Stealth Jet Unveiled; It’s Been Flying 5 Years

Baring a poorly kept secret, the Pentagon today made public details of a stealth jet fighter that has been flying secret nighttime missions for five years. It also confirmed that one of the California-built planes crashed near Bakersfield in 1986 while another went down in Nevada last year.

Dan Howard, the Defense Department’s chief spokesman, said the stealth fighter--capable of slipping behind enemy lines in the event of war--first flew in June, 1981, and was declared operational in October, 1983.

The Air Force has ordered 59 of the planes; 52 of them have already been delivered, he said, adding that the plane is a single-seat, twin-engine aircraft.

Based in Nevada

The plane, which in some respects resembles a small space shuttle with swept wings and a V-tail, was unveiled primarily because the Air Force needs to start flying the plane during daylight hours if it is to integrate the fighter squadron’s war planes with other units, Howard said.

The aircraft is assigned to the 4450th Tactical Group at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and based at the Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, he said.

Howard and Air Force officials, while releasing a photo of the plane in flight, flatly declined to discuss how much the program cost, the plane’s dimensions or general capabilities such as speed, its assigned combat role, the materials from which it was constructed and the major subcontractors.

The plane is built by Lockheed Corp. at a tightly guarded plant in Burbank, Calif. Production line workers at the Lockheed plant have gone to court with charges that they are being sickened by exposure to dangerous chemicals.

3 Have Crashed

The service also acknowledged that three of the planes have crashed. The first production model of the plane crashed with a Lockheed Corp. pilot at the controls, the Air Force said.

That test pilot survived the accident, for which no date or location was given.

The second crash occurred July 11, 1986, near Bakersfield, Calif., and the third Oct. 14, 1987, at Nellis Air Force Base, the service said. Both pilots died in those accidents.

The decision to unveil the plane was prompted in part by Air Force plans to display publicly its new B-2 bomber version of the stealth Nov. 22, said defense officials who asked not to be named.