Growing up in the 1990s, it’s easy to think that the F-117A “Nighthawk” as being a modern take on what a fighter aircraft could be and would be. Truth be told, it wasn’t, not even close. The prototype of what wound up developing into the F-117 started life right about the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973…the Isreal Air Force lost 109 aircraft in 18 days due to surface-to-air missiles and that spooked NATO members, whose numbers-crunchers figured out that if similar losses were encountered in a full-scale war with the Warsaw Pact, NATO planes would be gone in two weeks.

The first two prototypes were known as the HAVE BLUE project and were, for the longest time, a black project based out of Groom Lake (read: Area 51) and flown out of the eyesight of anybody who didn’t need to know anything about it. Two prototypes were constructed. HB1001 first flew on December 1, 1977 and was abandoned in flight on January 17, 1978 after an aborted landing jammed in one of the main landing struts. After the crash and destruction of HB1001, HB1002, which was almost completed, received some tweaks before it’s first flight on July 20, 1978. HB1002 was lost on July 11, 1979 when an engine fire took out the hydraulics, causing the pilot to lose control. The pilot safely ejected, but the second HAVE BLUE airframe was destroyed.

Even so, the program was a success. The next step was the SENIOR TREND aircraft, which were the real-deal Nighthawks. In production from 1982 to final delivery in 1990. These things looked cutting edge when I was a kid…I can only imagine how freaked out some dude, camping in a van in the desert in Nevada, must’ve been when a diamond with bunny ears on the back flew past him making very little noise.