F-117 caught leaving Tonopah

The Aviationist has published pictures of an F-117 on the back of a truck, being moved along Highway 95, near Creech. Under the 2017 budget, they were to begin disposing of airframes, with one this year, and four a year starting next year.

They haven't announced where the aircraft will end up for their final dispensation. The budget act only calls for them to be demilitarized. It's believed some will end up in museums, while some may end up stored at AMARG until they can be disposed of.

theaviationist.com... ada-yesterday/

a reply to: Zaphod58

I hope one makes its way over here for a display.

Talking of displays I went do to Newquay to watch the bloodhound supersonic car do its test runs. On the way back just outside the airport some guy had a spitfire just randomly on his lawn. That's a great lawn ornament certainly beats some gnomes.

a reply to: Woody510

I'll have to sit and find the pictures of it, but there's a tiny little military surplus shop just outside Texarkana that has an F-111 sitting on the grass in front of it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's pretty cool I must admit. I remember Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame having a electric lightning put on his lawn.

They can't be scrapped like other airframes in the open air. Carbon fibre residue is extremely toxic. If they are being 'demilitarized' only, thats removing all the avionics and other 'secret stuff' prior to dumping them off whole somewhere like the desert.

Read into here under recovery efforts about the hazardous waste problems caused by carbon fibre.

toxic residue from crashed F 117

a reply to: Zaphod58

How much would you have loved to have transported that Zaph?

a reply to: Woody510

I seriously thought about transferring to another company and going flatbed when I first started driving. They ran most of an F-18 from Long Beach to Boeing St Louis to be built into a completed airframe.

I've heard the classified moves are a pain in the ass but worth the money depending on load. I've heard a few stories over the years though. Heh.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Woody510

I'll have to sit and find the pictures of it, but there's a tiny little military surplus shop just outside Texarkana that has an F-111 sitting on the grass in front of it.

231 Shiloh Rd, Hooks, TX 75561

www.turnersarmysurplus.com...

a reply to: turbo8

They have some great lawn decorations.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It is easy to glide right by it and there are no close exits either way on I-30. Turner's Army Surplus on north side frontage road. One exit is 213.

Interesting. Could they also be moving to a range to say use as a ground target to test JSTAR radars etc?

I have to be honest, If I had spotted it, I would have followed the sucker for a bit. The Museum bit will be interesting to see who gets one. I think that the issue of toxic material is worth noting but there are 5 on display now according to wiki (4 in the US and parts on one is Serbia)

a reply to: FredT

They'll strip the coatings off first and just paint them black, or put a fake coating on them.

A little off topic since it was the B-2 rather than the F-117...

I was driving in southern Missouri and saw what I could only describe as a black classic UFO.
Blinked, rubbed the eyes, etc. it was still there. I always was one to explore unexplained phenomena, and I was scared and excited at the same time.

I pulled over. The craft grew larger until it passed overhead with the classic body of the b-2.
It is quite the sight to see one when you don't expect it. Imagine the people that see it drop bombs...

It would look awesome over the Blackbird in the Udvar-Hazy center.
Would block the awesome view of the SR-71 to the Space Shuttle a little, though.

a reply to: the owlbear

I used to run out of a distribution center in Missouri. Depending on where I was heading back from, I'd look over and one would be paralleling the interstate.

There's also a truck stop we'd sit at that was under the approach path to Whiteman. The first clue they were there was seeing them after they passed overhead.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Woody510

I'll have to sit and find the pictures of it, but there's a tiny little military surplus shop just outside Texarkana that has an F-111 sitting on the grass in front of it.

he....he, yes, a silver one....an hour North of me.....we see when going to Broken Bow in Oklahoma.....North side right there you could touch it

One seen flying right afterwards:

theaviationist.com... -16-near-rachel/

Everyone keeps saying that they killed funding for them, but they didn't really. They cut funding for four aircraft a year starting in 2018. The rest have funding to remain "in storage".