ultimate cruise missile...
Posted on 11/02/2006 4:16:00 PM PST by NucSubs
Stealth jet quietly slips into history F-117A fighter retired after 25 years Cutting-edge design cloaked in mystery Nov. 2, 2006. 12:54 PM BILL TAYLOR FEATURE WRITER
Almost as furtively as it flew above war zones from Bosnia to Baghdad, America's F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter has retired from active duty.
The years had snuck up on it. Though it remained cutting-edge contemporary in many people's minds, the Nighthawk had hit the quarter-century mark. At a discreet "Silver Stealth" ceremony at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico this week, some of the people who built, serviced and flew the plane marked the end of its 25-year career.
Much of the F-117A's innermost workings remain top-secret but it was outstripped by newer, even more space-age technology. All that remained was its public image. Its successor, the F-22 Raptor, appeared on the last day of the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto in September, its first foray outside the United States. The Raptor looks more like a conventional jet than the F-117A and didn't cause much excitement, other than among hard-core aviation buffs. When the Nighthawk made its Toronto debut in 1993, as it whispered over Ontario Place the crowd went crazy, pointing and yelling, "Stealth! Stealth!"
Oh they will. It is SOP to do that when an aircraft goes out of production. It is likely they've already destroyed the tools & dies for the 757.
Somebody here keeps bringing this up to which I say, so what.
Among the most important reasons to get rid of that equipment is that Iran couldn't benefit by still having it around.
Any new lines of the Tomcat would include improvements to the original and later models. The plane would use plenty of composites making most of the existing production equipment useless. Modifications would probably cost more than new rigs and tools.
"snuck" is correct grammar:
["done snuck up on youse" is not :) ]
4 results for: snuck
sneak /snik/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sneek] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, sneaked or snuck, sneak¡Eing, noun
¡Vverb (used without object)
1. to go in a stealthy or furtive manner; slink; skulk.
2. to act in a furtive or underhand way.
3. British Informal. to tattle; inform.
waaaahhhh
I heard there was an F22 test result where they could drop bombs on target from outside the range of any SAM known to the military.
Say it isn't so. I have been in aerospace were an engine in the fleet that still needs parts the tooling remains. But to destroy the tooling for such a bird when G_d forbid we would ever need massive amounts of them and soon, would leave us high and dry.
Would I bet money that they're going to destroy the equipment? Oh yes.
Besides being high maintenance, all it does is drop two bombs and go home. It is a very specialized aircraft.
You should have mentioned this is an excerpt from the article. There is more at the link.
Was the F-117A really a fighter? I had only ever heard of it filling more of a ground attack role. Did it have any air-to-air weaponry and did it ever engage an enemy aircraft?
ultimate cruise missile...
How do you pronounce ÂÂÂÂÂÂ
How do you know a super secret radar invisible plane is not being still used?
SNEAKED
In American English “snuck” has become increasingly common as the past tense of “sneak.” This is one of many cases in which people’s humorously self-conscious use of dialect has influenced others to adopt it as standard and it is now often seen even in sophisticated writing in the U.S. But it is safer to use the traditional form: “sneaked.”
Ah, thanks for the info!!
My roommate at the navy Department Head School was an F-14 back seater. I ran across him during a Med cruise a couple year later and he got me onto an S-3 for a cat shot and an arrested landing. Not quite the same thing but quite a rush all the same.
It's Urdu that snuck in there, and sorry I can't pronouce urdu. :)
I remember reading it was called a 'fighter' to make it sexier. I guess the hotshot pilots and brass think fighters > bombers.
The U.S. is retiring fighters more advanced than other nations can field. That's a multi-generational technological superiority.
And yes, the F-117 should be given to Israel, Taiwan, and Japan...all of whom can afford to maintain them if desired, or fly them until they are unsafe if not.
They would also make a nice friendship gift to India.
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