Amazon.com
The F-117 Stealth fighter was designed to be invisible to radar, and beginning with its development in the 1970s, it was also invisible to the public and almost all of the U.S. military for many years. In this look at the Stealth, from the drawing board to test flights to steady combat duty in the Gulf War, the viewer is treated to information and film footage that was once highly classified. There are plenty of stirring shots of Stealth fighters in flight, but this goes beyond being a high-altitude action video. The technology behind the Stealth is explained in lucid layman's terms by its designers, and members of an Air Force squadron who fly the Stealth offer their unique insights into the most advanced weapon in the American arsenal. The pilots, Gulf War vets, recount missions to Baghdad, which was hit heavily by the Stealth during Desert Storm. Reminding us that these planes are extremely lethal tools, a pilot also comments on a heavily publicized incident in the war, the mistaken bombing of a bunker filled with Iraqi civilians. Lockheed delivered only 59 Stealth fighters to the Air Force, at a cost of $42.6 million per plane, but despite that small number the Stealth has become a symbol of the modern American military. This video provides a comprehensive look at the strange black plane which seems to have flown out of the future.
--Robert McNamara
