Hi, don’t know if this has been answered here before, but I know the question of the Nighthawk’s inaccurate ‘F’ designation has been raised several times.
I watched Battlestations on the F117’s development on Saturday, and a British engineer who was one of the key guys in its design (he came up with the grid over the intakes) said that because it was the it was to be the most advanced aircraft in the air force, and the pinnacle of the US strike capabilities, they wanted to attract the elite of the pilots. They simply felt that giving it an ‘A’ disignation did it a disservice, and that more pilots would want to fly it if it was designated as a fighter! That simple
Sorry if I’m covering old ground, but like I said, I’ve seen the question a few times, but never an answer. Well, not THIS answer.
My references (Fighters of the USAF by Dorr and Donald) tell me that the F-112 to F-116 numbers were probably issued to MIG’s and Sukhoi’s used at Nellis for evaluation. So, that would make 117 the first in line.
I can understand the AF wanting to make this place seem as appealing to the people they wanted to get to fly it as possible. Bear in mind that when it began flying back in the early eighties, there was nothing else even remotely like it that had even been seen before. It’s design and construction involved such radical departures from the norm no one really knew how it would work in ‘real world’ applications.
Anyway, the plane is about the same size and shape as a modern jet fighter. It’s single seat, and according to every pilot I’ve ever heard talk about flying it - it’s every bit as maneuverable as a fighter. Of course, without afterburning engines and no cannon, I think just about any pilot would also dread the day he found him(or her)self caught in a dogfight!
The AF does some funny things sometimes to market their interestes. After all, if YOUD just spent milions and millions of dollars on a jet you weren’t sure pilots could fly (or would even WANT to fly for that matter!) you’d probably do things like call it a fighter (even though it really isn’t) and paint it black cause black is sexy and grey is just dumb.
I heard that the F-117 designation was an intentional misdirection (Wings?), if 112-116 were used for Soviet A/C this would seem to fit.
Also if the Air Force tells a pilot to fly an aircraft it doesn’t matter if he wants to or not, unless of course (s)he would prefer Levanworth to a squadron.
At the onset of the active F-117 program, the pilots were indeed given a choice (according to several different books on the subject) due to the extreme nature of their training. It was (and likely still is in some cases) highly disruptive to anyone’s family/social/personal lifestyle. The first pilots who flew the Nighthawk were kept away from their families for a week at a time - sometimes longer. So the AF wanted to make sure the pilots knew what they were signing up for. I don’t know of anyone who was told outright - “You’re gonna fly this ugly thing, and you’ll LIKE IT!”
I did find an interesting article here about this very issue:
While doing research on “lost” designations, I came across references to the reason why it has 117 instead of F-19 (remember the Testors kit?). It was simply a case of misdirection. If you were a spy and kept track of the designation system, then you would know to look for F-19 as the next designation, this applies to other types as well. You wouldn’t be interested in anything in the old series, but would concentrate your efforts on the new series. The Walkers had access to some of the development history of the HAVE BLUE and prototype F-117, but ignored it because they were looking for stuff in the wrong areas. I printed out the sheet on this but I can’t find it right now, when I find it I’ll post the relevant parts of it and provide a link for it as well, so that everyone can read what else is in there. It makes for interesting reading. Like the B-71 that is based on the SR-71.
Sometimes there is a simple explanation for designation oddities. The joint NASA and Army TiltRotor Research Aircraft Program Office at NASA Ames requested a military designation for their experimental VTOL and were assigned XV-14. Since Bell Helicopter had won the contract, and the Bell Aircraft X-14 VTOL (let’s not get into why it isn’t the XV-something or another) was still active at NASA Ames, there was definitely a potential for confusion in the hangar there between the Bell X-14 and Bell XV-14. The Progam Office therefore requested and were assigned XV-15 instead. The spurned XV-14 designation has reportedly never been used, although that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a steath VTOL out there somewhere…
What about this scenario:
F-110=F-4 Phantom
F-111=F-111
F-112=YF-12
F-113=F-5
F-114=F-15
F-115=F-16
F-116=YF-17
F-117=Stealth?!?!
Toss out Navy designs F-14 and F/A-18 and this could work. Just my 2 cents.
This is good, but don’t forget these are in there too.
YF-113= MiG-27 HAVE DOUGHNUT
YF-114=MiG-21 ? Not sure about this one as its also listed as a YF-113
YF-115=Su-7 ? once again some sources list this one as a YF-113
This is where what I found left off but picked up with the YF-117 and one reference to a YF-118 which was refered to as a “modified F-18” for NASA, I think this means the HARV but not totally sure. This source isn’t what could be considered a sure thing either as it lists a lot of conjecture. BTW there was a stealth project that also went by the name YF-113.
