As the last F-117 stand down and are placed in recoverable storage at Nellis, one airframe remains unaccounted for. The F-117 that was shot down by
the Serbians. The Serbians sold the recovered airframe to the Russians. The Russians used the airframe in research and some of that may have used in
the S300PMU2 SAM. I always beleived that it was not a mistake to NOT bounce the wreckage. No doubt Russian aid allowed the serbs to wage thier war of
genocide in Bosnia and this was some sort of payoff for that.
The part Im curious about in the write up is when it talks about "lack of electrical continuity" in the recovered wreckage? The faceting was a
passive stealth measuure so Im not really clear as to why it would matter?
The whereabouts of the downed fighter was unknown for months, although Pentagon officials said unofficially that it was possibly in either Russia or
China. But at the next Moscow air show in 2001, two Aviation Week & Space Technology reporters interviewed advanced projects officials from Russia’s
top surface-to-air missile (SAM) organizations—now merged as the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Co.
These officials, in a stunning admission, said they not only had the aircraft, but were using data from tests conducted with the remains to design
improved SAMs (AW&ST Oct. 8, 2001, p. 80). Given the first-generation, faceted stealth design of the F-117 and the lack of electrical continuity
obtainable from the badly damaged aircraft, it’s still an open question as to how much useful information could actually be obtained.
www.aviationweek.com.../awst_xml/2008/0
4/07/AW_04_07_2008_p50-38509.xml&headline=One+F-117+Still+Missing+from+Official+Rolls
