I vividly recall the first time I walked into the production line at Lockheed Burbank and saw a floor full of F-117s. I think the Lockheed engineers really enjoyed watching the reaction of people seeing the odd looking aircraft for the first time. Expectations for what it would look like had been carefully set by a very effective misinformation campaign around the concept of stealth. You were expecting to see something really sleek an low-profile; instead, there was this Buck Rogers 1950′s view of the space age thing that seemed to have the frontal area of a small house. How could that be invisible to radar? Those were fun days.
The F-117s are now all retired, declassified, and available to be photographed. This one is in the National Museum of the US Air Force, which has free admission and allows the use of tripods – essential because it’s dark in there.
Awesome. So dark (and so stealthy) that the plane looks like it’s floating. Really cool shot.