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

by William B. O'Connor

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.

Genres: Aviation, History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Biography

424 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2012

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book with excellent insight to stealth.

[Vojtech · Rating 4 out of 5]

F-117 as of course everyone knows, is the famous straight-angled invisible black jet. Equipped with a couple of 2-ton GBU-27 bombs, it is able to penetrate deep into enemy territory and wreak havoc undetected. This book will give you a pretty good overview of how the F-117 community worked. I especially like that it also deals with the logistics of how the jets were transported to and from Europe during the war in Kosovo. What surprised me the most was how frustrated those pilots can get when they lack enough targets to drop their ordnance on. I suppose it's work like any other, but it still seemed just a little bit blood thirsty. Anyway, I would recommend the book to any military aviation fans out there!

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid memoir from a F-117 pilot who flew various missions over the Balkans. I am very intrigued by this cult aircraft (who in their right mind wouldn't want to fly one of these things?) and O'Connor does a great job placing the reader inside the cockpit, as well as the training sessions needed to effectively pilot this jet. Great read for aviation enthusiasts.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read quite a few books and only a few have been absolutely worthless. Unfortunately this is one of them.