The last four of the world's first stealth fighters will make their final flights to a secret base

Howdy! Well today is the last flight for four of the remaining F-117's here in California. These fighters will fly from Lockheed Martin Palmdale, CA and retire somewhere in a secret base in Nevada. I enjoyed reading this news today in the LA times because I became a big fan of this craft when I was young person. My pops who worked for Lockheed back in the days of 70's in the burbank plant where these guys where being made. I remember him talking about some very secret project's from this plant. So I guess that this may have been one of those projects he was referring to. So anyways goodbye to a very bad a** piece of technology.

Link to the news story

[edit on 22-4-2008 by JupiterJustice]

Originally posted by JupiterJustice
These fighters will fly from Lockheed Martin Palmdale, CA and retire somewhere in a secret base in Nevada.

That would be the Tonopah Test Range located on the northwestern corner of the Nellis Range.

Not so secret afterall?


Intelgurl, I believe you've shared this info with us before?

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Not so secret afterall?

Intelgurl, I believe you've shared this info with us before?

Yes, i had posted a thread about htis last month and listed Nellis as the final destination.

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Not so secret afterall?

Intelgurl, I believe you've shared this info with us before?

Yes, I believe in redundancy - we don't want a system failure, do we?

I have seen these firsthand and the F-117's are merely in storage, not destroyed or cannibalized. The wings are taken off but other than that they are absolutely intact.

I still think we should give some of them to Australia for being such good allies in the war on terror. But that's just me...

Originally posted by intelgurl
That would be the Tonopah Test Range located on the northwestern corner of the Nellis Range.

I would have guessed the Boneyard at DM. Either way, so much for a "secret military base".

I went to AF Plant 42 on Wednesday to watch the departure of the stealth fighters. The lead ship was Article 843 (AFSN 88-0843), the last F-117A built. I hadn't seen it since the rollout in July 1990. For the retirement event it was painted with an American flag motif on the underside, just like the one worn by 782 on two previous occasions. The other aircraft in the four-ship formation included 82-0800, 84-0809, and 84-0824.

This was billed as the last F-117A flight but that is not really true. There are still one or two at Palmdale that will be used for classified testing until September. So, we still have a final F-117A flight in our future.

A side note about Article 782, the third YF-117A (AFSN 79-10782):
The third preproduction airframe was retired in 2005 and sent to Holloman AFB as a "maintenance trainer." In fact, personnel from the 49FW used the opportunity to demil the airplane for static display. 782 has been placed on permanent display in the Holloman Heritage Airpark, but it has been painted as 816. The real 816 is already at Tonopah.

So why are they being retired?

Are they such a niche aircraft that a few technological developments have made them obsolete? Was the F117 a very expensive 'test bed'?

reply to post by Now_Then


Relatively short range, low payload and speed. It's pretty much a niche platform, like you said. In alot of ways it was a proof of concept vehicle immediately scaled up to provide interim strike capability.