Bryan R. Swopes grew up in Southern California in the 1950s–60s, near the center of America's aerospace industry. He has had a life-long interest in aviation and space flight. Bryan is a retired commercial helicopter pilot and flight instructor.
View all posts by Bryan Swopes →
Lockheed Full Scale Development YF-117A, 79-10780, in three-tone desert camouflage. (Lockheed Martin)
18 June 1981: At 6:05 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time (1305 UTC), the first Full Scale Development Lockheed YF-117A Nighthawk, 79-10780, made its first flight at Groom Lake, Nevada, with “Skunk Works” test pilot Harold C. (“Hal”) Farley, Jr. at the controls. The super-secret airplane was made of materials that absorbed radar waves, and built with the surfaces angled so that radar signals are deflected away from the source.
Harold “Hal” Farley, Jr., with a Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk. (Lockheed Martin)
Hal Farley is a former U.S. Naval Aviator who spent eight years testing F-14 Tomcat fighters for Grumman before going to work at Lockheed’s “Skunk Works.” He flew the Have Blue proof-of-concept prototype and the Senior Trend F-117 program. When he retired from Lockheed, Farley had more that 600 flight hours in the F-117s. His call sign is “Bandit 117.”
Commonly called the “Stealth Fighter,” the Nighthawk is actually a tactical bomber. Five developmental aircraft and 59 operational F-117As were built. They were in service from 1983 until 2008, when the Lockheed F-22 Raptor was planned to assume their mission. They are mothballed and could be returned to service if needed.
A Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk takes off from Nellis Air Force, Base, Nevada. (Lockheed Martin)
The Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine tactical bomber with swept wings and tail surfaces. It is 65 feet, 11 inches (20.091 meters) long with a wingspan of 43 feet, 4 inches (13.208 meters) and height of 12 feet, 5 inches (3.785 meters). The wings’ leading edges are swept aft to 67° 30′. The total wing area is 912.7 square feet ( square meters). The Nighthawk has an empty weight of 29,500 pounds (13,381 kilograms) and a maximum takeoff weight of 52,500 pounds (23,814 kilograms).
The F-117 is powered by two General Electric F404-F1D2 engines. These are two-spool axial-flow turbofan engines which have a 3-stage fan section, 7-stage compressor and 2-stage turbine. They are rated at 10,540 pounds of thrust (46.88 kilonewtons), each. The -F1D2 is 2 feet, 10.8 inches (0.884 meters) in diameter, 7 feet, 3.0 inches (2.210 meters) long and weighs 1,730 pounds (785 kilograms).
The F-117A has a maximum speed of 0.92 Mach (608 miles per hour, 978 kilometers per hour) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters). The service ceiling is 45,000 feet (13,716 meters) and range is 765 miles (1,231 kilometers), though inflight refueling capability gives it world-wide range.
A Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk drops a 2,000-pound GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb. (U.S. Air Force)
The Nighthawk has no defensive armament. It can carry two 2,000 pound (907 kilogram) bombs in an internal bomb bay.
Lockheed built 5 YF-117As and 59 production F-117As. The F-117s were retired and placed in climate-controlled storage in 2008.
Scorpion One, 79-10780, is now mounted on a pylon as a “gate guard” at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk in flight. (U.S. Air Force)
18 June 1937: Leg 20. Amelia Earhart departed Calcutta, India enroute to Rangoon, Burma. After a fuel stop at Akyab, she and Fred Noonan continued on their way, but monsoon rains forced them to return to Akyab.
“When we reached the airport at dawn nocturnal rains had soaked it. The ground was thoroughly wet, precarious for a take-off. But meteorologists advised that more rain was coming and that likely we could dodge through the intermittent deluges of the day but that if we remained the field might become waterlogged beyond use. That take-off was precarious, perhaps as risky as any we had. The plane clung for what seemed like ages to the heavy sticky soil before the wheels finally lifted, and we cleared with nothing at all to spare the fringe of trees at the airdrome’s edge. For a time we flew through gray skies crowded with clouds that lowered at us as we passed over the many mouths of the Ganges and Brahmapurra rivers…Much of the way from Calcutta to Akyab we flew very low over endless paddies…Akyab is a picturesque place from the air. Two pagodas, covered with gold leaf, stand out…The airport is a port of call for most pilots passing this way. It has two runways and a large hangar. Imperial Airways and Air France stops regularly, and K.L.M., the Dutch line, when necessary to refuel or on account of the weather. . .
“We did not intend to stay at Akyab overnight. Instead we hoped to reach Rangoon at least, and started off from Akyab after checking the weather and fueling. Once in the air the elements grew progressively hostile. The wind, dead ahead, began to whip furiously. Relentless rain pelted us. The monsoon, I find, lets down more liquid per second that I thought could come out of the skies. Everything was obliterated in the deluge, so savage that is beat off patches of paint along the leading edge of my plane’s wings. Only a flying submarine could have prospered. It was wetter even than it had been in that deluge of the mid-South Atlantic. The heavens unloosed an almost unbroken wall of water which would have drowned us had our cockpit not been secure. After trying to get through for a couple of hours we give up, forced to retreat to Akyab.
“Back-tracking, we headed out to sea, flying just off the surface of the water. We were afraid to come low over land on account of the hills. When it’s impossible to see a few hundred yards ahead through the driving moisture the prospect of suddenly encountering hilltops is not a pleasant one. By uncanny powers, Fred Noonan managed to navigate us back to the airport, without being able to see anything but the waves beneath our plane. His comment was, ‘Two hours and six minutes of going nowhere.’ For my part, I was glad that our landing gear was retractable, lest it be scraped on trees or waves. . . .”
—Amelia Earhart
Great Circle route from Calcutta, India, to Akyab, Burma, 290 nautical miles (334 statute miles/537 kilometers). (Great Circle Mapper)
18 June 1928: At 4:05 p.m., Monday afternoon, world-famous Arctic explorer Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, along with five others, departed Tromsø, Norway, enroute to Spitzbergen, approximately 650 miles away across the Barents Sea.
Airship Italia at Svalbard.
On 25 May, the airship Italia, designed, built and under the command of Umberto Nobile, with a crew of 19, crashed on the arctic ice northeast of the island of Nordlaustlandet in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Italia was able to transmit a distress message, and a very large but disorganized search and rescue operation began.
Amundsen made arrangements with the government of France to use a prototype reconnaissance flying boat to look for Nobile and the other survivors.
Built by Société Latham & Cie., the second prototype Latham 47, Nº 02 , was being prepared at the company’s factory at Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy, to be flown across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City by Capitaine de corvette René Cyprien Guilbaud.
Crew of Latham 47-02, left to right, Emile Valette, Albert Cavelier de Cuverville, René Guilbaud and Gilbert Brazy. (Aerophile)
Guilbaud, with Capitaine de corvette Albert Madeleine Ludovic Alphonse Cavelier de Cuverville; Gilbert George Paul Brazy, mechanic; Émile Valette, radio operator, departed on 16 June. They arrived at Bergen, Norway, the following day, where they picked up Amundsen and pilot Leif Ragnar Dietrichson, who had flown Amundsen on previous expeditions. They continued to Tromsø, north of the Arctic Circle in northern Norway.
“Flybåten Latham 47 registrering 47-02 i Tromsø 18 juni 1928. Kort før Roald Amundsen startet for å lete etter Nobile” (Anders Beer Wilse/Norsk Folkemuseum NF.WB 48692)Lief Ragnar Dietrichson
At 7:00 p.m. on the 18th, a radio signal was received from the flying boat: “Do not leave listening. . . .”
Nothing more was heard. The rescue flight never arrived at Spitzbergen, and the six men were never seen again.
The Latham 47 was a twin-engine, two-bay biplane flying boat, designed as a naval reconnaissance aircraft for the Marine Nationale (the navy of France). The hydroavion was 16.30 meters (53.48 feet) long, with an upper wingspan of 25.20 meters (82.68 feet) and height of 5.20 meters (17.06 feet). The total wing area was 120.02 square meters (1,291.88 square feet). It had an empty weight of approximately 4,900 kilograms (10,803 pounds) and gross weight of 6,886 kilograms (15,181 pounds).
Latham 47 No. 02 at Tromsø, Norway, 18 june 1928. (Foto: Rognmosamlingen)
The Latham 47 was powered by two water-cooled, 25.485 liter (1,555.166 cubic inch displacement) Société des Avions H. M. et D. Farman 12We “broad arrow” 12-cylinder overhead valve engine with three banks of four cylinders separated by 40°. The engines were mounted in a central nacelle between the upper and lower wings. One was in tractor configuration and the other, a pusher arrangement. The Farman 12We had a compression ratio of 5.3:1,and was rated at 500 chaval vapeur (493 horsepower) at 2,000 r.p.m., and 550 cheval vapeur (543 horsepower) at 2,150 r.p.m. The engines drove four-bladed propellers through a 0.74:1 gear reduction. Each engine weighed 510 kilograms (1,124 pounds), dry.
The Latham 47 had a maximum speed of 170 kilometers per hour (106 miles per hour). Its ceiling was 4,000 meters (13,123 feet), and its range was 900 kilometers (559 miles).
Tromsø 18. juni 1928 (Foto: Vilhjelm Riksheim)
A memorial to the crew of Latham 47 No 02 was designed by architect Léon Rey and sculptor Robert Delandre. It was dedicated at Caudebec-en-Caux, 31 June 1931.
The Latham 47 Memorial at Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy, France, dedicated 21 June 1931.
In 1969, “The Red Tent,” a Russian/Italian motion picture was made about the search and rescue of the survivors of Italia. The movie starred Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale, Hardy Krüger and Peter Finch.
A recent photograph of the dramatic Latham 47 memorial at Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy, France.
Oberleutnant Max Franz Immelmann, 1916. (Great War Primary Documents Archive
18 June 1916: Oberleutnant Max Franz Immelmann, Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches
b. 21 September 1890, Dresden, son of Franz August Immelmann and Gertrude Sidonie Grimmer Immelman
appointed Ensign, 4 March 1911
First German “ace”; 17 victories between 1 Aug 15 and 18 June 1916, on which date he shot down two FE2B
kia: 18 June 1916, Annay, Departement du Pas-de-calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France flying Fokker Eindecker III #246/16. Shot down by 2nd Lt. George Reynolds McCubbin and his gunner, Corporal J. H. Waller, No. 25 Sdn, flying FE2B #6346
cremated, Urnenhein Tolkewitz, Dresden
Immelmann Turn, 1918 (Practical Flying, E.L. Ford, RNAS, March 1918)
B-47E-25-DT Stratojet 52-166 is prepared to depart Armitage Field, NAWS China Lake, 17 June 1986. (U.S. Air Force)
17 June 1986: After being returned to flyable condition, B-47E-25-DT Stratojet serial number 52-166, made the very last flight of a B-47 when it was flown by Major General John D. (“J.D.”) Moore and Lieutenant Colonel Dale E. Wolfe, U.S. Air Force, from the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the high desert of Southern California, to Castle Air Force Base in California’s San Joaquin Valley, to be placed on static display.
52-166 had been built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at Air Force Plant No. 3, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1952. 52-166 had not been flown in twenty years, having sat in the Mojave Desert serving as a radar target. General Moore and Colonel Wolf were experienced B-47 pilots, though they hadn’t flown one in the same twenty years. Because the B-47 it had not been through a complete overhaul prior to the ferry flight, it was decided to leave the landing gear extended to avoid any potential problems.
During the 43 minute trip, the aircraft had several systems fail, including airspeed sensors, intercom, and partial aileron control. On approach to Castle Air Force Base, a 16 foot (4.9 meters) approach parachute was deployed. This created enough aerodynamic drag to slow the airplane while the early turbojet engines were kept operating at high power settings. These engines took a long time to accelerate from idle, making a go-around a very tricky maneuver. Releasing the chute allowed the airplane to climb out as the engines were already operating at high r.p.m.
Douglas-built B-47E-25-DT Stratojet 52-166 enroute Castle Air Force Base with a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star chase, 17 June 1986. California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains are in the distance. (U.S. Air Force)
Designed by Boeing, the Stratojet was a high-subsonic speed strategic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, in service from 1951 until 1977. The B-47 could fly higher and faster than jet fighters of the time, and it was also highly maneuverable. B-47E (Boeing Model 450-157-35) was flown by a two pilots in a tandem cockpit. A navigator/bombardier was at a station in the nose.
The B-47E Stratojet differed from the earlier B-47B primarily with upgraded engines and strengthened landing gear to handle an increase in maximum weight. The B-47E Stratojet is 107.1 feet (32.644 meters) long with a wingspan of 116.0 feet (35.357 meters), and an overall height of 28.0 feet (8.534 meters). The wings are shoulder-mounted and have a total area of 1,428 square feet (132.67 square meters). The wings’ leading edges are swept aft to 36° 37′. The angle of incidence is 2° 45′ and there is 0° dihedral (the wings were very flexible). The B-47E in standard configuration had an empty weight of 78,620 pounds (35,661 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 200,000 pounds (90,718 kilograms).
The B-47E was powered by six General Electric J47-GE-25 turbojet engines in four nacelles mounted on pylons below the wings. This engine has a 12-stage axial-flow compressor, eight combustion chambers, and single-stage turbine. The -25 has a continuous power rating of 5,320 pounds of thrust (23.665 kilonewtons) at 7,630 r.p.m., at Sea Level; Military Power, 5,670 pounds (25.221 kilonewtons) at 7,800 r.p.m. (30 minute limit); and Maximum Power, 7,200 pounds (32.027 kilonewtons) at 7,950 r.p.m. with water/alcohol injection (5 minute limit). The J47-GE-25 has a maximum diameter of 3 feet, 1 inch (0.940 meters) and length of 12 feet, 0 inches (3.658 meters) and weighs 2,653 pounds (1,203 kilograms)
The B-47E had a maximum speed of 497 knots (572 miles per hour/920 kilometers per hour) at 20,000 feet (6,096 meters), and 485 knots (558 miles per hour/898 kilometers per hour) at 38,600 feet (11,765 meters).
The service ceiling was 31,500 feet (9,601 meters) and combat ceiling 40,800 feet (12,436 meters).
The combat radius of the B-47E was 1,780 nautical miles 2,048 miles (3,297 kilometers with a 10,000 pound (4,536 kilograms) bomb load. Ferry range with 14,720 gallons (55,721 liters) of fuel was 4,095 nautical miles (4,712 miles/7,584 kilometers).
For defense the B-47E was armed with two M24A1 20 mm autocannons with 350 rounds of ammunition per gun. The remotely-operated tail turret was controlled by the co-pilot.
The maximum bomb load of the B-47E was 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms). The B-47 could carry up to six 2,000 pound (907 kilogram) bombs, or one 10,670 pound (4,840 kilograms) “Special Store”: a B-41 three-stage radiation-implosion thermonuclear bomb with a yield of 25 megatons).
B-47E-25-DT Stratojet 52-166 flies over California’s Central Valley farmland as it heads to Castle Air Force Base on the very last B-47 flight, 17 June 1986. (U.S. Air Force)
A total of 2,032 B-47s were built by a consortium of aircraft manufacturers: Boeing Airplane Company, Wichita, Kansas; Douglas Aircraft Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Lockheed Aircraft Company, Marietta, Georgia.
The Stratojet is one of the most influential aircraft designs of all time and its legacy can be seen in almost every jet airliner built since the 1950s: the swept wing with engines suspended below and ahead on pylons. The B-47 served the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1977. From the first flight of the Boeing XB-47 Stratojet prototype, 17 December 1947, to the final flight of B-47E 52-166, was 38 years, 6 months, 1 day.
Douglas-built B-47E-25-DT Stratojet 52-166 on final approach to land at Castle Air Force Base, 17 June 1986. The approach chute is deployed. This was the very last time that a B-47 flew.
