F-117 Nighthawk EDF
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk — the world's first operational stealth aircraft, the faceted-fuselage attack jet that opened the Gulf War in 1991 — captured as an RC EDF scale model.
About
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was the world's first operational stealth aircraft. Developed in extreme secrecy by Lockheed's Skunk Works under chief designer Ben Rich, the F-117 grew out of the earlier "Have Blue" demonstrator program and made its first flight on June 18, 1981. The type entered USAF service in 1983 and remained classified until publicly acknowledged by the Department of Defense in November 1988.
The F-117's defining engineering choice was the faceted external surface — flat planes carefully oriented to reflect radar energy away from the source rather than back to it. Modern radar-absorbent coatings supplemented the basic faceted geometry. The result was an aircraft with a radar cross-section several orders of magnitude smaller than any contemporary jet — small enough that contemporary radar operators struggled to distinguish an F-117 from background clutter at any meaningful range.
Operationally the Nighthawk specialized in penetrating heavily defended airspace at night to deliver precision-guided weapons against high-value targets. F-117s opened the 1991 Gulf War with strikes on Iraqi air-defense and command targets — the first deployment of stealth aircraft in combat — and remained at the forefront of US precision-strike capability until the type's retirement in 2008. Total production reached 64 airframes.
The unmistakable faceted-fuselage F-117 silhouette is one of the most distinctive jet shapes ever produced.
In the simulator
A demanding modern stealth-fighter scale subject. The F-117's faceted layout gives the airframe in our sim a distinctive visual signature. Use it for jet pattern flying with the look of one of the most influential combat aircraft of the late twentieth century.
