F-117 Nighthawk "Stealth Fighter" (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The F-117 Nighthawk "stealth fighter" was kept secret for over five years after it entered service and is now the first true stealth aircraftto have been retired.   Here you see it from a very unusual head-on angle which makes it obvious just how poor the pilot's forward field of view is.

The Nighthawk was developed as a "black project", and even its fighter designation was a deliberate subterfuge to hide its true purpose as a ground attack aircraft.   Although it can theoretically be armed with air-to-air missiles, in practice it only carries two 2000 pound laser-guided bombs, which are mounted internally to avoid radar reflections.   It doesn't even have guns - the four things poking out the front of the aircraft are part of the instrumentation for determining airspeed and other flight parameters.

Although it first flew in 1981, it didn't make its first public appearance until 1990.   Before its existence was revealed all flights were made at night, making life difficult for the pilots and their families.   Since they also do all of their military operations at night, it's no wonder that the plane was given the name "Nighthawk".   All 54 Nighthawks were based at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico until they retired in 2008, and they're now kept in storage at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the place where they first flew.   The early stealth technology used on the F-117 made it very expensive to maintain, so it's now been replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which truly is a stealth fighter, but also has the ability to drop two 1000 pound bombs.