F-117 Nighthawk Tested A Mirror-Like Skin Decades Before The F-22 Raptor Did
We have more on the ‘mirrored’ F-22 Raptor mystery that includes a historical connection and an official Air Force statement.
BY TYLER ROGOWAY DECEMBER 22, 2021
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Since our initial reporting, Nellis Air Force Base’s ‘mirrored’ F-22 has grabbed a ton of attention. The aircraft has been flying regular sorties, and some great additional photos and videos have emerged of it in action. That being said, we want to add a bit of important historical connective tissue to our original story, which has to do with the F-117 Nighthawk. We also have a statement from the Air Force on the Raptor’s mysterious metallic coating to share.
ANTHONY VOGEL
The same mirrored F-22 is seen from different angles. The reflectivity totally changes depending on the viewing aspect.
We wrote the following about the SENIOR SPUD program earlier this year, in a story to mark the 40th anniversary of the F-117’s first flight, in which we laid out all the unique paint schemes and treatments the F-117 had worn over the years:
Another oddity around the same time was the half-black, half-metallic 79-10784, another one of the FSD [full-scale development] jets, which was trialed under the SENIOR SPUD program in July 1993. Over the course of four test flights, these metallic areas were apparently used to evaluate ways of reducing infrared signature, Paul F. Crickmore records, with the jet flying together with the NKC-135A Flying Infrared Signature Technology Aircraft (FISTA). It’s not clear how successful that was, but, in terms of visual signature, the metallic panels made the jet highly conspicuous in the daytime, at least. Similar testing continues to this very day, including using other surrogate aircraft.
The surrogate aircraft we mentioned was one of Scaled Composites’ shadowy ‘Son of Ares’ Model 401 aircraft, which was caught flying over Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake covered in a very similar coating as what we have seen on the F-22 recently. You can read all about that revelation here. When it comes to the SENIOR SPUD program, the only image of this metallic treatment on the F-117 we knew about was included in the original article, as well as below:
PUBLIC DOMAIN
In its half-metallic scheme, the coated F-117 is refueled by a KC-135.
It turns out that there is another image, seen at the top of this story, that really helps shed light on the nature of the material applied to the F-117 under the SENIOR SPUD program. The metallic coating looks extremely similar to what the F-22 in question is wearing today. That image was posted by aviation author Peter Merlin in the Dreamlandresort.com forums, along with the statement:
"It looks similar to the SENIOR SPUD test project. In July 1993 an F-117A was partially coated with a reflective material in an attempt to reduce the aircraft’s infrared (IR) signature. Flight testing took place with the F-117A performing various maneuvers in the vicinity of Edwards AFB including low passes over the main runway. IR measurements were taken by sensors onboard the NKC-135A Flying Infrared Signatures Technology Aircraft (FISTA).
Photos of the aircraft show what looks like some sort of diffraction grating (what we used to call “spectrum tape” or “rainbow tape” back in the 1970s). I have seen video footage of the flight tests. The coating may have reduced the IR signature, but it increased the visual signature like you wouldn’t believe. When the sun struck the coated surface, it lit up like crazy."
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F-117 Nighthawk Tested A Mirror-Like Skin Decades Before The F-22 Raptor Did (thedrive.com)