USAF
Just thought I'd point out that today marks 40 years since the first unit of the F-117A Nighthawk took flight for the first time in the skies above the Nevada desert. But it wouldn't be about a decade later, in April of 1990, that the Nighthawk's existence was declassified by the Pentagon after the 'Black Jet' secretly took part in the 1989 Panama invasion (codenamed Operation Just Cause) by the United States. And of course, Operations Desert Storm and Allied Force would make the Nighthawk both famous and infamous (due to one being shot down in Yugoslavia during an Allied Force airstrike in 1999) that ensuing decade.
I'm reminiscing about the F-117A because it was my favorite military aircraft when I was a kid—before the F-22 Raptor came along (as the YF-22 prototype in the early '90s) soon thereafter. Stealth fighters are just so awesome...even though the Nighthawk is technically a bomber. Happy Juneteenth Eve!
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