Stealth Fighter: A Year in the Life of an F-117 Pilot

by William B. O'Connor

Overview

The F-117 Stealth Nighthawk was a truly groundbreaking aircraft when introduced in the early 1980s. The strange shape of the jet, all flat panels and angles, rendered the aircraft nearly invisible to radar. This highly classified program wasn’t acknowledged publicly by the U.S. Air Force until 1988. The Nighthawk was retired in 2008 after twenty-five years of service, including bombing missions over Panama, Iraq during both Gulf Wars, andYugoslavia during the Kosovo war. Brad O’Connor flew the Nighthawk during the NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo in 1999. His first-person experience puts the reader in the cockpit of this revolutionary combat aircraft. From his F-117 assignment through training, deployment, mission planning, and combat flights, O’Connor relates the day-to-day life of a pilot in the world’s first stealth fighter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610584333
Publisher:	Quarto Publishing Group USA
Publication date:	08/31/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	424
Sales rank:	354,795
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Brad OÆConnor (north Texas) had a twenty-six-year career as an aviator in the U.S. Air Force and completed tours of duty flying eight different types of jets, including the F-16. He flew seventy-nine combat sorties over Iraq during the "no fly-zone" years before being selected to join the elite cadre of F-117 Stealth Fighter pilots at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. His final active-duty assignment was to Sheppard AFB, Texas, where he was an instructor pilot and the U.S. Senior National Representative to the NATO fighter pilot training program for almost five years. Brad amassed 6,077 jet flight hours as a fighter, test, and instructor pilot before retiring. He currently lives in north Texas where he is a contract instructor pilot and flies World War II warbirds for heritage organizations on weekends.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Night-1
Chapter 1: Farewell to the Raven
Chapter 2: FIGMO
Chapter 3: PCS to Holloman
Chapter 4: Stealth 101
Chapter 5: Bandit Number 545
Chapter 6: The Black Sheep
Chapter 7: Promotion
Chapter 8: A Rumor of War
Chapter 9: Final Preparations
Chapter 10: Pasta Express
Chapter 11: Aviano
Chapter 12: First Strike
Chapter 13: Vega 31
Chapter 14: An Unwelcome Routine
Chapter 15: The CAOC
Chapter 16: Settling In?
Chapter 17: The Lone Ranger
Chapter 18: No Whining Allowed
Chapter 19: Germany and Home
Epilogue
Appendix
Glossary
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"For a personal account of flying the F-117, you'll need O'Connor's book." - Air & Space Smithsonian

From the Publisher