Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk
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The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a military jet fighter designed to attack ground targets while remaining hidden from enemy radar and detection systems through its stealth technology. It represented a major breakthrough in military aviation by proving that large aircraft could be made nearly invisible to radar, which changed how modern air forces plan their operations.
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The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, subsonic, twin-engined stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircraft to be designed with stealth technology.
Work on what would become the F-117 began in the 1970s to counter increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). In 1976, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued Lockheed a contract to produce the Have Blue technology demonstrator, whose test data validated the concept. On 1 November 1978, Lockheed decided to develop the F-117. Five prototypes were produced, the first of which performed its maiden flight in 1981 at Groom Lake, Nevada. The first production F-117 was delivered in 1982, and initial operating capability was achieved in October 1983. All aircraft were initially based at Tonopah Test Range Airport, Nevada.