B-U-DJ-A-N-O-V-C-I , place where f117 meets its destiny
That is true my Serbian brother!! Most expensive plane in usa air forces. 😅😅🥳🥳🇷🇸💪🏻💪🏻 Serbian power!
@@marvi6603 oook
@@marvi6603 ehmm....
You sure about that?
@@AugmentedGravity Sure about what?? You can see yourself. Search in google. Serbian pvo forces beat f117!! Serbian power!! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
Lockheed rules, they are way ahead of the curve and always have been.
please do a video about the original world trade center twin towers that was destroyed on september 11th,2001
Just keeping the water out was a mega project!
This plane has a special place in my heart. I had a transformer toy that was one of them.
Nice! Another video subject i requested for a while, that's 2 in a row haha, i requested the Komet and Nighthawk together in 1 comment, so it feels like that's how they got made as well.
Now i only need a video on the F-4 Phantom II and then i can die happy, or, well, also a video about the SuperCobra and Hind heli's, THEN i'm totally happy ;P EDIT: another great video, thanks!
I actually was engaged to one of the original engineers of this aircraft. He spoke about this plane a lot. My fiancé died before we could get married. I miss him so much.
My first base was with these. Was lucky to work with support systems on the runways and was able to see them close up many times.
imagine being the first pilot to fly one and looking at it and thinking, there is no way this thing can fly, i am going to be killed on take off
There was an older pilot’s joke: Dozer operator lengthening a WWII airstrip saw a B-24 parked and asked the pilot “that thing actually flies?”
my dad worked on the f-117 in holloman afb in new Mexico, they're amazing planes.
They at Lockheed called it the hopeless diamond. And surprisingly fllied fairly well.
They ar still flying it.
C & O Canal in Maryland USA?
or
The Pennsylvania (USA) Turnpike?
I was thinking about a PA turnpike video the other day!
I actually have one of those leaflets with the F-117 on it! Pretty cool.
Important note: the F-117, despite the "F" in it's designation and the common nickname of "Stealth Fighter", wasn't actually a Fighter. It was an Attack Aircraft (air-to-ground attack). The reason for the "F" designation was two-fold, firstly the US had already reached it's limit of number of Bombers under treaty (in order to avoid another arms race with the USSR) and secondly to confuse enemy strategists. It did have some air-to-air combat ability, but it was not the primary role for the aircraft.
Did it have air-to-air? I thought it was the A-117, but I don't know anything.
Lockheed installed AIM-9 racks in the bomb bays for compatibility checks but it was never actually tested with the missile.
Speed doesnt matter and dogfights dont matter anymore
Definitely would love a Biographics video on Manuel Noriega.
Listen to the audible book "skunk works" it talks all about it
I remember so much from that book. What was your favorite bit?
@@mattkrieger3428 steel ball bearings. Lol
I remember a stealth fighter simulator coming out before the plane was 'introduced'. The makers of the simulator dutifully portrayed the F-117 as having smooth curves with the implications that radar waves would not have a hard edge off of which they could bounce and would glance off the plane rendering it undetectable. This was based upon ideas the military let ... slip out. Of course, the actual aircraft was full of hard, flat, straight edges meant to scatter the radar waves and deprive the radar set with a strong return signal. Later versions of the game were ... revised. I rather enjoyed the game. The act of sneaking over a target was ... different ... and fun. All other simulators has the pilot tackling the enemy head on. Meh. Been there, done that. Stealth. Now that was something new.