Dark Eagles: A History of the Top Secret U.S. Aircraft

by Curtis Peebles

  United States intelligence did not fully comprehend the scope of the Iraqi nuclear effort. Thus the identity of three nuclear facilities located at rocket development sites was only realized late in the war. The Tarmiya rocket facility was hit by F-117As and B-52s on February 15. By February 23, its nuclear role had been discovered and four F-117As were sent to bomb it. Two of the planes were unable to drop their LGBs due to weather. It became the highest priority target but was not hit again due to weather. The Ash Sharqat facility had been hit by six F-111E raids before four F-117As visited the site on February 16. Its nuclear role was not yet realized, and it was not bombed again. The nuclear site at Musayyib was not discovered until shortly before the war's end; it had been selected to be the final assembly site for the first Iraqi nuclear bomb. A pair of F-117As bombed the site on February 25, and a second group of nine Black Jets finished it off on February 28.[546]

  United States intelligence had a much better understanding of Iraqi chemical and biological production capabilities, and all known sites had been bombed by mid-February. As the war neared a close, attacks on chemical and biological weapons storage bunkers increased, as did strikes on the remaining HASs, in an effort to hit as many as possible before the war came to a close.[547]

  The F-117As became a kind of flying fire brigade. If a target needed to be attacked on short notice, it was far easier to send a handful of Black Jets, rather than a force of forty to sixty F-16s and support planes. One example of this was the February 15 attack on the fire-trench system in Kuwait. Distribution points, pipe junctions, and pumping stations were hit with 500-pound GBU-12 bombs. The attack was so hurried that the second wave pilots had to use sketch maps, because photos were not available. Despite this, twenty-four out of twenty-seven LGBs found their mark.[548]

  Along with the serious business of war, the souvenir business was also booming. The F-117A combat missions were quite popular, and, as the weeks passed, ground personnel, as well as their friends and relatives, wanted a little piece of history. Major Leatherman gave his crew chief one of the bomb arming lanyards from the first mission. F-117 pilots found themselves carrying various items on missions. American flags were most requested, but everything from footballs to Bart Simpson dolls were flown. (Bart was the unit's unofficial mascot.) The pilots would then autograph the souvenirs. One crew chief put a teddy bear on his plane; "Geronimo Bear" came along on every mission that F-117A flew.[549]

  VICTORY

  It was not until the final nights of the war that the F-117As were again authorized to fly into downtown Baghdad. The target selected was Ba'th party headquarters — a complex covering several city blocks. It had been hit by Tomahawk missiles on the first night and again by F-117As in mid-February. The largest F-117A raid of the war was planned — thirty-two Black Jets on the night of February 25–26 (the night after the start of the ground war). The bad weather that had dogged the air campaign foiled the attack.

  All F-117A missions were canceled for the night. The following night was no better; only a few targets were hit outside Baghdad.

  The mission was finally conducted on the night of February 27–28. The original plan was altered due to the progress of the ground war and the impending cease-fire. The size of the force directed against the Ba'th party headquarters was reduced to release planes for other targets. Still, sixteen of the twenty-plane first wave were directed against it. This became known as "the pick-a-window mission." The complex was left devastated, and a statue in front of the building was also destroyed. The other targets hit by the night's first wave were the biological weapons facility at Salman Pak, and two transport planes at Muthena airfield. It was thought Saddam might use them to flee Baghdad. The second wave struck rocket facilities. The final F-117A attack of the war was on the Al-Athir missile development and production complex.[550]

  At 11:30 P.M. the night's third wave was canceled. Then, at 12:15 A.M. on February 28, word was issued that a cease-fire would take effect at 8:00 A.M. that morning.[551]

  Just as the Gulf War had begun on live television, so too, did it end. One image was that of Iraqi prisoners. In small groups or huge columns, they willingly surrendered. They had expected the air war to last several days, or a week at most.[552] Instead, it had continued for six weeks. They were helpless before it, without the means to survive or fight back.[553] Another image was General Schwarzkopf's press conference, describing how the 100-hour ground war had been fought. Yet another was the crowds of Kuwaitis welcoming victorious U.S. and Coalition troops.

  And there was that final image, which put to rest a ghost from the past.

  It was a photo of a Blackhawk helicopter, hovering on the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City. Special Forces troops were climbing from the Blackhawk onto the roof. Sixteen years before, it had been another roof-top — another helicopter, the last helicopter out of Saigon.[554]

  In a very real sense, two wars ended that day.

  AFTERMATH

  The first group of F-117As arrived back at Nellis Air Force Base on April 1. On hand to greet them was a crowd of twenty-five thousand people.

  To Col. Al Whitley, it was quite a contrast to his returns from two tours in Vietnam. In May, the town of Tonopah held a parade for the F-117 pilots and ground crews. A crowd of some three thousand turned out. A six-foot stone statue commemorating the plane and its crews was unveiled.[555]

  In the meantime, the unit was on the move. Even before the Gulf War, the plan was to move the F-117As to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. This would allow the pilots' families to join them and eliminate the need for the Key Airlines shuttle flights. The savings would pay for the move in short order. With the new home came a new name. With the post-Cold War reductions, the air force sought to preserve the names of distinguished units. The 49th TFW, formerly based at Holloman, was one of these units. On July 8, 1992, Colonel Whitley turned over command to Brig. Gen. Lloyd W. "Fig" Newton. The unit was also renamed the 49th Fighter Wing.

  Less than a month later, the unit suffered the fourth loss of an F-117A.

  On August 4, Capt. John Mills took off from Holloman in aircraft number 802. Under the name "Black Magic," it had flown nineteen combat missions in the Gulf. Within moments after taking off, a fire broke out. Captain Mills attempted to return to the field, but the plane began to roll uncontrollably.

  Mills was forced to eject. He landed with only minor injuries, but the plane was destroyed. The loss was later traced to the improper installation of a bleed air duct just before the flight. This caused the fire and loss of hydraulic and flight-control systems.[556]

  Two years after the start of the Gulf War, the F-117As were once more in action against Iraq. A detachment of six to eight F-117As had remained at Tonopah East as part of the U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. The cease-fire agreement directed that Iraq dismantle all nuclear, chemical, and biological facilities, as well as giving up all Scud missiles and long-range weapons.

  United Nations inspectors were to enforce compliance. Saddam attempted to interfere with the inspections. There was also an increasing number of border incidents with Kuwait and interference with allied planes policing "no-fly" zones in the north and south of the country. By January of 1993, these demanded a response.

  On January 13, six F-117As, each with one LGB, were sent to hit targets in southern Iraq. The Al-Amara IOC was hit, as was an SA-3 SAM site's radar at Ashshuaybah. Yet again, the F-117A's old nemesis, low clouds, caused problems. Bombs dropped against the two radars at Nasiriya lost their locks due to clouds. Weather also prevented one pilot from even finding the Tallil SOC. Bad weather also apparently caused one pilot to bomb a farmhouse a mile from the Basra radar. Still, the results were successful — air defenses again collapsed.[557]

  THE FUTURE OF THE F-117

  As with other Dark Eagles, the F-117A has undergone improvements to its systems. The planes were sent to the Skunk Works plant at Palmdale for modifications that included color displays, a satellite navigation system, and improv
ements to the infrared system. One modification was a result of the loss of Mulhare and Stewart in 1986 and 1987. It is called the pilot activated automatic recovery system: at the touch of a button, the plane would return to level flight.[558] Stealth modifications were also made. New coatings were added to reduce radar return. Changes were also made to the exhaust system to reduce both infrared emissions and the visible glow.[559]

  In the longer term, in 1992-93 Lockheed proposed a navy version, the F-117N. It would use the basic F-117A fuselage, with a new wing and horizontal stabilizer. The F-117N, like the air force version, would be a "silver bullet" force. It would attack air defenses and other high-priority targets.

  The navy rejected the proposal, saying the plane was too limited and was not a multimission aircraft. A later proposal called for adding afterburning engines and advanced radar-infrared systems to give the plane both an all-weather air-to-ground and air-to-air capability. Even this later proposal attracted little interest, due to budget problems; there were also questions about the F-117N's carrier suitability and whether it actually was a multimission aircraft.[560]

  Major modifications were also proposed for the air force F-117As, to improve payload and range. The major limitation is the plane's inability to carry more than two bombs. Proposals have been made to increase the size of the bomb bay to hold four bombs.

  With new engines, the F-117A's payload could be increased to eighteen thousand pounds. Some of the added bomb load could be carried externally, as many as four internal weapons and another four under the wings. To preserve the plane's stealth, the external weapons would be covered with lightweight RAM. Such improvements would have a major impact — if the F-117A's bomb load and radius of action could be doubled, a single squadron could handle a regional conflict such as the Gulf War. Such modifications are problematical, however, given the current budget situation and the reduction in U.S. forces overall.[561]

  Nonetheless, with the B-2 force limited to twenty aircraft and the number of F-22 fighters also likely to be smaller than originally planned, the F-117A will continue to be a key strike aircraft. The Black Jet from Groom Lake could still be flying into the second decade of the twenty-first century.

  (As the final proofs for this book were being reviewed, two incidents occurred involving F-117A. On April 5, 1995, an F-117A was seriously damaged by a fire after landing. Then, on May 10, an F-117A crashed during a night training flight. Contact was lost at 10:25 P.M. The plane crashed on Red Mesa at the Zuni Indian Reservation, its impact dug a 20-foot deep crater. The pilot, Capt. Kenneth Levens, did not eject and was killed. The Zuni Tribal Police were the first on the scene and secured the area. Due to the remote location, it took the Air Force five hours to reach the crash site.

  As with the other two fatal F-117A crashes, Captain Levens had only limited flight time in the F-117A (70 hours). News accounts that the crash occurred in an sacred Indian burial ground are not correct.)

  The first XP-59A prototype. The plane was both the first U.S. jet aircraft and created the concept of the Black airplane. Bell test pilot Robert Stanley, left, made the XP59A's first flight on Oct. 2, 1942. Colonel Lawrence "Bill" Craigic became the first U.S. military jet pilot when he made the plane's third test flight that same day. U.S. Air Force

  The second XP-59A prototype. The fake propeller on its nose was used in March and April, 1943, to thwart the curious. U.S. Air Force

  North Base at Muroc in 1942-43. In background are the hangar, water tower, and "Desert Rat Hotel." In foreground is Bell's portable mission control center during the XP-59A tests. U.S. Air Force

  The U-2 combined the aerodynamic simplicity of a glider with careful weight control that enabled it to reach altitudes far above those of contemporary Soviet fighters. The U-2 overflew the Soviet Union with impunity for nearly four years. Lockheed

  The SS-6 test pad at Tyuratam, as photographed in 1959 by a U-2. The pad was used to launch early ICBM tests as well as Sputnik I and Vostok. CIA

  Overflight photo of ground zero of Soviet nuclear test site. CIA

  U-2 photo of Soviet submarine base. CIA

  The first A-12 design: the Archangel 1. Lockheed

  A-12 production line at Burbank. Different areas were walled off to prevent individuals working on one project from knowing about the others. The large box in the foreground was used to moves the completed A-12s to Groom Lake for reassembly and flight tests. U.S. Air Force

  A-12s went through several paint schemes. The first planes were bare metal without any markings. Ultimately, an all-black finish was used (which improved airframe cooling). On missions, the national insignias were removed; the only markings carried a false, five-digit serial number in red paint. CIA

  The A-12 Article 125 was the fifth Oxcart built and was lost on Jan. 5, 1967, due to a faulty fuel gage. The CIA pilot, Walter L. Ray, was killed. CIA

  A pre-delivery photo of a Model 147E drone. Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical photo, courtesy San Diego Aerospace Museum

  By the time Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works engineers had worked up to the n i n t h version of the A-6 proposal, a trend toward a delta with a long forward fuselage had developed. U.S. Air Force

  The A-11 design with radar absorbing, wedge-shaped chines became the basis for the final A-12. U.S. Air Force

  Ground personnel around the first YF-12A prototype. Personnel at Groom Lake do not live in the hot, dusty, and isolated area, but are flown to and from the site each week. U.S. Air Force

  The second YF-12Aprototype. This was a modification of the A-12, designed to produce a long-range interceptor. U.S. Air Force

  Model 147B drone under the wing of its DC-130 launch aircraft. The 147B would then fly its programmed instructions over the target areas and then on to the recovery zone. U.S. Air Force

  Model 147B drone in flight. The 147G flew missions from October 1965 through August 1967. U.S. Air Force

  Model 147TE above Edwards Air Force Base. The TE was an ELINT version of the high-altitude photo reconnaissance 147T drone. U.S. Air Force

  Chinese People's Liberation Army militiamen celebrate the shooting down of a 147H-18. The 147H was the final high-altitude drone to see wide-spread service, with 138 missions flown between 1967 and 1971. Ryan Aeronautical photo, courtesy San Diego Aerospace Museum

  The explosion of an SA-2 Surface to Air Missile photographed by a Model 147 drone. The SA-2 had a profound impact on post-war Black aircraft development: it put the U2 overflights at risk, which led to the development of the A-12 Oxcart and D-21 Tagboard. U.S. Air Force

  The Model 147SC "Tom Cat" flew a record-setting 68 missions before being lost on Sept. 25, 1974. (the average for the 147SC drones was 7.3 missions before being lost. Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical photo courtesy San Diego Aerospace Museum

  Model 154 drone on its handling cart at Edwards Air Force Base. It was designed for high — altitude photo reconnaissance of Communist China, but by the time the Model 154 was operational, these missions were halted, and the drones were scrapped without having ever made an overflight. U.S. Air Force

  The secret that fell from the sky. The Model 154P-4 Firefly after its landing at Los Alamos in August 1969. The drone was unharmed, but the accident was widely publicized and the Model 154 program was no longer "Black." Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical

  The D-21 501 on its B-52 launch aircraft. Lockheed

  D-21/M-21 combination in flight above Nevada. Lockheed

  The Have Blue 1002—produced under the tightest secrecy since the atomic bomb program of World War II— after final assembly at Burbank. This aircraft was optimized for RCS testing, and had the full range of coatings and radar absorbing materials. Lockheed

  The Have Blue 1002 above Groom Lake. Unlike its angular upper surface, the plane's underside was arrow shaped. These flat surfaces made it possible to calculate the plane's radar cross-section. Lockheed

  F-117A 780 as it was rolled out of its Groom Lake hangar before its first flight on June 18,1981. Activities at Groom Lake, such as t
he F-l 17A's first flight, are scheduled around the passes of Soviet reconnaissance satellites. Lockheed

  The Amber UAV was designed to provide a family of low-cost but effective vehicles capable of undertaking both reconnaissance and strike missions. General Atomics

  The GNAT 750 was originally designed to be a low-cost, long duration UAV suitable for export. It was used by the CIA to monitor the civil war over Bosnia. General Atomics

  B-2 Spirit above Edwards Air Force Base. During the late 1980s and early '90s, there were a number of reports about "other" flying wing or triangular Black aircraft. These ranged from Shamu (a sub-scale B-2 test bed) and the TR-3A Black Manta (a reconnaissance aircraft) to an aircraft that, it was claimed, had wingspans of 600–800 feet. U.S. Air Force

  A strange plane in a strange land. A Soviet-built Yak 23 undergoing flight tests at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The plane was "loaned" to the U.S. by an Eastern European intelligence officer, then crated aboard a U.S. C-124 cargo plane. The U.S. markings — the "X-5" — were used as a cover. The eighth and final test flight was completed on Nov. 4, 1953. The markings were removed; the Yak was crated and reinserted into Eastern Europe without detection. U.S. Air Force