Why was the F-117 thought to be called the F-19?

US fighter numbering skipped from F-18 to F-20, so observers assumed the secret stealth jet was the F-19. A popular 1986 Testors model kit even guessed its shape. The real designation was the out-of-sequence F-117.

Aircraft Museum › Stealth Attack › F-117

Lockheed F-117
“Nighthawk”

Q: Can I fly in an F-117?

No. The F-117 is a retired, single-seat stealth aircraft with no two-seat version and no public rides. You can, however, fly in a range of genuine ex-military fighter jets today via MiGFlug.

Q: How fast is the F-117?

The F-117 is subsonic, with a top speed around Mach 0.92. Its two GE F404 engines run without afterburner to keep the aircraft cooler and harder to detect.

Q: How was the F-117 kept secret for so long?

It flew only at night from a remote base at Tonopah, Nevada, crews commuted on unmarked jets, and the Air Force used A-7s as a cover story. It was not publicly acknowledged until 10 November 1988.

The world’s first operational stealth aircraft — a faceted black jet built in total secrecy at Lockheed’s Skunk Works, flown only in the dark, and the machine that finally made radar-evading warplanes real.

First everOperational stealth aircraft

מאך 0.92Top speed · subsonic, no afterburner

~64Airframes built (incl. test)

1981–2008First flight · retirement

Photo: Senior Master Sgt. Kim Frey · U.S. Air Force

RoleStealth precision ground-attackEraLate Cold War & afterמָנוֹעַ2 × GE F404-F1D2 (non-afterburning)OriginUSA · Lockheed Skunk WorksStatusRetired (limited test flights)Want to fly a fighter jet yourself?

הסיפור

The jet that made radar blind

By the mid-1970s the United States had a problem: Soviet radar-guided surface-to-air missiles had grown so lethal that flying into defended airspace was close to suicide. The answer was not to fly faster or higher, but to disappear. In 1975 Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works, then led by Ben Rich, began chasing an idea that sounded absurd — an aircraft so shaped that enemy radar would barely see it at all.

The breakthrough came from an unlikely place: a 1962 paper by Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev, which gave engineers the maths to predict how radar waves scatter off flat panels. A Skunk Works mathematician, Denys Overholser, realised those equations meant a jet built entirely from angled facets could deflect radar energy away from the sender. The demonstrator that proved it — the Have Blue — first flew in 1977, and the operational aircraft, code-named Senior Trend, followed on 18 June 1981.

For seven years the F-117 flew only at night, from a remote base at Tonopah in the Nevada desert, its very existence a state secret. The world did not see it until the Pentagon released a single blurry photograph in November 1988. When it finally went to war — over Panama, then in a spectacular debut over Baghdad in 1991 — it rewrote the rules of air power. It was not the fastest or the most agile jet ever built. It was simply the one radar could not find.

They didn’t make it faster. They made it vanish.Stealth, born in the dark — the F-117 and the physics of invisibility

01How the F-117 Nighthawk was built in total secrecy at Tonopah

The F-117 was one of the most closely guarded programmes of the Cold War. The operational jets were based at the Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, and for years they flew only at night so they could not be photographed or tracked. Pilots and maintainers commuted from Nellis Air Force Base on unmarked contractor Boeing 737s, working a nocturnal life their own families knew almost nothing about — many were told only that they worked on a classified project in the desert.

Because the aircraft did not officially exist, the Air Force even flew A-7 Corsairs from Tonopah as a cover story to explain the flying-hours and personnel. The secret held remarkably well. The type was not publicly acknowledged until 10 November 1988, and the first F-117 was not shown to the public in daylight until 1990 — nearly a decade after its first flight.

Design & Engineering

What makes the F-117 special

A shape made of flat facets

The Nighthawk’s strange, angular body is not styling — it is physics. Its surface is broken into dozens of flat panels (facets) angled to bounce radar energy away from the sender rather than back to it, and the whole airframe is wrapped in radar-absorbent material (RAM). Together they gave the F-117 a radar signature commonly likened to a small bird. The design was only possible because Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev’s equations let Skunk Works predict a faceted jet’s radar return before it was ever built.

Precision bombing in the dark

The F-117 could not use radar — radar emissions would give it away — so it navigated by GPS and inertial systems and aimed with a pair of infrared sensors (FLIR and a downward-looking DLIR) that let the single pilot find, track and laser-designate a target in total darkness. Its two GBU-27 or GBU-10 laser-guided bombs rode in internal bays so nothing hung outside to reflect radar. The result was a stealthy aircraft that could put a 2,000-lb bomb through a specific doorway at night.

Subsonic, silent to radar, and unstable

Stealth drove every choice. Two General Electric F404 turbofans run without afterburner — no supersonic dash, no telltale reheat plume — and exhaust through flattened ‘platypus’ slots that cool and hide the heat. Carrying no radar and emitting almost nothing, the jet is nearly passive. The faceted shape is so aerodynamically unstable that it can only be flown by a quadruple-redundant fly-by-wire computer making constant corrections a human never could.

02The physics behind the F-117: Ufimtsev, the ‘Hopeless Diamond’ and edge waves

In 1962 a Soviet physicist named Pyotr Ufimtsev published a paper on how electromagnetic waves scatter from the edges of flat surfaces. Moscow considered it academic and let it circulate freely; a Skunk Works engineer, Denys Overholser, found it and realised it was the key to predicting an aircraft’s radar cross-section from simple flat facets. Lockheed’s early faceted test model was so ungainly the engineers nicknamed it the “Hopeless Diamond,” yet on the radar range it all but disappeared.

Ben Rich later joked that Ufimtsev had done more for American stealth than any US engineer. The irony is complete: the aircraft that would help win the air war over Iraq was made possible by a paper the Soviet Union gave away for free.

03Flying a brick: why the F-117 needed computers to stay in the air

Designing for radar, not for flight, produced a shape that no pilot could control unaided. The faceted airframe is aerodynamically unstable in pitch and yaw, so the F-117 relies on a quadruple-redundant fly-by-wire flight-control system that senses the aircraft’s attitude and corrects it many times a second. Take the computers away and the jet would tumble.

Early instability during the Have Blue and development years earned the type the mocking nickname “Wobblin’ Goblin,” though operational pilots insisted the finished aircraft flew steadily and disliked the name, preferring simply “the Black Jet.”

Technical Data

Full F-117 specifications

Airframe & Performance

צוות: 1
מֶשֶׁך: 20.09 m (65 ft 11 in)
מוּטַת כְּנָפַים: 13.21 m (43 ft 4 in)
גוֹבַה: 3.78 m (12 ft 5 in)
משקל ריק: ~13,380 kg (29,500 lb)
Max takeoff weight: ~23,810 kg (52,500 lb)
Max speed: ~Mach 0.92 (high subsonic)
לָנוּעַ: ~1,720 km combat radius (with tanking)
תקרת השירות: ~13,700 m (45,000 ft)

Propulsion, Systems & Cost

Engines: 2 × GE F404-F1D2 (non-afterburning)
Thrust (each): ~40–48 kN (9,000–10,800 lbf), source-dependent
Radar: None — passive IR (FLIR/DLIR) targeting
Internal payload: ~2,300 kg (5,000 lb) in 2 bays
Typical weapons: 2 × GBU-27 or GBU-10 laser-guided bombs
First flight: 18 June 1981
Built: 64 (5 YF-117A + 59 F-117A)
Unit cost: ~$42–45 million flyaway (est.)
Program cost: ~$111 million per aircraft incl. development

04What the F-117 Nighthawk actually cost

Because it was a black programme, the F-117’s finances were hidden for years, and the numbers you see depend on what is counted. The flyaway cost of an individual airframe is usually put in the low-to-mid $40 millions (1980s dollars). Spread the enormous secret research, development and infrastructure bill across the small fleet of 64 aircraft, however, and the program unit cost rises to roughly $111 million each. No reliable public cost-per-flight-hour figure exists for the type. Any single dollar figure attached to the Nighthawk should be read with that ambiguity in mind.

Timeline

From black project to retirement

1977

Have Blue flies

Lockheed’s faceted stealth demonstrator, Have Blue, takes to the air and proves a radar-evading shape can actually fly.

1981

First Senior Trend flight

The first operational F-117A flies on 18 June from Groom Lake — still one of the most secret aircraft in the world.

1983

Declared operational

The 4450th Tactical Group reaches initial operating capability at Tonopah, flying the jet exclusively at night.

1988

The Pentagon reveals it

On 10 November the Air Force releases a single grainy photograph, finally admitting the F-117 exists.

1989

Combat debut over Panama

During Operation Just Cause, F-117s fly their first combat mission, dropping bombs near Rio Hato — with mixed results.

1991

Desert Storm

Around 40 Nighthawks strike the most heavily defended targets in Baghdad on the opening night, losing none.

1999

Vega 31 shot down

On 27 March a Serbian SA-3 battery downs an F-117 over Yugoslavia — the only combat loss in the type’s history. The pilot is rescued.

2008

Retired — but not gone

The Air Force retires the F-117 in April 2008, yet keeps airframes flyable; Nighthawks are still seen flying as test and adversary aircraft into the 2020s.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Twelve stories from the shadows

Cold-War origin

A Soviet paper built it

American stealth began with maths the USSR gave away for free.

Read the full story

The F-117 traces directly to a 1962 paper by Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev on how radar waves scatter from edges and flat surfaces. Moscow judged it academic and let it circulate. A Lockheed Skunk Works engineer, Denys Overholser, recognised it as the key to designing a faceted aircraft radar could barely see. Ben Rich later quipped that Ufimtsev did more for US stealth than any American — the Soviets had, in effect, handed the West the blueprint.

Skunk Works

The Hopeless Diamond

The first stealth shape was so ugly engineers laughed — then it vanished on radar.

Read the full story

When Lockheed built its early faceted test model, it looked so awkward and unflyable that the engineers nicknamed it the “Hopeless Diamond.” On the radar test range, though, it was almost invisible — reportedly harder to detect than a small bird. That model, refined into the Have Blue demonstrator and then the F-117, proved that a machine built to defeat radar could still be a real, flying aircraft.

Secrecy

A life lived at night

For years F-117 crews commuted to a secret desert base and flew only in the dark.

Read the full story

The operational Nighthawks were hidden at Tonopah in the Nevada desert. Crews flew only at night so the jets could not be photographed, and commuted from Nellis on unmarked contractor 737s, living nocturnal lives their families barely understood. The Air Force even flew A-7 Corsairs as a cover story to explain the personnel and flying hours. The secret held for the better part of a decade.

Nickname

‘Wobblin’ Goblin’

The unstable stealth shape earned a mocking nickname its pilots hated.

Read the full story

The faceted airframe is aerodynamically unstable and can only be flown by computer. Early instability in the development years earned the type the nickname “Wobblin’ Goblin.” Operational pilots insisted the finished jet flew steadily and disliked the name, preferring simply “the Black Jet.” The label stuck in the press anyway — a rare case of a warplane’s reputation being shaped by a joke.

The myth

The F-19 that never was

Before the reveal, the world was sure the secret stealth jet was called the F-19.

Read the full story

Through the 1980s everyone knew a secret stealth fighter existed — and, since US fighter numbering had skipped from F-18 to F-20, most assumed it was the “F-19.” Model-maker Testors even sold a wildly popular plastic “F-19 Stealth Fighter” kit in 1986, a sleek shape nothing like the real thing. When the truth emerged it carried the odd, out-of-sequence designation F-117 instead — a number whose origin is still debated.

The reveal

One blurry photo

After a decade of secrecy, the F-117 was unveiled with a single grainy picture.

Read the full story

On 10 November 1988, with the programme increasingly hard to hide, Assistant Secretary of Defense J. Daniel Howard held up one grainy, deliberately unimpressive photograph at a Pentagon press conference and confirmed the F-117 existed. It was the first time the public officially saw the aircraft — seven years after its first flight. The jet would not appear in daylight before crowds until 1990.

Combat · 1989

A rocky debut over Panama

The F-117’s first combat mission was overshadowed by a bombing controversy.

Read the full story

The Nighthawk first went to war during the December 1989 invasion of Panama, tasked with dropping bombs near a barracks at Rio Hato to stun the defenders. Confusion over the exact aim point meant the bombs did not land quite where intended, and a political row followed about whether the mission had succeeded. It was an awkward first outing for a jet that would soon become legendary.

Combat · 1991

First bomb on Baghdad

A Nighthawk dropped the opening bomb of Desert Storm on the enemy capital.

Read the full story

On the first night of Operation Desert Storm, 17 January 1991, F-117s slipped unseen through the densest air defences on Earth to strike targets in the heart of Baghdad — a Nighthawk dropped one of the war’s first bombs on a telecommunications centre. Around 40 F-117s flew roughly 1,300 sorties during the war, a small fraction of the total, yet struck a large share of Iraq’s strategic targets without a single loss.

Design

Why it only flew at night

Stealth against radar left the F-117 exposed by day, so it became a creature of darkness.

Read the full story

The F-117 was optimised to beat radar, not the human eye: matte-black, it was very hard to see on radar but perfectly visible in daylight, and it carried no defensive weapons and could not dogfight. So it flew and fought at night, using darkness as a second layer of protection. The flattened ‘platypus’ exhausts spread and cooled its jet heat to hide it from infrared missiles as well.

Combat · 1999

The night stealth died

A Serbian missile crew did what no one thought possible and shot down an F-117.

Read the full story

On 27 March 1999, during NATO’s Kosovo campaign, an F-117 flown by Lt Col Dale Zelko was hit over Yugoslavia by an S-125 (SA-3) missile fired by Colonel Zoltan Dani’s battery. Predictable routing, a lack of jamming support, and the jet’s bomb-bay doors opening at the wrong moment all helped. It remains the only F-117 ever lost in combat. Zelko ejected and was rescued hours later; the wreckage is displayed in a Belgrade museum.

Reconciliation

The pilot and the man who shot him down

Years later, the F-117 pilot and the Serbian officer who downed him became friends.

Read the full story

The story of Vega 31 has a remarkable epilogue. Years after 1999, Dale Zelko — the American pilot — and Zoltan Dani — the Serbian commander whose crew shot him down — met, visited each other’s homes and became genuine friends, a friendship captured in the documentary “The Second Meeting.” Two men on opposite ends of a missile found common ground long after the war.

Legacy

Retired, but still flying

Officially gone since 2008, Nighthawks keep turning up in the desert skies.

Read the full story

The Air Force retired the F-117 in 2008, but rather than scrapping the fleet it placed the jets in flyable storage at Tonopah. Ever since, Nighthawks have kept appearing — flying as stealthy adversary and test aircraft, training other pilots and radar crews, and turning up at exercises well into the 2020s. The world’s first stealth jet has proved unexpectedly hard to put to rest.

Gallery

The Nighthawk in pictures

A Nighthawk head-on over Nevada every flat facet angled to throw radar energy away from the sender. — A Nighthawk head-on over Nevada — every flat facet angled to throw radar energy away from the sender.Photo: Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon II · U.S. Air Force

Two 37th Tactical Fighter Wing F-117s in a hangar during Operation Desert Shield, weeks before the 1991 air war.Photo: U.S. Air Force

An F-117 in an experimental light-grey scheme a rare Nighthawk in Raptors clothing. — An F-117 in an experimental light-grey scheme — a rare ‘Nighthawk in Raptor’s clothing.’Photo: Airman 1st Class Vanessa LaBoy · U.S. Air Force

Ground crew marshals a Nighthawk deploying to the Persian Gulf in 1998 the jet flew and fought only at night. — Ground crew marshals a Nighthawk deploying to the Persian Gulf in 1998 — the jet flew and fought only at night.Photo: Tech. Sgt. G.M. Kobashigawa · U.S. Air Force

Extreme-cold testing at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory the radar-absorbent skin had to survive every climate. — Extreme-cold testing at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory — the radar-absorbent skin had to survive every climate.Photo: U.S. Air Force

A Nighthawk lands in Alaska during Northern Edge 2023 fifteen years after retirement, the type still flies. — A Nighthawk lands in Alaska during Northern Edge 2023 — fifteen years after ‘retirement,’ the type still flies.Photo: Airman 1st Class Julia Lebens · U.S. Air Force

Watch

The F-117 in motion

A hand-picked F-117 Nighthawk documentary is coming soon to this page. In the meantime, explore the stories, gallery and operations map above — or read the full account of the 1999 shootdown in the stories below.

Watch

The F-117 Nighthawk in motion

Real Engineering — one of the most-watched F-117 Nighthawk films on YouTube.

Operations

Where the F-117 operated

Combat Record

The score that defines it

The F-117 never fired a shot in air-to-air combat — it carried no guns or missiles and never needed them. Its record is one of stealthy precision strikes against the hardest targets, and of a single, historic loss. In Desert Storm it flew a small fraction of the sorties yet hit a large share of the strategic targets, and it did so without losing an aircraft. Only once, over Serbia in 1999, did a defender manage to bring a Nighthawk down.

~40%of Iraq’s strategic targets struck in 1991 (reported; figures vary)

0 lossesin ~1,300 Desert Storm sorties

1combat loss ever — Serbia, 27 March 1999

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the F-117

Can I fly in an F-117?

No — the F-117 is a retired, single-seat stealth aircraft and there are no public rides in one, nor a two-seat version. You can, however, fly in a range of genuine ex-military fighter jets today — see migflug.com/flights-prices/.

Why is the F-117 called a “fighter” if it only drops bombs?

It is really an attack aircraft, not a dogfighter — it carries no guns or air-to-air missiles. The “F” designation is a quirk of Air Force naming and secrecy; the F-117 was always a precision bomber built around stealth.

How was the F-117 kept secret for so long?

It flew only at night from a remote base at Tonopah in Nevada, crews commuted on unmarked jets, and the Air Force used A-7s as a cover story. The type was not publicly acknowledged until 10 November 1988, seven years after its first flight.

Was an F-117 ever shot down?

Yes, once. On 27 March 1999 a Serbian S-125 (SA-3) missile battery downed an F-117 over Yugoslavia — the only combat loss in the type’s history. The pilot, Lt Col Dale Zelko, ejected and was rescued.

How fast is the F-117?

It is subsonic, with a top speed around Mach 0.92. Its two GE F404 engines run without afterburner, trading speed for a cooler, quieter, harder-to-detect aircraft.

Why was it thought to be called the F-19?

Because US fighter numbering skipped from F-18 to F-20, observers assumed the secret stealth jet filled the gap as the “F-19.” A popular 1986 Testors model kit even guessed at its shape. The real, out-of-sequence designation turned out to be F-117.

Is the F-117 still flying?

Officially it retired in 2008, but the Air Force kept airframes flyable at Tonopah. Nighthawks are still seen flying into the 2020s as stealthy test and adversary aircraft during exercises.

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