We Just Found Out F-117s Are Alive And Well – Here’s One Flying A Few Days Ago

Koalorka / Public Domain

This is an editorial type piece because we seriously can’t believe this happened. One of the Instagram pages we follow, namely, combat_learjet, just posted a video of an F-117 flying in Death Valley, known as Rainbow Canyon (also nicknamed Star Wars Canyon.)

This is where pilots and aviators from Nellis Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Lemoore, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Fresno Air National Guard Base and Edwards Air Force Base conduct their low-altitude training to practice tough terrain navigation and avoid radar detection.

The description of the event by the uploader goes as follows:

#Repost@airshowstuff @txavgeek ・・・
The F-117 LIVES!!! Friend of AirshowStuff Wayne Day just shared some awesome new video from Death Valley earlier today 2-27-19. They’ve been quite active lately.
Please make sure to give credit if sharing!

In the video, you can clearly hear the cameraman say, “February 27th. F-117 stealth fighter over Death Valley.” Sure, that could have been dubbed but this video is circulating around the web like crazy.

We’re sure that most of you know this, but these birds have been retired in April of 2008. The F-22 Raptor replaced its stealth capabilities with added speed and maneuverability so the Nighthawks were mothballed.

There was a stipulation of maintaining that a certain amount of them be “in a condition that would allow recall of that aircraft to future service” in case the need arose, but since 2006 four aircraft per year were removed from that list. This leaves a few of them in flying condition to this day, but it’s the first time in a long, long while that anyone’s seen them actually flying.

Here’s your chance. The video is below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZWDQ-Heyt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link