From The Archives: Unveiling The Stealth Fighter
The U.S. Air Force acknowledged the existence of the F-117A, a stealthy attack aircraft that was designated a fighter, despite its lack of air-to-air weapons, in November 1988, five years after the Lockheed-built aircraft became operational.
The released photograph showed the Nighthawk’s unique shape from an oblique angle, revealing its faceted stealth design. Five months later, Aviation Week obtained and published a grainy telephoto image of an F-117A flying near Edwards AFB, California, which fully exposed the aircraft’s silhouette, wing-sweep angle and W-shaped trailing edge.
The cover photo was accompanied by detailed analysis of the aircraft’s characteristics and training flights by engineering editors Michael A. Dornheim and William B. Scott.
“The highly swept F-117A wing has an aspect ratio of about 1.9, based on its gross area, which probably penalizes the aircraft’s aerodynamic efficiency,” Dornheim wrote. “But it also may reduce radar cross-section when viewed from some aspects.”
The telephoto image was so grainy that some editors found it unusable. But they were overruled by Editor-in-Chief Donald E. Fink, who ran it on the cover of our May 1, 1989, edition.
See the cover of the May 1, 1989 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology
In addition, you can also see the first exclusive close up picture of the F-117 published by Aviation Week in Aug. 27, 1990. The aircraft was en route to the Middle East to participate in Operation Desert Storm.
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