Even with the computers allowing it to fly, the aircraft is a nightmare to operate, with pilots comparing it to flying a refrigerator.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk has officially been retired from the US Air Force for nearly two decades. Yet at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada—unofficially designated “Area 52,” after the more famous “Area 51” at Groom Lake—the US Air Force is known to be secretly operating the F-117 for testing purposes.
The jet, best remembered as the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, was a watershed platform in terms of observability—but an absolute nightmare from the perspective of aerodynamics.
The F-117 Nighthawk’s Specifications
- Year Introduced: 1983
- Number Built: 64 production aircraft + 5 prototypes
- Length: 65 ft 11 in (20.09 m)
- Wingspan: 43 ft 4 in (13.20 m)
- Weight: ~29,500 lb (13,380 kg) empty; ~52,500 lb (23,810 kg) MTOW
- Engines: Two General Electric F404-F1D2 non-afterburning turbofans (~10,600 lbf thrust each)
- Top Speed: ~684 mph (1,100 km/h; Mach 0.92 at altitude)
- Range: ~930 nmi (1,720 km; 1,070 mi) combat radius
- Service Ceiling: ~45,000 ft (13,700 m)
- Loadout: Two internal bays for up to 5,000 lb of precision-guided bombs (e.g., GBU-10, GBU-27, or JDAM)
- Aircrew: 1
It’s a Miracle That the F-117 Nighthawk Can Fly
Unlike most aircraft, the F-117 wasn’t built for the primary purpose of flying. Instead, the F-117 was built for one purpose: invisibility to enemy radar. Accordingly, the design was shaped not for airflow efficiency or lift generation, but instead in accordance with the math of radar reflection. Engineers abandoned the sleek features of traditional aircraft fuselages, instead opting for faceted, angular surfaces that would scatter radar beams away from the aircraft. The end result was an aircraft that was built around geometry, not fluid dynamics—a shape that would initially be referred to as the “Hopeless Diamond.”
The Hopeless Diamond configuration met its primary design goal—it could evade enemy radar—but it had a major drawback: it couldn’t fly. In order to deflect radar, its shape was so aerodynamically compromised that it would simply fall out of the sky.
The F-117’s aerodynamic shortcomings begin with its wings. Whereas a conventional fighter often has broad lifting surfaces, the F-117 had short, stubby, and sharply swept wings with little camber—capable enough for producing lift at speed, but, at low speeds, the wing offered zero margin for error, a tendency to bleed energy, and atrocious handling as a result.
The lack of a horizontal stabilizer did not help matters. Whereas most aircraft rely on a horizontal stabilizer to balance pitch, the F-117 had merely tall, canted tail fins. These were low-footprint enough for stealth purposes, but offered limited control authority, meaning the flight control system was constantly charged with providing micro-inputs just to keep the nose straight and level. The F-117 didn’t have a traditional vertical stabilizer either, just those tail fins, meaning, yaw stability was a problem, too. At high angles of attack, or during crosswinds, the aircraft of course would begin to wander, hunting from side to side.
How To Fly an Aircraft Shaped Like a Brick
The various forms of instability, which defined the F-117’s flight behavior, required digital oversight just to stay airborne. The F-117 was one of the first aircraft to rely entirely on fly-by-wire digital controls. In fact, assisting the pilot were four redundant flight computers, making thousands of adjustments per second to the F-117’s barely-adequate control surfaces. Without the computer assistance, the F-117 would have tumbled from the sky in seconds.
Even with the computers, the aircraft was a nightmare to operate, with pilots comparing it to flying a refrigerator. The F-117 could only operate within a narrow flight envelope; high-G maneuvers, rapid aileron rolls, or aggressive dogfighting were categorically impossible. But it could fly well enough to slip past enemy defense systems, under cover of moonlight, and drop precision munitions without being detected. And in that respect, the aircraft was superlative.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a senior defense and national security writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
