Why the Nighthawk is back from the dead

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Initial tests of prototypes and test aircraft revealed that despite the Nighthawk’s ability to stay off of a radar, the delta wing design and harsh geometry made it aerodynamically poor, and unstable in flight. This spurred the air force to secretly establish a dedicated Nighthawk squadron before the first planes were even off of the production line, under then Colonel Sandy Sharpe who would lead the formation. After the first test flights of the F117s were conducted, Colonel Sharpe demanded two changes to the airframe, enlarge the tail fins to decrease wobbling, and to paint it black, as he believed it would allow for better visual concealment at night. That, and in the words of Alan Brown, the skunkworks project manager for the Nighthawk, “Real men don’t fly funny pastel airplanes.” that’s probably not at all like how he sounded and I’m certain he could have kicked my ass.

Written by: Chris Cappy & Justin Taylor

Edited by: Ian Fitzgerald

Produced by: August Dannehl

The final design that resulted after initial testing was increased to a wingspan of 43 feet, with the entire fuselage being 65 feet long, weighing roughly 52,500lbs dry. As both speed and agility were low on the priority list of requirements, twin GE F404 Turbofan engines were used. These delivered a combined thrust of 21,200 lbs. This non-afterburning engine could only bring the Nighthawk up to a max speed of Mach 0.9, or just below the speed of sound. This of course was not an issue seeing as afterburners create massive heat signatures, and the sonic boom from supersonic flight would probably be a good indication there is a military jet in the area. The engines were encased within the fuselage, and dispersed the heat of the exhaust over a wider area using distinct slit exhaust ports while enabling it to mix with cooler air before leaving the aircraft. These twin slit exhausts were virtually invisible to most infrared trackers at the time.

The nighthawk could carry a payload of two air to ground munitions which might seem like a limited payload but that’s up to 5,000 lbs of boom boom in a stealth aircraft which is insane that means 2 munitions each weighing 2,000 lbs could fit in there. Those laser guided bombs could hit targets within a combat radius of about 590 miles. Tyler Rogoway who runs the warzone explains the purpose for the black jet best. It was created carry and employ nuclear gravity bombs—namely the B57 and B61 that are shown front and center in this image.

The aircraft's cockpit included an Aircraft Monitoring And Control panel that interfaced with the Permissive Action Link on the nuclear weapons that allowed them to be armed and programmed prior to delivery. Because I know I can only speak for myself personally but I hate having to program my nuclear weapons at the last minute. It's like can’t we just program this on the ride over there?

So remember this thing comes out in the early 1980s and if you’re the soviet union seeing it then it would have been a scary thing to see because it was designed to silently sneak in and drop a big one. Giving new meaning to the term silent but deadly. Sorry that was dumb I’m dumb.

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