Accidents and disasters[edit | edit code]
Over the entire history of operation of F-117 aircraft, according to official data, 7 aircraft were lost (just over 10% of the total number built), including one F-117 that was shot down during combat operations. The Nighthawks flew a total of about 220,000 hours, that is, the flight time per loss was about 31,000 hours.
- April 20 - F-117A (serial number 80-0785), Lt. Col. Bob Ridenhauer "
Bandit 102". The plane crashed on takeoff due to an incorrectly configured flight control system at the factory. The pilot did not have time to eject, received serious injuries and was written off from flight work. - July 11 - F-117A (serial number 81-0792), Major Ross Mulhare "
Bandit 198". The plane collided with the ground near Bakersfield, California, during a night flight. The reason was the disorientation of the pilot, who had little flying time on the F-117. Major Mulhare died. - October 14 - F-117A (serial number 83-0815), Major Michael Stewart ( Bandit
231). The plane collided with the ground near Tonopah during a night flight. The reason was the disorientation of the pilot, who had little flying time on the F-117. Major Stewart was killed. - August 4 - F-117A (serial number 85-0801), captain John Mills ( Bandit
402). The plane caught fire during a night mission near Holloman Air Force Base and exploded in mid-air. The reason is an error by ground technical personnel during maintenance. Captain Mills ejected safely. - May 10 - F-117A (serial number 85-0822), captain Kenneth Levens "
Bandit 461". The plane crashed into the ground near Zuni, New Mexico, during a night flight. The alleged cause is the disorientation of the pilot, who had little flying time on the F-117. Captain Levens died. - September 14 - F-117A (serial number 81-0793), Major Bryan Knight "
Bandit 437". The plane disintegrated in mid-air and crashed into a building during an air show in Chesapeake, Maryland. The accident occurred due to a technical reason, which led to the pilot losing control. 4 people were injured on the ground. Major Knight ejected safely.
Combat use[edit | edit code]
F-117 in Kuwait, 1998
- US Invasion of Panama (1989)
- Gulf War (1991) See also Bombing of the Amiriya air-raid shelter
- On the first night of the war, almost the entire fleet of Iraqi Tu-22 long-range bombers was destroyed [ source not specified 789 days
].
Loseedit | edit code
Wreckage of a downed F-117 in the Belgrade Museum
March 27, 1999 - F-117A (serial number 82-0806), Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko. The plane was shot down near the village of Budzhanovci during a NATO military operation against Yugoslavia. The pilot ejected safely and was evacuated by a search and rescue team. According to the Serbian version, the F-117 was shot down by the S-125 anti-aircraft missile system (5V27D missile produced by the XX Party Congress plant (now AVITEK) in 1976) of the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade (battery commander - Zoltan Dani). The target was hit by two missiles (the first tore off the wing, and the second hit the plane itself), 17 seconds after the “fire” command.
There were versions about the participation of the Kub air defense system or MiG-29 and MiG-21 fighters: according to some sources (in particular, the Russian author Vladimir Ilyin and the Argentine Diego Zampini), the F-117 was shot down by a MiG-29 fighter piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Gvozden Dyukich (at the same time, the Serbian newspaper Politika reports that “Gvozden Đukić ”
) was a nickname used by Zoltan Dani during the war). The pilot of the F-117 is sometimes mistakenly identified as Captain Ken Dwiley, since he flew the aircraft in the United States and had his name written on the fuselage.
April 30, 1999 - F-117A was damaged by the S-125 anti-aircraft missile system.
Notes[ | code]
- At the 1990 exchange rate, of which about 2 billion for R&D, 4.27 billion for procurement, 295.4 million for the creation of ground infrastructure
- Aronstein and Piccirillo 1997, p. 267
- Magazine "Aviation and Time" No. 01 2002.
- ↑
- ↑ (English).See. Figure 1.
- ↑
- ↑
- Flying Safety Magazine, January/February 2009, p. 39.
- Machine-building enterprise "AVITEK" // Encyclopedia of the Vyatka Land / resp. V. Sitnikov. - Kirov: “O-Kratkoe”, 2008. - T. 10. Book two. Industry. Energy. Construction. Transport. — 560 s. — 5000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-91402-040-5.
- Alexander Gasyuk.
. Russian newspaper (24-03-2014). Retrieved March 24, 2014.
- (unavailable link). Retrieved March 13, 2020.
- (unavailable link). Retrieved March 15, 2008.
- (unavailable link). Retrieved April 25, 2008.
- (unavailable link). Retrieved April 15, 2020.
Removal from service
The US Air Force intended to operate the F-117 until at least 2018, but a lack of money to purchase new F-22 multi-role fighters forced it to begin the process of retiring the Night Hawk much earlier. This was officially announced in the fall of 2006. That same year, the F-117 pilot training school was closed, its last graduation taking place on October 13, 2006.
The first ten F-117s were withdrawn from service in December 2006. By March 2008, the US Air Force continued to operate 15 aircraft of this type. Formally, the decommissioning procedure ended on April 22 of the same year, when four F-117s took off for the last time, flying to Tonopah Air Base.
As of 2014, aircraft removed from service are stored in a special “storage 1000” and are maintained in airworthy condition. In 2020, the US Congress decided to send existing F-117s to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona for outdoor storage. In February 2020, flights of four aircraft of this model were observed in the neighboring state of Nevada.
