Stealth attack aircraft ·First flight 1981 · In service 1983
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was the world's first operational stealth aircraft, its strange faceted shape designed — in an era before curved-surface radar modelling — to scatter radar energy away from the sender.
Cloaked in black and flying only at night, the "Wobblin' Goblin" opened the Gulf War by striking the most heavily defended targets in Baghdad, ushering in the age of stealth warfare.
