Stealth Fighter Comes Out of Hiding in Show

One of America’s worst-kept military secrets, the F-117A Stealth fighter, was unveiled Saturday to a crowd of thousands who cheered a demonstration flight by two of the multimillion-dollar aircraft.

The two bat-shaped planes swept in under a thin cloud cover and passed over Nellis Air Force Base, banked sharply against the Las Vegas skyline and landed to give the public its first close-up of the once top-secret aircraft.

There was an eerie whine as the lead craft, piloted by Capt. Randall Peterson of Rock Island, Ill., made a pass 58 feet above the runway.

The second F-117A, piloted by Maj. Steven Charles of Springfield, Mass., then swept by the crowd, circled and landed.

Both jets were surprisingly quiet in flight and while taxiing to an area encircled by several thousand people, including military family members, VIPs and 225 members of the media, including 37 from five foreign countries.

Viewing was opened to the public later and up to 150,000 people were expected.

Foreign journalists represented Britain, France, Australia, Japan and West Germany. Asked if any Soviet reporters were on hand, Tech. Sgt. Bobby Shelton, the Stealth unit information officer, said, “They didn’t ask us.”

No performance details were released, other than that the radar-evading F-117A is a single-seat, twin-engine subsonic jet.

“It is a fighter in every respect,” Peterson, 30, told the crowd, saying that the jet has outstanding handling characteristics and gives the United States unprecedented capabilities.

Referring to an F-117A nickname that has surfaced, he said, “Nobody that flies the Stealth aircraft calls it a wobbly goblin.”

Also off-limits were questions on reports that a Stealth fighter used in the U.S. invasion of Panama last year dropped bombs far from its target.

“The bombs hit exactly where they were aimed,” Peterson said before another Air Force officer broke in and said, “We can’t discuss information like that.”

“I only wish I could tell you what this fighter can really do,” said Ben Rich, vice president of Lockheed Corp., which builds the jet at its secret “Skunk Works” in Burbank.

The F-117A costs more than $100 million a copy, according to a recent report by the General Accounting Office. The Air Force gave a figure of $42.6 million--the so-called fly-away cost of one plane, without counting development costs for the program.

The Air Force has only recently pulled back the shroud of official secrecy on the F-117A, which had long been rumored to exist and has been flying for a decade. Previously, only pictures had been shown.

The Stealth fighters are attached to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at the Tonopah Test Range, a remote airfield 140 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Most of the 2,500 military personnel assigned to the program live in the Las Vegas area and commute to Tonopah each week. For their families, the public demonstration was the first view of the plane.

Lt. Gen. Peter Kempf, commander of the 12th Air Force, saluted the families, noting that military personnel had to be away from home four days a week for three years and couldn’t tell their families why.

Peterson, who has been in the Stealth program 3 1/2 years, said he was only able to tell his wife: “Hey, I’ve got a job but I can’t tell you where it is or what I’m doing.”

The F-117A is a relatively simple aircraft to fly and operate, said Col. Anthony Tolin, commander of the 37th. With only three accidents in nine years, it has the best safety record of any Air Force plane, he said.

A total of 59 Stealth fighters have been purchased and the last will be delivered this fall.