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From: orpheus@reed.UUCP (P. Hawthorne)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: F-117A performance?
Message-ID: <1991Feb7.020939.4624@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 02:09:39 GMT
References: <1991Jan23.043709.7563@cbnews.att.com> <1991Feb4.065635.21784@cbnews.att.com> <1991Feb5.043703.6484@cbnews.att.com>
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From: orpheus@reed.UUCP (P. Hawthorne)
.. I've heard that the nickname for the F-117 is the Wobblin' Goblin, but hey,
.. why *should* it be easy to fly?  The pilots seem pretty happy with its
.. performance..

   Pilots claim it is as agile as any other fighter. People who have seen
   them at Tonopah say they seem to fly like any other plane, no matter how
   weird the airframe is. Since so much of the plane was taken off the
   shelf, so to speak, I can imagine it being quite ordinary in that regard.


 . According to a recent NOVA show on camoflage and stealth technology,
 . the F-117 is "...an inherrently unstable aircraft."  Apparantly, the
 . on-board computer is required to make the necessary corrections to
 . keep the thing flying.  This takes the "fly by wire" concept one step
 . further: You tell the computer what you want the plane to do, the
 . computer tells the plane how to do it.

   There have been three crashes that I know of. I think two of them were
   unexplained, but I read one report that hinted that the pilots just got
   spooked flying by instruments in complete darkness, and overcompensated.
   Flying solely by wire and instruments has got to be rough on the nerves.


.. I like the name that the Iraqis are using for the F-117A: the Ghost or
.. the Devil.

 . What *is* the 'official' name for the F-117?  I've heard the name
 . "Ghostrider" somewhwere (maybe a Tom Clancy book), but I don't recall
 . a more 'official source for it...

   The pilots say that they do not know of anyone but the press that calls
   it that. The unofficial name Black Jet was used in an article in Popular
   Mechanics just after the unveiling.

   Since then, it has officially been named Nighthawk. I designed a
   simulator model of the plane, and I find the name quite appropriate. It
   looks like a hawk with wings folded back for speed, especially from the
   ground while it flies straight and level at a couple hundred feet.

   The patches for the teams that worked on it bear quite a few more, say,
   indelicate names. 


   orpheus@reed
 ''Up, down, turn around. Please don't let me hit the ground.'' - New Order