Teacher

Military Aircraft

Thesis: Military aircraft has become more sophisticated in variety,

effectiveness in war situations, and special maneuvering techniques in

recent years.

Military aircraft has become more sophisticated in variety, effectiveness in war

situations, and special maneuvering techniques in recent years. With the advance of

stealth technology, many new and very effective aircraft have been developed.

The F-117A was used during Operation Dessert Storm and every plane came back without a

scratch. The very expensive B-2 stealth bomber has never been used in actual war, but

during testing it was a success. The Advanced Tactical Fighter program was started to make an aircraft that could supercruise, the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds, and didn't cost very much. The YF-22 and YF-23 were the first planes to accomplish this. With all the planes we know of, there are also top secret programs probably going on right now. A new fighter that has never been heard of before has been spotted. As John Welch, the assistant secretary of Air Force said, "Stealth gives us back that fundamental element of war called surprise" (Goodall 9).

After it was found that aircraft could be very useful in war, it was used for large scale reconnaissance. Then people started to add bombs to aircraft and then

airplanes started to become an essence of war. After World War 2, new bombers were developed with fast speed, and could travel far distances. They could also carry nuclear bombs and missiles. The use of the bomber aircraft then led to the fighter, which was equipped with guns and missiles. Helicopters were also found to be good strike aircraft. They were armed with cannons, machine guns, rockets, torpedoes, and a variety of missiles. Vertical takeoff made the helicopter an advantage.

The first flight of the F-117A was in June of 1981 in Groom Lake

test facility. The total cost for the development of the F-117A was just under two billion dollars, but it only cost $43 million to make each plane. It became operational in October of 1983 and was the first operational stealth aircraft ever built. The F-117A is a night attack plane powered by two, nonafterburning General Electric engines. F-117As were designed for first-strike capabilities and to be able to fly into any countries airspace undetected. The primary task of the F-117A is to break through enemy airspace, destroy high value targets, and return back unharmed. They were considered to first be used in several different tasks, but weren't used until Operation Dessert Storm where they did an excellent job. As Donald Rice, Secretary of the Air Force, said, "Everyone now agrees the F-117 was a real bargain" (9).

During Operation Dessert Storm the F-117As were found out to be very successful. The war began on January 16, 1991 when the F-117A fighters entered the Iraqi airspace on their way to downtown Baghdad. There were 43 of them over the skies of Iraq and not one was lost even though they went against one of the most modern air-defense systems in the world. Operation Dessert Storm was the largest aerial bombing attack in war history. It was also the first time a stealth aircraft was used as a main weapon. On the first day of Desert Storm the Lockheed F-117As dropped sixty-two 2,000 pound bombs

on Baghdad destroying the most critical targets of the Iraqi military, including

the headquarters of the Iraqi air force. "We've seen that not only does stealth work, but that it puts fewer assets at risk and saves lives" (9), as Donald Rice said. The pilots of those F-117As flew through the hardest anti-aircraft missiles any pilot has ever flown through.

When you think of stealth, most people probably think of B-2 stealth bomber, but most people don't realize that it hasn't even been used in a real war situation yet. In November of 1987 the Pentagon ordered the first four B-2s to be built for $2 billion.

Each B-2 cost $437.4 million to build. After the military liked the bomber, they originally ordered 133 of them, then they cut back to 75 because of the deficit-reduction bill. Then, in 1992, the House of Representatives voted to buy only twenty, and later only 15 saying that 10 would be enough. With four General Electric engines with 19,000 pounds of thrust each, the B-2s were made to carry a lot of weight. The Advanced Technology Bomber, as it was called, was made so it couldn't be spotted by enemy radar. After testing it was found out that it is almost impossible to track it constantly using radar. The B-2s were designed to be an all-flying wing and it is made up of over eighty percent of composite materials. The B-2 is 69 feet long, has a wingspan of 172 feet, and 17 feet in height. They also can carry a payload of 40,000 pounds and can travel at mach 0.85 (Jones 86). The B-2 can carry 80 bombs, including nuclear bombs. All fifteen of the B-2s are assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and await to be used in actual combat.

In 1983 the Advanced Tactical Fighter program office was formed at Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base, Ohio. The Air Force wanted to build an aircraft that had the ability to

supercruise without the use of afterburners or running out of