RIP F117-A stealth fighter

Wasn't the F-117 in service for like six years before the government even admitted its existence?

 

They did tell the people of that town in Nevada, though, so the people wouldn't think they were seeing UFOs while the new planes were being tested.

 

I was driving a friend across country, going through Nevada, at a time when this plane was still more rumor than reality - no one had a picture of it. Out of nowhere we hear this immense roar, and then a dark streak. The stealth plane buzzes the truck we were driving, passing overhead by maybe 100 feet - you could feel the heat.

We grabbed the camera and snapped away, but that plane was already miles away.

 

Oh, how I'd love to work at Area 51 someday to see what they've got cooked up (or maybe even pickled up).

 

Never forget when one flew over SB XXXV.... Didn't make a sound.

 

As long as there are defense contractors, there will be manned aircraft.

 

Circa 1992 I was out on a rented houseboat on Lake Powell in Utah when a pair of F-117s zipped in and flew around and over the lake and the neighboring sandstone formations.

Real low. Real quiet. Real cool.

 

Fens is correct. And a pilotless air arm would ultimately be a mistake. Now a near-pilotless air arm would be OK.

 

Let's hope the day for both of these scenarios is well into the future, because nothing, no technology, can ever replace a person at the real point of attack. Missiles are one thing. Aircraft are entirely different.

 

I think we will see, exclusively, unmanned aircraft in attack roles in the near future. We're moving that direction, now, with some of the unmanned vehicles already out there. It's the next logical step.

I will, however, say that people-carrying will be done with humans for longer. It will be hard to shove 12 Joes into the back of a Black Hawk being flown by some pencil-pusher 1,000 miles away.

 

Hey, if we're still building aircraft carriers, we'll build anything.

 

I don't know about near future three_bags_full. I can see that whole moral dilemma snaring the works. But I'm sure the capability to have unmanned attack aircraft will be in the not-too-distant future based on what I've read. Admittedly, that was a few months ago when I was still into an online RPG I played. But still.