Hopeless Diamond

[B777LR]

Speaking of F-117, the retirement of them begins this year, and all are to be retired by next year 

Actually all are supposed to be out of service by 2008. If the USAF/DOD/USGOV is smart they will pass them on to some other country that can squeeze some more life out of them, UK, France, Australia, Japan, Korea, etc., etc.

And that could be very, very cool. Hmm I still have French and British roundels, with some desert pink...
now I have to go, because you give me  ideas to recycle my old F-117! c'est malin!!!  

They wont be passed on, they will go in AMARC, waiting for the next world war...

[Madoc]

Folks,

The F-117 was a truly cutting edge weapon back in the 80's and into the 90's.  No longer so now though.  There are a number of UAV's currently fielded or soon to be fielded which can do much of the job that the Nighthawk did.  

I don't think the F-117 is going to be retired in 2008 but it will be retired before its previously anticipated date of 2018.

The F-22's and JSF's will be well into operational status by then and they'll be quite able to handle the Nighthawk's missions with ease.

As to foreign sales, I rather doubt that.

First off, the only potential customers are ones that are already in line to buy the JSF and F-22.  Thus, why would they want to spend money they don't have to buy a mostly obsolete weapon system when they've already paid for getting something newer and better?

Also, the USAF is retiring the F-117 because the thing is getting _very_ long in tooth.  The initial buy of the aircraft was small and that has always meant for higher operational costs.  This has only gotten worse as the decades have rolled by.

Frankly, there's better and cheaper solutions out there now so I'm kinda suprised the F-117 has been retained as long as it has.

Madoc

[ysi_maniac]

Why is it retired?, is it not good?

[PolluxDeltaSeven]

The F-22 just enter the service in USAF... And it is (or it will soon be) able to carry a greater air-to-ground payload than the F-117...
Moreover, it is faster, has a better range and it is more stealth...

Add to that al the future UCAV the Air Force will have and the F-35A, and you'll understand that why the USAF don't want to pay anymore for a very expensive aircraft who do a job that the new planes do better and for cheaper!!


So, the F-117 is still good, but not as good as the cheaper and more able new planes/UCAVs...

[Madoc]

YM,

Why is it retired?, is it not good?

The F-117 is not retired now.  The latest round of budgeting for the Air Force calls for the plane to be retired sooner than its previously anticipated date in 2018.

The aircraft works well enough now.  The problem is that the type is becoming increasingly expensive to operate.  The planes are all getting old, there were never that many of the things to begin with, parts were always expensive and have since gotten more so.

As a first generation stealth aircraft, its design was optimized toward stealth at the expense of operational considerations.  That means that the type is inherently more difficult to work on and keep flying than otherwise.  The succeeding stealth aircraft designs benefited from the increase in knowledge about designing and building stealth aircraft such that they could be even more stealthy while also being easier to maintain and operate.

The JSF and the F-22 are second/ third generation stealth machines and are much more capable from the start.  They're also far less expensive and difficult to operate than the F-117.

The only thing of note in all this is that the F-117's will be replaced sooner than expected.  They are still in service now and will remain so for the next several years.

Madoc

[Archibald]

Now that's an idea... change the F-117 into UCAVs (interim UCAV wiating for the X-45 and X-47 )  

[GTX]

Has anyone got a decent quality 3-view drawing of the Hopless Diamond?

Regards,

Greg

[Hobbes]

Has anyone got a decent quality 3-view drawing of the Hopless Diamond?

Regards,

Greg

Will the one on the Unicraft page do?