{"id":24688215,"date":"2026-09-25T16:20:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=24688215"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:20:43","slug":"f-117-nighthawk-still-flying-tonopah-recallable-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/f-117-nighthawk-still-flying-tonopah-recallable-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"F-117 Nighthawk: Retired in 2008, Still Flying in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<p>In December 2025 a photographer in the California desert filmed two black diamonds coming through a low-level route at a few hundred feet. In 2026 another one caught them again. The aircraft were F-117 Nighthawks, and the United States Air Force retired them in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>This is not a case of a few airframes quietly slipping through the cracks. Around forty-five of them are deliberately kept in flying condition, seventeen years after a ceremony that described their service as complete, and the reason is written into an Act of Congress.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> 64 aircraft &mdash; 5 YF-117A prototypes and 59 F-117As<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Retirement announced:<\/strong> Program Budget Decision 720, December 2005<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Retired:<\/strong> In seven waves, 13 March 2007 to 22 April 2008<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Last departure:<\/strong> 86-0831 left Palmdale on 11 August 2008<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Where they are:<\/strong> Tonopah Test Range Airport, Nevada<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Storage category:<\/strong> Type 1000, recallable<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Still flyable:<\/strong> Around 45 to 48, depending on the account<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:5px 0\"><strong>Being scrapped:<\/strong> Three a year since 2022, ending in 2034<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Very Final-Sounding Farewell<\/h2>\n<p>The retirement was not ambiguous. Program Budget Decision 720 in December 2005 set the date, the aircraft went in seven waves between March 2007 and April 2008, and the ceremonies were held with the usual solemnity.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\">\n<div><em>&ldquo;With the launch of these great aircraft today, the circle comes to a close &mdash; their service to our nation&rsquo;s defense fulfilled, their mission accomplished, and a job well done. We send them today to their final resting place&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Brigadier General David L. Goldfein<\/strong> &mdash; Commander, 49th Fighter Wing, 2007<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The final resting place was Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, which is where the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-117-nighthawk\/\">F-117<\/a> had been based in secret from the beginning. The aircraft went home.<\/p>\n<p>What the ceremony did not mention is what Congress had already required.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Sentence That Changed Everything<\/h2>\n<p>The 2007 National Defense Authorization Act contained a provision about what was to happen to F-117s taken out of service from 30 September 2006 onwards.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\">\n<div><em>&ldquo;In a condition that would allow recall of that aircraft to future service&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>2007 National Defense Authorization Act<\/strong> &mdash; the condition in which retired F-117s were to be maintained<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That is the whole trick. The aircraft were not scrapped, not sent to the desert at Davis-Monthan to bleach in the sun, and not stripped for parts. They were put into Type 1000 storage: wings removed, airframes inside climate-controlled hangars, everything kept to a standard from which an aeroplane can be brought back.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping something recallable means keeping the people who know how to recall it. It means running the hangars, holding the tooling, maintaining the specialised low-observable coatings knowledge, and &mdash; inevitably &mdash; flying a few of them now and then to prove all of that still works.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/f-117-t-38-over-tonopah-test-range.jpg\" alt=\"An F-117 Nighthawk and a T-38 Talon flying over Tonopah Test Range Airport\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An F-117 over Tonopah Test Range Airport with a T-38 chase. The base below is where the fleet went when it &ldquo;retired&rdquo;. Photo: U.S. Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">They Never Really Stopped<\/h2>\n<p>For about a decade the flying was rare enough to be deniable. Then the sightings became routine, and then they became official.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/f-117-fleet-after-retirement-2026.png\" alt=\"Chart of the F-117 fleet after retirement showing numbers built, numbers retained and where they have been seen since 2021\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The fleet that was retired, and where it has turned up since. MiGFlug diagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2021 two of them landed at Fresno Yosemite International Airport to work with the California Air National Guard. In 2022 a pair appeared in the Saline Military Operating Area and one took part in exercise Savannah Sentry in Georgia. In 2023 two flew Northern Edge 23-1 in Alaska, the first official operation outside the continental United States since the type was retired.<\/p>\n<p>A crew member at Savannah Sentry told reporters that about forty-eight flyable F-117s remained in the inventory and that the aircraft had been brought along in an unclassified capacity &mdash; which is a careful way of saying that the interesting parts were left at home.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AZFwOGfhRZ8\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What Are They Actually Doing?<\/h2>\n<p>Three jobs come up consistently.<\/p>\n<p>The first is adversary work. A stealth aircraft flown by people who know exactly how it behaves is an extremely useful training target for crews and for ground radar operators who will one day have to find something similar and less friendly.<\/p>\n<p>The second is cruise missile training. A small, low-observable, subsonic shape coming in at low level is a reasonable stand-in for a threat that air defences genuinely have to solve.<\/p>\n<p>The third is research and development: a flying testbed with a known radar signature is worth a great deal to anyone developing sensors, and unlike an <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-22-raptor\/\">F-22<\/a> or a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b-2-spirit\/\">B-2<\/a>, an F-117 is not needed anywhere else.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cx7-MwywX9I\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:-14px 0 26px;font-style:italic\">An F-117A working a low-level route in Panamint Valley, February 2019, with the radio traffic recorded alongside.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Countdown to 2034<\/h2>\n<p>The arrangement is ending, slowly. As of 2022 the Air Force has been demilitarising around three F-117s a year, a rate that finishes the fleet off in 2034. Each one that goes is stripped of anything sensitive and then disposed of; a handful have gone to museums instead, which is how one of them ended up at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n<p>Which means there is a window, and it is closing. For a few more years, if you stand in the right part of the Californian desert on the right morning, you can watch an aeroplane that the United States Air Force formally stopped operating before the iPhone had a front camera come down a canyon at 400 feet.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fhrScrVZPdM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Retirement, it turns out, is a paperwork category rather than a physical state.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk); 2007 National Defense Authorization Act as quoted therein.<\/em><\/p>\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n<section class=\"mfq\">\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<div class=\"qa\">\n<details open>\n<summary>Is the F-117 Nighthawk still flying in 2026?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">Yes. The type was retired in 2008, but a number of aircraft are kept airworthy at Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada and fly regularly. They have been photographed on low-level routes in California as recently as 2025 and 2026.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>Why were the F-117s not scrapped?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">The 2007 National Defense Authorization Act required that F-117s mothballed from 30 September 2006 onwards be maintained in a condition that would allow recall of the aircraft to future service. They went into Type 1000 recallable storage rather than to the boneyard.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>How many F-117s are left?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">Sixty-four were built, five of them YF-117A prototypes. Accounts of how many remain flyable differ: around 45 is the usual figure, while a crew member at exercise Savannah Sentry in 2022 said about 48 were in the inventory.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>Where are the retired F-117s kept?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">At Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, the same base the fleet operated from in secret during the 1980s. Most sit with their wings removed inside climate-controlled hangars.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>What are the F-117s used for now?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">Adversary training for aircrew and radar operators, cruise missile simulation for air defence training, and research and development work where a flying aircraft with a known low-observable signature is useful.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>When will the last F-117 stop flying?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">The Air Force has been demilitarising roughly three aircraft a year since 2022, a rate that empties the fleet in 2034. A few are going to museums rather than being destroyed.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>Did F-117s ever deploy overseas after retirement?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">Yes. Two took part in exercise Northern Edge 23-1 in Alaska in 2023, described as the first official operation outside the continental United States since the type was retired.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details>\n<summary>Can civilians fly in a fighter jet today?<\/summary>\n<div class=\"a\">Yes. MiGFlug has flown civilians in genuine fighter jets for over twenty years, including the MiG-29 to the edge of space and the L-39 Albatros. Current aircraft and prices are on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/flights-prices\/\">MiGFlug flights and prices page<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the F-117 Nighthawk still flying in 2026?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. The type was retired in 2008, but a number of aircraft are kept airworthy at Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada and fly regularly. They have been photographed on low-level routes in California as recently as 2025 and 2026.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why were the F-117s not scrapped?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The 2007 National Defense Authorization Act required that F-117s mothballed from 30 September 2006 onwards be maintained in a condition that would allow recall of the aircraft to future service. 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Current aircraft and prices are on the MiGFlug flights and prices page.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\">\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/f-117-nighthawk-85-0818-smithsonian-udvar-hazy-2026\/\">F-117 Nighthawk 85-0818: The Smithsonian Gets The Overachiever<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/amarg-boneyard-davis-monthan-aircraft-storage-arizona\/\">Four Thousand Aircraft in the Desert<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The F-117 Nighthawk retired in 2008. Around 45 are still kept airworthy at Tonopah, and one line in a defence act explains why.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24687527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24688215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>F-117 Nighthawk: Retired in 2008, Still Flying in 2026 | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The F-117 Nighthawk retired in 2008. 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