Photo of the undetectable plane

1990/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Garraioak
• Aeronautika

Finally, the U.S. Pentagon and Lockheed have authorized the publication of photographs of the F-117 A aircraft. This secret aircraft has worked for seven years and has not been detected on radar screens, since it is undetectable.

Since 1983 some sixty planes have been built and have travelled without anyone having noticed. It seems surprising that the secret has been so well kept for so long, but it must be clarified that the plane has been in deserts, as in Nevada, and has only travelled at night.

This is a special form of the F-117 aircraft. It has many planes joined by dihedrons, so it can not reach smooth speeds. It is, therefore, a subsonic plane that is apparently quite difficult to drive (they say it has suffered some accidents). It has capacity for a single pilot and its main characteristics are 13.2 meters wide, 20 meters long and 24 tons of weight. In General Electric has two turborreactors F-404, each with a force of 8.5 tons.

The development of this type of plane has meant a disbursement of two billion dollars and the construction of each plane has cost 43 million dollars. They have also had other expenses in the preparation of terrestrial infrastructure, etc. In total they have invested 6.5 billion dollars. Of course very expensive, but being a military plane, those in power have given it priority.