End of an Aviation Icon
The F-117 Night Hawk, the first true stealth aircraft was retired in April of this year. Now it looks like the first one has met its end with a garpple-equipped Caterpillar:
It looks like the operator had some fun. How Ironic would it be if it was a Russian behind the wheel of that?
I feel bad because all my favorite planes are being replaced with new ones. Granted these new ones are more advanced, and stuff. But they are also way more expensive. Not only that, but with the advent of faster and faster fighters, dog-fighting as it was invented just isn;t the same anymore. And that’s sad, because that’s what made fighter pilots so awesome, at least to me anyway.
Until we have an epic space war with some aliens (or ourselves) (no robots though!), I think the fighter pilot as we know it right now, is gone and done.
{Gizmodo}
September 24th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Actually I believe that with a little research you will find that the SR-71 Blackbird was the first truly stealth aircraft…they were not going to tell us everything!!!
September 24th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Actually, the F-117 was the first aircraft that was specifically built for stealth, providing the smallest radar cross sectional area at the time.
Stealth was essentially an afterthought on the SR-71, it’s main defense was using its speed to out run any missiles that were launched at it.
So you are right in that the SR-71 was the first aircraft to use stealth technology, it was not the first “truly” stealth aircraft.
More info SR-71, F-117, Stealth.
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be an ass about it, I just know a lot about these planes. Also for the people who think Wikipedia is not reliable, I have multiple books on the subject, including one on the History of Lokheed Martin’s Skunk Works, the department responsible for both of those two planes.