F-117 Nighthawk (Combat Legend)

100 Pages·2003·16.723 MB·English

by  Paul F. Crickmore

LEGEND
7
Paul Crickmore
F-117
The Author
During his thirteen years at the London Air Traffic Control Centre, Paul
Crickmore flew in a large number of both RAF and US Air Force fastjets. A
special security clearance enabled him to fly on an operational air refuelling of
an SR-71 Blackbird, flying from RAF Mildenhall in October 1981. That experience
provided him with a unique access to the world of America's latest aviation
technology and since that flight he has written dozens of articles and eleven
books about military aviation matters.
The Cover
Thunder36 in DesertStorm
At 0200hrs F-117A, call sign Thunder 36, took offto rendezvous with a KC-135
tanker and flew north toward Iraq. At 0230hrs the aircraft topped up with
fuel and departed from the tanker to drop the first bomb in Operation Desert
Storm. Colonel Greg Feest crossed the Iraq border and headed towards his
target, an underground communications bunker southwest of Baghdad. The
pilot located the target and when in range he depressed the pickle button.
Seconds later the weapon bay doors snapped open and a 2,000 pound bomb
dropped from the aircraft. As he watched its guided decent through the cross
hairs ofthe laser display he saw the bomb penetrate the bunker and blow out
its doors. Colonel Feest knew he had knocked out his target. He turned the
aircraft 210 degrees left and looked back to see bursts of red and orange
flying at him and lighting the sky. He pushed open the throttles and headed
towards his second target.
The Artist
Jim Brown has spent over twenty years in the advertising industry and has
been a pilot for more than half that time. His skills working with oils, acrylic
and gouache, when combined with his pilot's eye for accuracy, bring an
exciting new dimension to aviation art.
F-117
Paul Crickmore
Airlife
Acknowledgements
I
I'd like to thank the following for their kind assistance during the research ofthis publication: James
Goodall, DennyLombard,JayMillerand NigelHannant. Thanks alsoto myeditorand friend PaulE.
Eden and last butby no means least my daughter Nic for being such fun and my son Matthew for
takingmefishing.
This book is dedicated to my wife Ali whose help, support, encouragement and love is a constant
sourceofstrength.
InformationonthemodelkitssuppliedbyH.G.HannantLtd:www.hannants.co.uk
Copyright©2003AirlifePublishingLtd
TextwrittenbyPaulF.Crickmore
ProfileillustrationsdrawnbyDaveWindle
CoverpaintingbyJimBrown-TheArtofAviationCo.Ltd
FirstpublishedintheUKin2003
byAirlifePublishingLtd
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isavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
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ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicor
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Contents
Chronology: F-1 1 7 Nighthowk Timeline 4
Chapter Prototypes and Development: Have Blue 5
1
Chapter 2 Operational History: Senior Trend 17
Chapter 3 Operational History: The Tonopah Years 37
Chapter 4 Operational History: War and Beyond 5
1
Chapter 5 Technical Accomplishments 79
Appendices Weapons 89
1 :
2: Individual Aircraft Histories 90
3: Model Kits and Further Reading 93
4: Glossary 94
Index 96
Lockheed F-1 17 Nighthawk
15 October 1982
Major A! Whitley becomes first operational pilot to fly the
F-nz
25 September 1985
Aircraft79-10781 suffersrudderloss
11 July 1986
F-117Nighthawk Aircraft 81-10792 crashes near Bakersfield, California. Pilot,
MajorRossE.Mulhare, iskilled
Timeline September 1986
10,000flying hoursachieved
June 1975 April 1987
Echo 1 computer program is developed by Denys Overholser 10,000flightscompleted
andBillSchroeder
14October 1987
April 1976 Aircraft 85-0815 crashes at a Nellis gunnery range. Pilot,
Lockheed received go ahead to build two Have Blue MajorMichaelC. Stewart, iskilled
demonstrators
20October 1987
1 December 1977 A4450thA-7Dcrashes intoa hotel nearIndianapolisairport.
First flight of Have Blue, HBlOOl, just after 07:00, Bill Park Pilot Major Bruce L. Teagarden ejects safely, however, nine
pilot killedontheground
4May 1978 10November 1988
HBlOOl crashes, pilotBill Parkejects butis badlyinjured; 36 Assistant Secretary of Defense J. Daniel Howard reveals
testsortiescompleted photographofF-117duringaPentagonpressconference
20July 1978 20December 1989
HB1002 firstflight, pilotKen Dyson Two F-1 17s become the first to be used in combat during
OperationJustCause
16November 1978
Full scale engineering development contract awarded for five 21 April 1990
FSDand 15 productionaircraft Firstdeclassified photosreleasedofF-117
n
July 1979 12July 1990
HB1002 crashes, pilotKen Dyson ejectssafely; 52 testsorties Lastproduction F-117delivered
completed
21 August 1990
15October 1979 First 18 F-117sarriveatKing KholidAFB, SaudiArabia
4450thTacticalGroupactivated
17January 1991
November 1979 Greg Feest drops the first bomb of the campaign from an
AssemblyofthefirstFSDF-117(79-10780) begins F-117,signallingthestartofDesertStorm
18June 1981 November 1994
FirstflightofFSDF-117, '780conductedbyHalFarley 60,000flightscompleted
17November 1981 December 1994
Firstairrefuellingcarriedout('780) 100,000flying hoursachieved
20April 1982 24March 1999
Aircraft 79-10785 (or 79-0785) written off during take-off F-117AscommittedtoOperationAlliedForce
following maintenance error. Pilot Bob Riedenauer survived
butbadlyinjured 27/28March 1999
F-117A 82-0806 shotdown bySerbforcesduring thecourse
15July 1982 of Allied Force operations. Pilot ejected and was rescued,
Firstflightoffirstproductionaircraftconducted byHal Farley unharmed, byhelicopter
Prototypes and Development:
1 .
Hove
Blue
Developmentofa sun'ivable interdictorhas Douglas, General Dynamics, Fairchild and
for years been the holy grail of military Grummanaddressingtwoconsiderations:
aircraftdesignengineers.Theuseofspeed, 1. What were the signature thresholds that an
high altitude, low altitude, agility, electronic aircraft needed to achieve to become essentially
countermeasures(ECM)andlatterly,combinations undetectableatanoperationallyusefulrange?
of the aforementioned, has produced throughout
aviationhistorysomeclassicaircrafttypes,which,
in their day, have provided air forces throughout
the world with useful operational advantages,
albeit at times, extremely brief advantages. Air
:V*,
battles fought by the United States in South-East
Asia during the late 1960s and early 1970s,
together with the losses suffered by Israel during
the so called Yom Kippur War of 1973, were
responsible for the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA), initiating conceptual
studies into a different approach to an enduring
problem; namely, whether it was possible to
develop a manned aircraft with a sufficiently low
radar cross-section (RCS) to defeat modern air
defencesystems.Consequently,in1974,KenPerko
oftheTacticalTechnologyOffice (TTO) atDARPA
requested submissionsfromNorthrop,McDonnell
Area 51 is probablythe bestknown 'secret' base in the
western world. Situated approximately 161 km
(100 miles) north-west of Las Vegas, its exceptional
remoteness makes it the perfect site for black world tm^^A
flighttestoperations. (James Coodallcollection)
Lockheed F-1 17Nighthawk
Above: Ben Rich joined Lockheed in 1950; while
President of the Skunk Works, he fully backed the
conceptof Stealth, becoming in the process 'The father
ofstealth'. Ben diedon 5January 1995.
Mathematical genius Denys Overholser was the
powerhouse behind the Echo 1 development team.
(both LockheedMartin)
reduced signature. Consequently,bothcompanies
2. Did those companies possess the capabilities were awarded contracts worth approximately
to design and produce an aircraft with those $100,000 each during the closing months of 1974
necessarylowsignatures? to conduct further studies. These studies,
Fairchild and Grumman declined the invitation classified 'Confidential', also involved radar
to participate, while General Dynamics experts from the Hughes Aircraft Company
emphasised the continued need for electronic whose role would be to identify and verify
countermeasures and provided little substantive appropriateRCSthresholds.
technical content regarding signature reduction. At this early stage. Bill Eisner was the primary
The submissions from McDonnell Douglas and USAir Force technical expert on the programme,
Northrop, however, demonstrated a grasp of the and at thebegimiingof1975, McDonnell Douglas
problem, together with a degree of technical had identified likely RCS thresholds that could
capability for developing an aircraft with a produce an operational advantage; these were
Prototypesand Development: HaveBlue
laterconfirmedby Hughesand in the spring they SkunkWorks,whatwasneededwasasubstantial
were established by DARPA as goals for the project involving revolutionary technologies.
programme. DARPA then challenged the study (Interestingly, however, on 16 November 1979,
participantstofindwaysofachievingthem. the Skunk Works received an Air Force initial
On 17 January 1975, Ben Rich became the contract worth $10.2 million, for the
President of Lockheed's famous Skunk Works. refurbishment of Palmdale's U-2R production
Having joined the company as an entry-level facilities (Air Force plant Number 42). Over the
engineer, in 1954 he began working on the U-2. next ten years this facility produced 37 U-2Rs -
Five years later, he and Dave Campbell were initially designated (for political reasons) as
principalpropulsionengineerson ProjectGusto,a TR-ls,forTacticalReconnaissance.)
series of design submissions that would evolve
into the legendary SR-71. In truth, Ben had A-12/D-21 heritage
inherited an awesome task, as post-Vietnam, ItwaswhileBenwasstill'Kelly'Johnson'sdeputy,
defence spending was at an all-time low and the that the former became aware of the low
year before his appointment, a bribery scandal observabilitystudy. Lockheedhadnotbeenoneof
surfaced, in which Lockheed executives admitted the five original companies approached by the
paying millions of dollars in bribes, over more DARPAteam,simplybecauseithadnotproduced
than a decade, in order to secure contracts, a fighter for nearly ten years. However, while
principally for the F-104 Starfighter, from key networking his contacts at the Pentagon and at
officials and politicians in The Netherlands, West Wright-Patterson AFB, Ed Martin, Lockheed
Germany, Italy and Japan. As ifthat was not bad California Company's Director for Science and
enough, Lockheed's attempt to re-enter the Engineering, was made aware of the study. He
commercial airliner world with its L-1011 TriStar andBenthenbriefedKelly,whointurnobtaineda
failed spectacularly and plunged the company letter from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
into financial turmoil. In 1972, Congress granting the Skunk Works permission to discuss
reluctantlyhelpedbailoutthecompanywith loan with DARPAthe low observable characteristics of
guarantees of $250 million, however losses theA-12andD-21. Benand Ed thenpresented the
continued to accumulate and by late 1974 these resultstoKenPerkoandDrGeorgeHeilmeier,the
hadreachedastaggering$2billion. headofDARPA,andformallyrequestedentryinto
thecompetition.DrHeilmeier,however,explained
Finding ne>v business that two $100,000 contracts had already been
Fifty-year-old Ben's first task was to get new awardedtotwocompaniesandtherewasnomore
business fast and fill as much of the 27870 m' cash available. After much negotiating and horse
(300,000 sq ft) ofproduction and assembly space trading, Ben managed to convince the DARPA
in the two enormous hangars at Burbank as boss to allow Lockheed into the competition
possible. His course of action was to convince without a government contract - a move that
General DavidJones, theAirForceChiefofStaff, ultimately paid a handsome divided. Lockheed
oftheneedtore-opentheU-2productionline-a was then given access to technical reports already
game plan withoutprecedent-since never in its provided to the other participants and the first
historyhad theUSAF restarted a production line step that would culminate in a revolutionary
for any aircraft in its inventory, let alone one aircraft was taken; Lockheed's new President,
whose tooling had been placed in storage six Larry Kitchen, supported Ben, securing from the
years earlier. However, during that meeting Boardthenecessarycapitalfortheproject.
General Jones indicated that he was 'favourably In February 1975, Dick Scherrer joined Ed
disposed' to the idea, but Ben was under no Martin from Lockheed's white world (not
illusions, to secure the long-term future of the classified). Advanced Concepts Department. He
.
LockheedF-1 17Nighthawk
made enquiries within the Skunk Works to groupofpreliminarydesignengineers.Denysand
unearth any theoretical foundations on which he his team worked night and day, and in just five
could base a low RCS design. His investigations weeks produced an RCS prediction program
drew a blank, however he was introduced to known as Echo 1. However, as tests continued, it
DenysOverholser. became apparent that the edge contributions
calculatedbyEcho1werenotaccurate,owingtoa
Mathematical conundrum phenomenonknownasdiffraction. Incredibly, the
DenyshadjoinedtheSkunkWorksfromBoeingin solutionto theproblemwasprovidedbya Soviet
1964. He recalls: 'When Dick Scherrer asked me, scientist.TheSkunkWorksteamwasmadeaware
"Howdoweshapesomethingtomakeitinvisible of a publication entitled Method ofEdge Waves in
toradar?" Isaid, "Well, it'ssimple,youjustmake the Physical Theory ofDiffraction, published in an
it out of flat surfaces, and you tilt those flat unclassified technical paper by Pyotr Ufimtsev,
surfaces over, sweeping the edges away from the Chief Scientist at the Moscow Institute of Radio
radar view angle, and that way you basically Engineering.ThepaperhadbeentranslatedbyAir
cause the energy to reflect away from the radar, Force Systems Command's Foreign Technology
thus limiting the magnitude of the return."' The Division in 1971, and Denys was able to
framework for such radical thinking had its roots incorporate elements of its theory into a refined
in discussions that Denys had had years earlier version of the Echo 1 program and use this to
with his then boss Bill Schroeder. Bill, a brilliant mathematically evaluate over 20 designs to
mathematician, had been employed by Kelly to identifytheonewiththesmallestRCS.Thefaceted
resolve analytical problems, and had trained delta wing design had more than its share of
Denys. During the course of discussing the sceptics within the Skunk Works, some in
mathematics andphysicsofoptical scattering, the aerodynamics referred to the shape as the
two had concluded that detectable signatures 'HopelessDiamond'.
couldbeminimisedutilisingashapecomposedof Lockheed then produced two 1:3 scale wooden
the smallest number of properly orientated flat models ofthe Hopeless Diamond. One was used
panels. In addition, Denys' boss believed that he by the aerodynamicists in wind tunnel tests, the
could develop and resolve a mathematical other was coated with metal foil to provide a
equation capable of calculating analytically, the conductive surface and used to measure RCS in
reflection from a triangular flatpanel; this in turn Lockheed's anechoic chamber. The first series of
couldbeappliedtoacalculationrelatingtoRCS. tests was conducted in June 1975, and they
WithaninputfromDenys,DickScherrerdrewa demonstrated that the RCS 'spikes' matched
preliminary low RCS shape based on a faceted precisely those predicted by Echo 1. The model
deltawing. ByApril, Denyshadhiredhisex-boss. was then moved outdoors to a radar test range
BillSchroeder,outofretirementandtheysetabout near Palmdale, on the Mojave Desert. Owned by
completingsolutionstoRCSequationsthatwould McDonnell Douglas, the Grey Butte Range,
enable the group to predict results. Scherrer boasted improved capabilities, enabling the team
recruited KennethWatsonas Senior LeadAircraft tomeasureevenlowerRCSvalues, and yetagain
Designer, with the mandate to fit systems inside these test results conformed well with Echo 1
the'shell'thatheandDenysweredesigning. predictions, creating greater levels of confidence
As the design effort continued. Bill Schroeder's in both the computer program and the faceted
mathematical computations became available; designconcept
Denys Overholser and his team of two engineers To improve the vehicle's lift-to-drag ratio, the
thenusedthesetowritethecomputerprogramme sectionoutboard oftheengine inletswasthinned,
thatcould evaluate the RCSofprospectivedesign resulting in the semblance of wings, which were
submissions nominated by Dick Scherrer and his eventually extended outward, changing the