Why was the F-117 retired?

It wasn't.
popularmechanics.com/military/a28399364/f-117a-nighthawk-new-role/

I don't understand how something so crazy and radical looking is actually less stealth than the F-35. Can someone explain?

It was designed before powerful computers.

>Shows exactly what the DoD thinks
who cares what those faggots think?

Attached: 1557230902697.jpg (2700x3600, 1.72M)

1. PM is a garbage source
2. Even PM was careful to say "spotted in aggressor paint" instead of asserting they were actually in aggressor squadrons
So it's worth asking, is there anything from the USAF actually saying they are in aggressor squadrons?

is it a fighter ?

Because it had limited payload, poor flight characteristics and high maintenance requirements. Various new stand-off weapons also made it easier for non-stealth aircraft to hit air defence targets.

The F-117 was good for 1st strike and dismantling air-defense networks so that the rest of the air force could go to town. But once those niches became less exclusive, it was an expensive 1st gen stealth light bomber eating cash than could be fed into more pressing needs. B-2s are also expensive but have vastly greater range and payload and can slip into air-space that a B-52 or B-1 can't.

>replaced with inferior aircraft

Attached: f14.jpg (938x522, 80K)

External hardpoint would blow up the radar cross-section and completely defeat the purpose of the aircraft.

what the other user said is pretty much it.
iirc the f117 is the first computer-generated stealth design actually fielded, but it was still likely overall designed by hand.

the sr71 look is what you get when you have engineers measure "stealth" by hand.
then the f117 look.
then the f22. funny how that works.

Imagine those fucking Gs when the bird whips sideways like that. damn lol

the pilot was never certified to fly military jets again. once you eject, 90% of the time you're relegated to a desk job.

Stop telling lies it was a bomber it didn't have a gun

sauce

Pilots who eject a lot of time suffer spinal injuries due to the extreme forces when being fired out of the cockpit. An injury like that makes them ineligible for fighter piloting, permanently.

They aren't in the desert. They were mothballed in a condition "in a condition that would allow recall of that aircraft to future service" and have been observed flying multiple times this year.

Dont forget the report that they flew over syria in 2016...

It can still be used to bomb goat fuckers.

at least he punched out. imagine the terror

can i see those reports ?

F14s get my dick so hard. Anyone up for some volleyball?

Fun Fact: The Pentagon has two times more restrooms than needed for the space. Why? Because it was built during segregation.

>Why was the F-117 retired?

It was too beautiful for this shitty gay earth ;_;

It's still being used in training as an aggressor over White Sands iirc to simulate low observable opponents. No reason to keep in active inventory we've got a lot more capable platforms now.

Attached: f35 lewd.png (1143x449, 689K)

That pilot stayed in for a fucking long time

theyre still using it dumbass you didnt need a thread for this dumbass question. dumbass

ooooh, very nice

theaviationist.com/2019/03/02/four-f-117s-conducted-covert-air-strikes-in-syria-in-2017-reputable-dutch-scramble-magazine-says/
Source is honestly somewhat dubious, but here it is.

This
There is recent footage of F-117s flying out of Tonopah.

Only if we can hangout in the locker room later.

Probably blacked out from the Gs

Attack aircraft/light bomber.

>external hardpoints on a stealth plane.

god dude i used to love eating elmers glue too but i mean i grew out of it and got into the more expensive stuff. you ever tried LIQUID NAILS? that shit tastes like pure angels titty milk i swear to fucking god id slot a baby dolphin if it was keeping me from my LIQUID NAILS. fuck oh my god.

Attached: 1561137749257.png (645x729, 58K)

I've always wondered about that, when the plane flipped i imagine the dude broke his fucking neck from the sudden high g spin

ehh super hornets probably weren't hideously overpowered and had electronics newer than 1970 so inferior is a stretch. Infinitely worse aesthetics than the tomcat however

Too easy to shoot down.

Attached: image.jpg (300x221, 25K)

This absolute madman stays in the plane for almost 17 seconds after the wobblin' goblin' takes a nutshot, and even lets the plane go into a straight dive before jumping,

>Too easy to shoot down.

So, when an F22 or and F35 or a B2 gets shot down, they will scrap their entire fleet in a second?

90% is a relevant number with ejection seats, but you gave it to wrong thing. 90% is the figure for pilots that survive the ejection, 10% pilots don't survive the ejection. Actual figure for pilots being grounded after ejection somewhere between 30% and 40%.

>Actual figure for pilots being grounded after ejection somewhere between 30% and 40%.
It's way more than that today. Pilot who eject out of F-35 will never fly another F-35 again. His spine compressed by close to an inch. He'll be lucky if he walks right again.

And pilots who've ejected suffer a massive amount of nerve damage that manifests itself when they hit the old age. Just look at Vietnam pilots... most can't even walk.

>hideously overpowered
GTFO

>Just look at Vietnam pilots... most can't even walk
Because they are 70-80 y/o

Study was done decades ago. And they were in their 50s or 60s.
Violent ejection wrecks your spine. It never heals and things worsen over time.

I have a true story of a older friend of mine. He ejected out of a F-14 and flew after but retired shortly. I'll green text it.

>be F-14 pilot friend
>doing high G maneuvers over the cold Atlantic
>left engine stalls at a weird angle
>plane goes into flat spin just like in Top Gun
>eject eject eject
>Rio ejects first just fine
>plane jerks forward at the exact moment the seat rockets kick on for the pilot seat
>since head and back are not upright in the seat, he lunges forward
>face smashes into the control stick
>as the seat is going up the top of his helmet catches the front fixed wind screen
>shaves off 1/8" of kevlar from his helmet
>parachutes down into frigid Atlantic waters with a bloody face and nearly broken neck
>fights 10 foot swells waiting for rescue chopper
>chopper pics up Rio first
>by the time the chopper gets to friend, he has no motor functions and is hypothermic
>crew chief strips him in the chopper and climbs with him in a survival sleeping bag

He said for a whole year after the incident, he had to sleep flat on the floor because of his fucked up back/neck. But he flew F-14s again but retired shortly after flying.
Apparently when you eject, you join the Martin-Baker club and they give you a suit tie along with a plaque with your seat's serial number or data plate.

F-22s are more maneuverable, more efficient, faster, carry a better payload, have better sensors, better avionics, better everything to include lower observability.

there's even a website

martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/

what happens to people that eject in a war zone are they put into desk jobs as well?

damn! he's lucky to be alive.

US systems were always better, and modern systems are fine. Injury rate for modern ejection systems are maybe 20% in US systems. Soviet zero-zero ejection systems put crippling loads on people and represent the vast majority of spinal injruies from ejection.

In an F-14 that is literally impossible. The retractors drag the body into alignment and hold it there if you are dead. Any shock load strong enough to throw you out of position for ejection would just kill you.

It was shot down in Serbia and the Chinese got their hands on it. The US then """"'""accidently""""""" bombed the Chinese embassy in the then Yugoslavia but apparently the Chinks managed to smuggle parts out, hence the sudden appearance of the Chinese stealth fighter. So, the F117 is compromised and useless now.

Based. F-35 is the sexiest fighter by far

>US systems were always better, and modern systems are fine. Injury rate for modern ejection systems are maybe 20% in US systems. Soviet zero-zero ejection systems put crippling loads on people and represent the vast majority of spinal injruies from ejection.
Nigger, the EXACT OPPOSITE Is true. Anyone knows shit about aviation knows that russian ejection seats are better. This was even tested by the US.

>With the main aim of providing better survivability, ejection seats have progressed in technology. Russian Aircraft ejection seats work well at low- altitudes and high speeds. Experts from the U.S. tested the Russian ejector sets in varying conditions and with a plethora of conditions to mimic real-time environments. They were tested at speeds of up to Mach 2.5 and altitudes ranging to 50,000 feet. The Russian seats were declared to be superior to the U.S. manufactured seats.

>Russian seats displayed superior performance during ejection, due to the deployment of telescope booms that orient the seats in the right direction and to stabilise them. The seat remains in an upright posture till the point when it decelerates and the parachute can be released to separate the pilot from the seat. The Russian seats also incorporate devices to restrain the legs and hands to keep the body intact at high speeds as well as deflectors to keep the wind blasting in check.

>The American were so impressed by these technologies that they decided to us them in their own seats. The Russian seat manufacturer, Zvezda, was contracted by Boeing of North America to begin producing seats for them. However, the seat weights were reduced, were better capable at handling high speeds, supported life-saving equipment, and reduced overall cost.

defenceaviation.com/2016/07/who-makes-better-fighter-jet-ejection-seats-the-americans-or-the-russians.html

Attached: 1547716948830.jpg (1024x685, 148K)

The F117 is literally 50 year old technology. And having a piece of material doesn't mean you understand how it was made.

>literally impossible
I don't know what to tell you. I saw his MB plaque and pics of his helmet.
It's possible something failed and his harness didn't tight up or something. I'll ask him about it. He's genuinely a really good guy and I have no reason to suspect a false story.

Yep. Most American pilots spent their time at the Hanoi Hilton doing personnel paperwork and coffee runs for the Vietnamese.

F-117's max speed was 684 mph. P-51 was 440 mph.

So does the Air Force get them a desk job so they can work off the debt for the plane they crashed or?

Not sure about the AF, but the navy relegates their guys to flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong when they fuck up.

>be POW
>enemy forces you to work for them
>filling out DA 31s all day long
Pretty sure that's a Geneva violation

pic unrelated

Attached: 1474274396005.jpg (1024x430, 75K)

The original Have Blue design was nearly invisible to radar. The F-117 is a modified design. The Russians found out that it was based on mathematical formulas published by a Soviet Mathematician.
The Russians adjusted their radar to suit, the F-117 is no longer invisible to military radar at all.

Source on that? I always thought that all stealth aircraft used that scientists studies

For those commenting, it was at an air show and the pilot stayed in to try to steer it away from the crowd. He punched out as it dove and the aircraft went into a house, causing minor injuries.
f-117a.com/793.html

>fighters have guns
>F-101
>F-102
>F-4
>F-35B/C

Not the same guy but the nighthawk carries no AA weaponry

actually interesting.

i love the F14 but the hornet is the superior aircraft including the legacy bug simply to things like way better EW, the only advantage it the cat has is the AIM54 which has a hideous combat record in US use and apparently AIM120-D has the similar ranges and the super bug fixed the problems that legcay had

sexiest rejects coming through
i thought the non navy F-35 has a gun

Attached: 1539256231502.jpg (1200x884, 331K)