| Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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About the Italeri model: This kit is a typical example of the Italeri marque: simple instructions, good decals, very easy to build. Overall, pretty good. If you're looking for a quick and easy F-117 kit, this is definately it. On mine, I built the bombay and made the doors removable, so you can look inside. I did however, make one very serious mistake: I used putty as a nose weight. Obviously, I hadn't read the putty well enough because if I had, I would have known better than to use it as a nose weight. Squadron putty (my filler of choice) contains toluene, which is the active ingredient in most plastic model cements, so the putty began to eat away at the plastic, causing the nose to crumple. I was, fortunately, able to correct this by puttying the outside of the nose (remember that the F-117 has no curved surfaces), then simply sand the nose flat. NEVER use filler putty as a nose counterweight! About the F-117 Nighthawk: The F-117 Nighthawk is the world's first true stealth airplane, which means it is virtually invisible to radar and infrared sensors. This is achieved through an airframe shape that deflects a large portion of incoming radar energy away from its source and special materials that absorb most of the rest of the energy. While the plane is not completely invisible to radar, the radar return it does generate is so small that most radars can't pick it up. The aircraft's engines are buried deep inside the airframe, allowing the exhaust to cool before it escapes the plane, where it is ducted up over the vertical stabilizers to confuse infrared seeking devices. This engine placement, while drastically reducing the plane's infrared signature, also limits the speed of the aircraft, and makes supersonic flight impossible because afterburners cannot be used. Until the Persian Gulf War, F-117s were shrouded in so much secrecy that few knew of their existence. They flew out of Tonopah Test Range in the middle of the Nevada desert. The families of the pilots thought they flew A-7 Corsair IIs out of Hawaii all week. The Air Force was so concerned about the security of the planes that the fences surrounding the base bore the warning "KEEP OUT. USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED." The F-117 carries what some might call a pathetic warload, only two 2,000 lb bombs. However, the fact that the bombs are laser-guided and the plane is invisible to radar more than makes up for this shortcoming. The Nighthawk saw its combat debut during Operation Desert Storm, and was a total success. Precision strikes on Baghdad resulted in military command centers being flattened while keeping collateral (civilian) damage to a minimum. Despite the plane's hefty $46.2 million price tag and an ever-diminishing defense budget, Congress was so happy with the plane's performance during Desert Storm that another full twelve-plane squadron was ordered into production, bringing the total number of Nighthawks to 59. F-117s currently fly out of Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
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Copyright ©2003 David Jong [Jong Productions, Ltd.], All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Updated: December 8, 2003. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
