On March 27, 1999, an F-117 Nighthawk became the first stealth aircraft ever shot down. To see how that was possible, start with the strangest thing about it: the aircraft has no curves. In 1975, Lockheed's computers could only work out how radar bounces off flat surfaces, so the first stealth aircraft was drawn with a ruler. This video follows a radar pulse to the aircraft, shows where each panel sends it, and then goes back to the one night that was not enough. Chapters 0:00 March 27, 1999 0:58 The short answer 1:14 A computer that could only do flat panels 2:30 How flat panels beat radar 4:10 What the shape cost 5:37 Baghdad, 1991 6:19 The night it failed 9:08 Why stealth aircraft have curves now Sources Lockheed Martin, F-117 Nighthawk history page Federation of American Scientists, F-117A Nighthawk fact sheet Wikipedia and the references it cites: Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk; Lockheed Have Blue; 1999 F-117A shootdown; S-125 Neva/Pechora; P-18 radar; Pyotr Ufimtsev; Zoltan Dani Accounts of the shoot-down disagree. Where the video gives one side's version, it says whose it is. Maps and outline drawings in the video are simplified and not to scale. 3D models "Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk" by Rhine_Lab_Muelsyse (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lockh… "ЗРК С-125 «Нева / SAM S-125 "Neva"" by teanid (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/125-s… "SNR-125 "Low Blow" radar" by 42manako (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/snr-1… "Northrop B-2 Spirit" by Rhine_Lab_Muelsyse (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/north… "Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor"" by andertan (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lockh… "Lockheed Martin F35 Lightning II" by andertan (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lockh… "McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II" by andertan (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/mcdon… "US Army UH-60M Black Hawk low poly model" by Yi Tsung Lee (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/us-ar… "Low Poly GBU-24 laser guided bomb" by AnirudhRao (CC BY 4.0, modified): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-p… Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/… "Echoes of Time v2", "Clean Soul", "Deliberate Thought", "Dark Fog", "Perspectives", "Long Note Two".
