Flying the Nighthawk with F-117 Pilot Capt. Thad Darger

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." I really like that.

this is Gold, im very happy its recorded for posteriority

WOW.. amazing work to get Shaba back together again. I can say this with 100% accuracy, 817 has NEVER looked that clean. Honestly, I don't think any of the jets were that clean when I was the Crew Chief on during the 8 yrs, 4 months and 28 days that I was assigned to Holloman as an F-117A Crew Chief during my time serving in the Air Force. I will always remember each A/C I was assigned #838 and #813 when I was in the 8th FS, #797, #798, #789, #826 and finally #809 (the final 9th Fighter Squadron flagship!) I have never forgotten the day I launched out then Lt. Col Tatum in #809 as the final four F-117A's left Holloman in Apr 2008.. sad day.. Even if I got to play with a shiny new F-22 afterwards, the F-117A's are still THE #1 Aircraft on my list. Those and the amazing maintainers who shared the honor of crewing the jets along side me.

EXCELLENT presentation, Draft! Greetings from Bandit 580 (9FS 2000-2003) "We own the night!" - Spam

Great presentation. I still remember when the F-117 made its only appearance at the Abbotsford International Airshow in 1991 and had armed guards around it the entire time it was on display. Six years later, we had a B-2 make a flypast but it didn't land. Both impressive machines. The B-21 will be equally impressive.

Thanks to the 1970's computer limitations of the shape calculations it's the most sinister looking plane ever

Now, I know nobody's going to believe me on here, but I actually lived a couple houses down the street from Thad. Took the same bus to school as his kids from 3rd grade through high school. Trying not to dox the guy or myself, but I took care of his dog Riggs a couple times while his family went places, he helped me push my stalled car out of traffic, lol. Nice guy. I had no idea he was such a big wig until this got recommended to me out of the blue, but it does certainly explain a lot. Just goes to show that everyone's just a normal person at home.

Such a great presentation. # 1 rule in prepping for a public speaker - make sure the sound equipment is working, and the batteries fully charged.

In 1986, I drove my 67 Camaro from Tucson to Seattle. Several miles outside of Tonopah, my fanbelt broke. I limped into town and just missed the auto parts store being open. Next door to the parts store was a bar and I thought it unusual for a bar in the middle of nowhere to have a bunch of newer model cars parked outside, including a new Camaro. I went inside the bar, noticed several patrons of military bearing (which again I found odd), explained my predicament, and the owner of the Camaro said I could have his spare fanbelt. I put his spare on in the parking lot, offered to pay for the belt, thanked him, and was on my way. Years later I found out that F-117s were there - it was quite the ah ha moment.

Great presentation. Thank you for giving props to the all the support aircraft and personnel, especially the tankers. I was a KC-10 Boom Operator from 1986-1999. I was briefed into the program early on and was a refueler on one of the tankers assigned to the first "fighter drag" to the Gulf region in 1990.

I had the pleasure of working on that program at TTR for a frew years. The 1988 anouncement happened when I was there and I finally got to tell my wife where I went every Monday when she'd drop me off at Nellis. Fun to listen to your talk.

Thank you for this presentation, this guy is great. Wish we could see his slides as he talked.

Wow, a trip down memory lane! I'm from Michigan and worked the F-117A from 1990-1997 for the 415th FS / 9th FS. I moved back to Michigan after leaving Holloman AFB in 97'. I was a Weapons systems specialist and later an Engine troop. I did a few rotations to the low observables / MARS flight. Rotations to Khamis and Al Jaber were unique. Hard to believe they've been retired.

That, is a Marvel of American engineering. Neat neat aircraft. I remember playing microprose's F-117 stealth fighter on my PC in the early 90's and I thought it was cool then, I think it's even cooler now ❤ thanks for this presentation

I am so very happy this is recorded. Would be such a shame to not hear this if you were not there that day of the recording.

What an excellent presentation. Thank you Capt. Thad Darger.

"I'm stealthy." That microphone is probably modulating it's frequency to remain secure in RF, standard procedure.

Awesome presentation and I was so proud to have been associated with this program in 1990. I spent many hours in the cockpit as an egress specialist fixing the ejection seat and canopy and thrusters. The best time was doing EOR at Khamis Mushait with my buddy as these jets returned home from missions. Shaba is a thing that very few know. And the Captain is correct about the TOT’s being how a Bandit ( pilot) became extremely “ unpopular”! Zelko was a Captain and was my favorite Bandit. Great dude and bad ass! Pretty sure he was the pilot who got struck by lightning who we caught at EOR recovery who last half a vertical stab. Loved my time at TTR and the folks I worked with. We did “ own the night”!

The mentioning of the teamwork can't be understated. . . . And they are likely still being flown, sparingly, because they still fit a niche that otherwise cannot be fulfilled with the current tech; or they are validating systems that various sub contractor channels were guaranteed over an extended span of time. I just love that at least a few are still taking to the skies.

All I hear online is that these things were an aerodynamic nightmare and completely turn their noses up to it. However, I talked to a pilot that said they flew like a cadillac drives. It's still fly by wire and corrected by the flight software but it wasn't unpleasant to fly. It's also the only aircraft other than a B-2 that's decently stealthed on the thermal spectrum. The F-22/35 are still easily tracked by heat-seeking missiles.