F117 nighthawk stealth fighter
F117 nighthawk stealth fighterF117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter
Introduction
My paper is on the F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter. I am doing this research on an account of the Nighthawk being an interesting, modern, and technological subject. Some may confuse this fighter with the B-2 Stealth Bomber. The B-2�s construction was provoked by the Nighthawk due to the Nighthawk�s performance in many sorties.
Body
Specifications
The specifications and dimensions of the Nighthawk may be hard to understand, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me about them. The primary function of the Nighthawk is to be a fighter or attacker. The length from nose to rear is 65' 11", the height of the Nighthawk is 12' 5", and the empty fighter weight is 29,500lbs. The maximum total weight this fighter can hold is 52,500lbs. The wingspan from side-end to side-end is 43� 4� and the area of one wing is 1,140 ft. squared The speed of the Nighthawk is in the high subsonic range because the cruise speed is from Mach .8 to Mach .9 and the maximum speed is Mach 1 at 36,000 ft. The range of the Nighthawk is unlimited with air refueling from another plane. The engines of the Nighthawk are two
12,500lb. General Electric F404-F1D2 non-afterburning turbofan engines with 10,600 lbs. of thrust. The Nighthawk�s armament is a non-fixed internal weapons carriage and the primary weapons on the Nighthawk are the paveway series GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser guided bombs. There is usually one person to fly the Nighthawk and the cost to build each Nighthawk is around 45 million dollars. The United States Air Force has produced 59
Nighthawks with the help of Lockheed�s "Skunkworks."
Stealth Technology
What makes the Nighthawk so stealthy are Radar Absorbent Materials or RAMs for short. The primary RAM for the Nighthawk is Dow Chemical�s Fibaloy.(Jones, 1989, p.45+77) Fibaloy is black and has great radar-energy absorbency.(Jones, 1989, p.45) Fibaloy is made by inserting glass fibers into plastic. (Jones, 1989, p.45) Another RAM is Reinforced Carbon Fiber. Reinforced Carbon Fiber absorbs and diminishes radar-energy. It also helps reduce the Nighthawk�s infrared signature.(Jones, 1989, p.77) The shape of the Nighthawk also contributes to the stealth. The Nighthawk has rounded surfaces so radar waves bounce off in different directions. All of these surfaces are bent in different angles so one surface does not share a common reflective angle with another surface.
There are also other modifications to help the Nighthawk�s stealth abilities. For example, a special modified exhaust system decreases the amount of heat from...
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