I Know I’m Getting Old

Filed under:Sad — posted by Anwyn on March 11, 2008 @ 10:41 pm

…when they retire a fighter jet that came onto the line when I was a kid. Fare thee well, F-117.

The Air Force decided to accelerate the retirement of the F-117s to free up money to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology.

[Brig. Gen. Gregory] Feest, who is Bandit 261, also led the first stealth fighter mission into Iraq during Desert Storm in 1991. He said the fire from surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns was so intense that he stopped looking at it to try to ease his fears.

“We knew stealth worked and it would take a lucky shot to hit us, but we knew a lucky shot could hit us at any time,” he said.

Incredibly, not one stealth was hit during those missions, he said.

H/t: J.

5 comments »

  1. Yeah, but as awesome as the Raptor is, it will never look as cool as the F-117. “It is always better to look good than to feel good.”

    Comment by Garter Knight — March 12, 2008 @ 7:42 am

  2. Did I just hear that someone thinks the “Flying Dorito” looks better than the Raptor? Now granted, the Raptor is no Viper, but c’mon!

    Most of the jets are going into ‘recallable storage.’ (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123089834)

    In true F-117 fashion, they’re getting their own ‘Boneyard,’ though. As if hogging dedicated KC-10s wasn’t enough for them, they’ve got to hog real estate in perpetuity for themselves.

    Comment by Chris — March 12, 2008 @ 9:56 pm

  3. Well, I’ve never been too fond of its looks myself, but we do seem to have a habit of retiring some frackin’ awesome airplanes while they’re still fine-and-dandy flyable–SR-71 notable among them.

    Comment by Anwyn — March 12, 2008 @ 10:03 pm

  4. Mysterious black flying wing? Well, that’s pretty cool to me! As to replacing them, you have to remember that the Air Force has the largest population of tech geeks (both officer and enlisted) in it’s ranks. And when was the last time a true tech geek was satisfied with old technology when he/she/it can have new technology?

    Comment by Garter Knight — March 13, 2008 @ 6:20 am

  5. I knew I was getting old when my old high school did a theme dance to the music I was listening to when I was there.

    “We can dance when we want to, we can leave your..OW! My hip!”

    Comment by Garter Knight — March 13, 2008 @ 6:23 am

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