This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]
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While most of the larger articles in this series are complete and recurring, I have a long list of smaller articles to add throughout the year, most of which will appear in the Short Takeoff section. Posts with new material are indicated as "Updated" in the title. Longer articles may also be updated as time passes. Thanks for reading!
An F-117 drops a laser-guided bomb on a test mission over California | Photo: US Air Force
June 18, 1981 – The first flight of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. Though the Nighthawk is very much a product of 20th century technology, the radar detection it was meant to avoid traces its history back to a time 100 years earlier. In 1886, German physicist Heinrich Hertz (for whom the eponymous measure of frequency is named) discovered that radio waves could be reflected back from solid objects. In 1904, another German, the inventor Christian Hülsmeyer, found a way to use radio waves to detect metal objects. By WWII, radar (which is actually an acronym for "radio detection and ranging") was used by the British Royal Air Force to detect incoming German bombers, and radars were installed on aircraft to direct bombers to targets and to create the first night fighters. Following the war, development of radar technology made the sets ever more powerful, with increased range and the ability to track ever smaller targets. But what if you could make an aircraft that was invisible to radar, or at least one that had a radar cross-section (RCS) so small that a large aircraft appeared the size of a small bird? While not truly invisible, it would be impossible to detect the aircraft out of all the other normal clutter on a radar screen.
The Have Blue technology demonstrator | Photo: US Air Force
The idea that an aircraft might be made nearly invisible to radar was first proposed by Russian mathematician Pyotr Ufimtsev in 1964, though the shapes necessary rendered the concept impossible at the time because the aircraft would be unflyable. It wasn’t until fly-by-wire flight control computers became more sophisticated that the idea could finally become a reality. The Nighthawk program began with work led by engineer Ben Rich at Lockheed’s Skunk Works on a technology demonstrator known as the Hopeless Diamond, a nickname derived from the shape of the aircraft because nobody believed it would ever fly. On paper, Lockheed engineers believed that the new design would be 1,000 times less visible than any other aircraft ever created at Lockheed, and would show up on a radar screen as an object about the size of a marble. In 1976, the Air Force awarded a contract to develop the Have Blue project, the stealth demonstrator that proved the concept and eventually led to development of the F-117 Nighthawk.
The flat, angled facets which deflect radar signals are clear in this head-on view of the F-117 | Photo: US Air Force
The Nighthawk is instantly recognizable by its faceted shape, a series of flat surfaces that never join at a right angle. This myriad of differently angled flat surfaces works to reflect radar energy away from, rather than back to, the radar receiver. Special radar-absorbent coatings are also used to keep the radar signals from bouncing off the aircraft. But radar isn’t the only way to track an aircraft. The heat signature from jet engines is also easily detectable, so the Nighthawk’s engines are buried deep within the aircraft. This placement, however, ruled out the use of afterburners and limited the Nighthhawk to subsonic speeds. The F-117 also relied on redundant, fly-by-wire flight controls that make thousands of corrections per second. Without this system, the aircraft would simply tumble out of control.
A pair of F-117A Nighthawks from the 8th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing prepare to takeoff from Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait for combat patrol mission over Iraq on March 13, 1998 | Photo: US Air Force
Though given the “F” designation for fighter, the Nighthawk was strictly an attack platform for dropping guided bombs or missiles, and has no gun, either internal or external. After being revealed to the public in 1988, the F-117 made its combat debut in 1989 during the US invasion of Panama. Nighthawks saw extensive action in the 1991 Gulf War, where they flew the first missions of the war to knock out Iraqi radar sites and eventually took part in nearly 1,400 sorties. Though a number of Nighthawks have been lost to accidents, only one was ever lost in combat when it was shot down in 1999 during NATO operations over Serbia. Despite the F-117's stealthy design, Russian radar operators, using modified radars, discovered they could detect the Nighthawk when its landing gear or bomb bay doors were open. The plane came down relatively intact, and the Serbians invited the Russians and Chinese to inspect the wreckage and gain valuable information on American stealth technology.
Four Nighthawks from the 410th Flight Test Squadron fly in formation in 2007. One of these aircraft is on display, and another was broken up in 2008. The other two were placed in storage, and may well still be flying to this day. | Photo: US Air Force
Lockheed produced a total of 64 Nighthawks, and the F-117 was officially retired in 2008. However, observers began reporting sightings of the elusive black jets over the US Air Force’s super-secret testing site at Groom Lake in Nevada. The Air Force finally confirmed that the stealthy fighter is being used in training roles, playing the part of aggressor aircraft or simulating cruise missiles. With the unique capabilities that the aging airframe still possesses, it will likely continue to fly for years to come.
US Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat pilot Alexander Vraciu celebrates six victories, all scored on June 19, 1944. Vraciu ended the war as the Navy’s 4th highest scoring ace. | Photo: US Navy
June 19-20, 1944 – The Battle of the Philippine Sea. The use of the airplane in warfare began in WWI, and by WWII it had become a formidable weapon. The Japanese demonstrated the enormous power of carrier-based warplanes with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the ensuing Battle of the Coral Sea and Battle of Midway showed that the airplane had replaced the battleship as the center of power in the modern naval battle group. In both battles, no two surface ships ever fired a shot at each other, and Midway proved to be a turning point in the Pacific War, with a decisive American victory finally putting the brakes on what had been a relentless Japanese advance. Though they lost four carriers at Midway, Japanese naval aviation wasn’t utterly destroyed, though it was severely hobbled. There remained one more epic carrier battle to be fought. Coming two years after the pivotal Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the largest carrier battle in history, proved to be the last gasp for Japanese naval air power in WWII.
Murderer’s Row: US Third Fleet aircraft carriers at anchored in Ulithi Atoll in December 1944. From front to back, the carriers are USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Hancock (CV-19) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). USS Lexington (CV-16) lies to the left. | Photo: US Navy
In the summer of 1944, American forces launched their island hopping campaign to take the Japanese-held islands of Tinian, Saipan, and Guam in the Mariana Islands. The Japanese, despite their losses at Midway, were still able to assemble a fleet that included five heavy carriers, four light carriers, five battleships, 11 heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 28 destroyers to contest the American advance toward the Japanese homeland. To counter the Japanese fleet, the Americans had Task Force 58, one of the most powerful armadas ever assembled. Under the command of Admiral Marc Mitscher, TF 58 included seven heavy carriers, eight escort carriers, seven battleships, eight heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers and 69 destroyers. On June 16, a US submarine discovered the Japanese fleet off the coast of the Philippines as they turned to face the Americans. Mitscher divided his fleet into four carrier task groups and one battleship task group, while the Japanese divided their fleet into four groups based around their carriers.
A Japanese dive bomber goes down in flames while attacking the escort carrier USS Kitkun Bay (CVE-71). | Photo: US Navy
Japanese scout planes spotted the American fleet on the morning of June 19 and launched the first attack. However, American radar detected the planes 50 miles away from the fleet, and American fighters were waiting for them when they arrived. In the ensuing battle, more than 200 Japanese planes were shot down against the loss of only 23 US aircraft. Meanwhile, US submarines had located the main body of the Japanese fleet. First, the carrier Taihō was struck with torpedoes, and then the carrier Shōkaku, which sank four hours later. The Japanese attacked again, but the planes flew in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, the attackers were detected and annihilated by American fighters.
The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku (center) and the destroyers Akizuki and Wakatsuki under attack from US Navy carrier aircraft. Zuikaku was hit by several bombs during these attacks but was not sunk. | Photo: US Navy
By the end of the battle on June 20, roughly 600 Japanese aircraft had been destroyed, earning the battle the nickname “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” Along with the huge loss of aircraft, the Japanese Navy lost three carriers and an estimated 3,000 dead. The Americans suffered one damaged battleship, 123 aircraft lost, and 109 dead. Though it might have been possible for the Japanese to replace their aircraft, the losses in experienced pilots was a blow from which they would never recover. Even though Japan still had carriers, they no longer had the men or planes to operate effectively from their decks, and the once-proud ships were reduced to the role of a diversionary force four months later in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in another decisive victory for the US and her allies.
Photo: NASA
June 18, 1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to fly in space. Ride joined NASA in 1978 and went to space in 1983 as a Mission Specialist on board Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-7, 20 years after the first woman in space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. At age 32, Ride was also the youngest American and the first LGBT astronaut to fly in space. She went to space a second time the following year, again on Challenger, as a Mission Specialist on STS-41-G. Ride left NASA in 1987, but served on the investigation committees into the Challenger and Columbia disasters. After teaching physics at the University of California, San Diego, Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 at age 61.
Soldiers wait to board a C-124 in Seoul for R&R in Japan in 1953 | Photo: Dewey McLean
June 18, 1953 – A Douglas C-124 Globemaster II transport crashes at Tachikawa, Japan, killing all 129 passengers and crew. The massive, double-decker Globemaster II was the mainstay of the Military Air Transport Service in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the primary transporter of US soldiers and equipment to Asia during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. A significantly enlarged development of the C-74 Globemaster, the Globemaster II was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, the largest-displacement aircraft engines to be mass produced in the United States. One minute after takeoff from Tachikawa Air Base and bound for Seoul loaded with soldiers returning from a leave in Japan, the No. 1 engine burst exploded into flames, and the pilot chose to return to the airbase. As the aircraft turned, the damaged left wing stalled and the aircraft spun into the ground, killing all on board. The crash tied for the deadliest in history at the time, and was the second to claim the life of more than 100 people. Investigators cited pilot error as the principle cause of the crash.
Photo: Author unknown
June 18, 1928 – Explorer Roald Amundsen and his crew disappear in the Arctic. Roald Amundsen was a famed explorer of the Earth’s polar regions and became the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. On May 25, 1928 the airship Italia crashed in the Arctic Ocean while flying around the North Pole, and Amundsen and his crew of five left Tromsø, Norway in a Latham 47 floatplane to search for survivors. Flying across the Barents Sea, the aircraft disappeared without a trace. Two months later a piece of a float was found washed ashore, then three months later a gas tank washed ashore. The bodies of Amundsen and his crew were never found.
Photo: Authors unknown
June 18, 1916 – The death of Max Immelmann. Immelmann was the first German ace of WWI, and the first to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, one of the highest awards of the Kingdom of Prussia. He is credited with the creation of the acrobatic turning maneuver that bears his name, and had scored 15 victories by the time of his death. Immelmann was one of the first to make use of the interrupter gear developed by Anthony Fokker which allowed the pilot to fire directly through the arc of the fighter’s propeller. Ironically, Immelmann’s death resulted from a malfunction of the device, when he shot away the propeller of his Fokker E.III Eindecker monoplane and crashed.
Photo: AirportJournals
June 19, 2002 – Adventurer Steve Fossett takes off on the first solo balloon circumnavigation of the Earth. Fossett departed from Northam, Western Australia on June 19 in a balloon named Spirit of Freedom, and flew eastward across the Pacific Ocean, over Chile and Argentina, then across the southern Atlantic Ocean to South Africa and then across the southern Indian Ocean, arriving back in Australia on July 4. The flight covered 20,626 miles and set numerous distance and flight longevity records. Fossett made other world record flights, including the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the Earth in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. Fossett died in the crash of his private plane on September 3, 2007.
Photo: Kentaro Iometo
June 20, 1983 – The first flight of the Bombardier Dash 8, the first in a series of twin-turboprop, medium-range airliners that were originally known as the de Havilland Canada (DHC) Dash 8. Developed from the four-engine DHC Dash 7, the Dash 8 is built in four variants capable of accommodating from 39-78 passengers. It entered service in 1984 with the now-defunt NorOntair airline, and was extremely successful as a regional airliner. Despite challenges from newer small regional jets, the lower operating costs of the turboprop engine on shorter flights at lower altitudes have allowed the Dash 8 to remain competitive. The Dash 8 remains in production, and nearly 1,200 have been built to date.
Photo: NASA
June 20, 1966 – Sheila Scott completes the first of three circumnavigations of the globe. Born on April 27, 1922 in Worcester, England, Scott was a record-setting aviatrix and made her first round-the-world flight in a Piper Comanche 260B. Departing from London Heathrow on May 18, she flew approximately 31,000 miles over the course of 34 days and 189 flying hours. Scott topped that in 1971 with a “world and a half” flight of 34,000 miles, becoming the first person to fly over the North Pole in a single-engine aircraft. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1968 for her exploits, and died in 1988 at the age of 66.
Photo: US Air Force
June 20, 1951 – The first flight of the Bell X-5, an aircraft that was inspired by the variable-sweep wing Messerschmitt P.1101 and the first aircraft that was capable of changing the angle of wing sweep in flight (the wing sweep of the P.1101 could only be changed on the ground). The X-5 had three settings for the wings, and a full sweep could be accomplished in 30 seconds. However, the aircraft was so unstable that the second prototype was lost in a crash which killed its test pilot. While the X-5 was ultimately a failure, data on swing-wing technology would be used successfully on later production aircraft such as the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber.
Photo: Public Domain
June 20, 1949 – The first flight of the Instituto Aerotecnico (I.Ae.) 34 Clen Antú (Sun Ray). The Horten brothers, Reimar and Walter, were both active in the Luftwaffe in WWII, the former as an aircraft designer and the latter as a fighter pilot. Reimar was well known for his innovative designs, including tailless flying wings and the development of the Horten Ho 229, the world’s first jet-powered flying wing. Following the war, Reimar, along with many members of the former Nazi regime, moved to Argentina, where he continued his work in aircraft design and experimentation with tailless gliders. Originally designed to take part in popular gliding competitions of the day, the Clen Antú featured wings swept at just under 24º around a stepped, two person cockpit. The rear pilot was seated behind and above, and both positions had full controls. I.Ae. built a total of four of these tailless gliders, including a further two with a single cockpit. Though they failed to garner much success in glider competition, they served as useful testbeds for the development of controls for flying wing designs.
Photo: US Air Force
June 20, 1941 – The United States Army Air Forces is created. The US Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the successor to the US Army Air Corps (USAAC, 1926-1941) and the US Army Air Service (USAAS, 1918-1926). The USAAF formed one of three distinct components of the US Army, the others being the Army Ground Forces and the Army Service Forces. The USAAF combined disparate aviation organizations under a single command, which reported to the Army Chief of Staff. The USAAF witnessed extraordinary growth during the Second World War, and boasted 2.4 million personnel and more than 80,000 aircraft by 1945. Drastic cuts in personnel and materiel following the war saw the USAAF dwindle to just 304,000 airmen and less than 30,000 planes. Based on the recommendation of President Harry Truman, Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947 which created the Department of the Air Force, and the USAAF became the United States Air Force on September 18, 1947.
Photo: WPPilot
June 21, 2004 – SpaceShipOne makes the first privately-funded manned spaceflight. SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched, rocket-powered spacecraft that is capable of suborbital flight. Designed by Burt Rutan and built by his company Scaled Composites, SpaceShipOne was the first step in a program to take paying passengers into space, and served as proof-of-concept for the larger SpaceShipTwo which first flew in 2010. SpaceShipOne is dropped from the Scaled Composites White Knight mothership before an onboard rocket takes in into space, and it uses a unique feathering system that raises the aircraft’s tail boom to slow the ship during reentry. With the successful flight, the design team won the $10 million Ansari X Prize by reaching an altitude of 100 km twice within a two-week period. SpaceShipOne made 17 test flights, three of which went beyond 100 km in altitude, and the hybrid aircraft/spacecraft is now preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Photo: Author unknown
June 21, 1961 – The first flight of the Aviation Traders Carvair, an aircraft developed from the Douglas DC-4 by entrepreneur Freddie Laker to allow travelers to take their cars with them on holiday. The DC-4 was modified by placing the flight deck in a raised section above the main fuselage to provide room for five cars and 22 passengers, or three cars and 50 passengers. The flexible design of the Carvair meant that the configuration could be changed on the ground between flights in as little as 40 minutes. A total of 21 DC-4s were converted and flown by various airlines in Europe, and one remains in service, based in Denton, Texas, which set a world record in 2005 when it carried 80 skydivers aloft.
Photo: Royal Air Force
June 21, 1936 – The first flight of the Handley Page Hampden, a twin-engine medium bomber flown by the Royal Air Force in the early part of WWII. The Hampden entered service with two other early bombers, the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers Wellington, though it was the first of the trio to be retired. The Hampden was known as the “flying suitcase” by its crews due to its cramped fuselage, and it carried out the majority of the bombing missions early in the war, and also took part in the so-called “1000 Bomber Raids” against Germany. Though considered modern when it was first built, the Hampden was quickly outclassed by newer designs, and was briefly relegated to night fighter duties before being retired in 1943. A total of 1,430 were produced from 1936-1941.
Photo: National Air and Space Museum
June 21, 1913 – Georgia “Tiny” Broadwick becomes the first woman to parachute from an airplane. Tiny Broadwick (neé Thompson), so named because of her small stature and 85-pound weight, was the adopted daughter of pioneering parachutist and showman Charles Broadwick. Tiny joined Broadwick’s troupe of aerial performers at the age of 15, and was billed as the “Doll Girl.” She began her career by parachuting from balloons before making her first jump from an airplane piloted by Glenn L. Martin. Though June 21 is recognized as the date of her first jump, she had made two prior jumps during a flight exhibition in Chicago the previous year. While demonstrating a static line jump for the US Army, Broadwick’s line got tangled in the aircraft and she had to cut herself free. Later jumps were made without a static line, making her the first person to perform a free-fall parachute jump. Broadwick retired in 1922 after making 1,100 jumps, and died in 1978.
Photo: Library of Congress
June 21, 1906 – The first flight of the AEA June Bug. The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was founded by Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell to further the study of aeronautics and aircraft design. One of its members, American Glenn Curtiss, became a principal rival of the Wright brothers and the man credited with creating aircraft production in America. The June Bug was an aircraft of Curtiss’ own design and, with most of the Wright’s work being carried out in secret, it made the first public flight in the United States with Curtiss at the controls. (One significant difference between the June Bug and the Wright Flyer was that Curtiss’ design took off under its own power, while the Flyer relied on a catapult.) On July 4, 1908, Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 prize by completing a flight of 5,080 feet in distance, cementing Curtiss’ place in the pantheon of American aviation pioneers.
If you enjoyed today's installment of This Date in Aviation History, please let me know in the comments. To see more articles about aviation and aviation history, head over to Wingspan.
#Planelopnik all the things
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@ttyymmnn Has anyone figured out what's up with the shiny coating on the aggressor Nighthawks yet?
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@ttyymmnn Thanks for remembering one of the best/worst planes I fly on frequently.
And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
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Never flown on one. The only turboprop I've ever been on was an American Eagle ATR. And that was about 25 years ago.
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On July 4, 1908, Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 prize by completing a flight of 5,080 feet in distance
We think technology develops fast in the modern world, but that’s nothing to the speed of progress in the early days of flight. The Wright brothers flew in 1903, and in 1908 Curtiss flying a mile or Voisin doing a 1km circuit were a big deal, but by a year after that the Demoiselle was in series production and Bleriot was crossing the English Channel, two years later planes were being used in combat, and another three years on we had the first commercial airline. Makes something of a mockery of the “move fast, break things” ethos of Silicon Valley, particularly given that “break things” equaled “die” back then.
Jagroen fan & custodian of camellids. GT86, Octavia VRS, Pajero, Leaf
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@benn454 Speculation is centering on some kind of IR suppressor, similar to the 1993 SENIOR SPUD project:
In addition to the F-117, similar coatings have shown up on F-22s and F-35s in the last year, which is why people are thinking it's something to counter
SovietRussian IRST.
Wingnut. Aviation geek. Aircraft enthusiast. A plane freak.
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I'm calling BS on all of the instability claims on the F-117. When it was first made public in the late '80s, a friend of mine built a balsa scale model from the photos so he could do some flight testing. Despite being so unusual, the model was quite stable in free flight. We had a great time throwing the model around the dorm and I'm pretty sure it made a couple of flights from an 11th-floor window.
That friend went on to complete his degree in aerospace engineering and is currently a commercial pilot.
Never discount the possibility that you might live through it.
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@ttyymmnn Don't forget about the Have Blue successor, Tacit Blue... The inverted flying bathtub form....
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#Planelopnik all the things
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@іди-на-хуй-Влад-formerly-known-as-Distraxi said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
but that’s nothing to the speed of progress in the early days of flight.
When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, Orville Wright was still alive.
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@ttyymmnn
My paternal grandfather was one of the earliest members of the USAAF. He was a surgeon, and in the early 1930s, he volunteered for the Army Reserve. He eventually rose to the rank of major.When the U.S. declared war in December 1941, my grandfather went to the Army to sign up for active duty. The Army gave him a physical and disqualified him for flat feet. My grandfather argued that he wouldn't be doing a lot of marching as a surgeon, and he was already a major in the reserves, but he was still denied. My grandfather then tried the Navy with similar results. The Army Air Force need to staff up, and they were willing to take my grandfather as a captain.
He served the entire war in the U.S. performing surgery on returning wounded, but he was reassigned in the spring of 1945 to serve in a field hospital for the first landing wave of mainland Japan.
My grandfather continued to serve, rising to the rank of major again in the Air Force Reserves. He lived in St. Louis, so he was based out of Scott Air Force Base. I believe it's the only Air Force base named after an enlisted airman.
On an unrelated note, his specialty was oncology. Back then, radiation treatment for cancer meant cutting open the patient and putting a small radioactive pellet into the tumor. My grandfather had radiation burns on his fingers from this work, but they apparently weren't that serious. He was born in 1905 less than 2 years after the Wright Brothers first flight, and died in 2001 two years before the Concorde was retired.
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That's quite a story. Sounds like an amazing guy.
July 20, 1917, that it would name the new field after Corporal Frank S. Scott, the first enlisted service member killed in an aviation crash
Hmm, might have to write about this. Thomas Selfridge was the first military service member to die in a plane crash when he went on a flight piloted by Orville Wright. He was a lieutenant. Selfridge ANG Base in MI is named after him.
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@Skyfire77 @ttyymmnn Thank you, gentlemen. Much appreciated.
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@ttyymmnn said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
Could weight or speed have anything to do with it?
/notanengineer
Weight would only be a factor if they purposely made it tail-heavy. That condition makes any airplane impossible to control. Never get upset when a pilot rearranges passengers or cargo to get the balance right. If it's wrong, people die.
Speed can play a role, especially when exceeding the speed of sound. The F-117 is a sub-sonic aircraft and this might be why.
Never discount the possibility that you might live through it.
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іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi last edited by іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi
@BicycleBuck said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
Speed can play a role, especially when exceeding the speed of sound. The F-117 is a sub-sonic aircraft and this might be why.
Nah, afterburners being unstealthy and low drag not being a high design priority are why it’s subsonic. Air compressibility becomes a factor at significantly subsonic speeds though.
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@BicycleBuck said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
I'm calling BS on all of the instability claims on the F-117.
Test Pilot Recounts F-117’s Wobbly First Flight And Entering Into Its Top Secret World
From the War Zone. Might be something there about the stability issue. I haven't watched the video.
#Planelopnik all the things
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@ttyymmnn said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
@BicycleBuck said in This Date in Aviation History: June 18 - June 21 [Updated]:
I'm calling BS on all of the instability claims on the F-117.
Test Pilot Recounts F-117’s Wobbly First Flight And Entering Into Its Top Secret World
From the War Zone. Might be something there about the stability issue. I haven't watched the video.
Thanks for the link. The test pilot talks about the instability in the first flight. The overall shape is reminiscent of a flying wing which, by nature, are very sensitive in pitch. Although the F-117 was "pitchy", the test pilot focuses on problems with yaw. From his work, they realized that the vertical stabilizers were undersized and made design changes to give them more control authority. He also said that the plane is more neutral at low speed with instability increasing with speed.
Both of these fit well with my friend's model. It was built off the first published photos - those which came after the plane had been flying for some time and, presumably, the design changes had already been implemented. Also, the low speed performance described by the pilot is in keeping with the flight envelope of a free-flight model. I don't think he built a full r/c version, but there are several kits on the market today.
