F 117A Nighthawk video game guide

Preface

This is my study on "F-117A NIGHTHAWK STEALTH FIGHTER 2.0" video game released in January 2, 1991 and purchased by me from GOG.com in June, 2016. As a kid, back in middle 90s, I was dreaming about playing this game seriously and knowing everything about it so now when I grew up and own the copy of the game and finished secretly printing 180 pages of the original manual in the office I can enjoy the legendary classic. The manual is very long and detailed so I decided to write my own guide containing just what I found to be most interesting and useful information required to get started with the game with some of my own additions and links to external resources.

History

Ironically, a portion of inspiration for F-117A shape design was taken from seminal paper written by Soviet mathematician, Pyotr Ufimtsev, and published in the journal of the Moscow Institute for Radio Engineering in 1964 which in turn was based on theoretical work published by the German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld.

Using computer modeling, aircraft designers were able to create a design with practically no RCS. The combination of its shape and RAM give the F-117A an RCS of between 0.01 square meters and 0.001 square meters, depending on the radar. This is roughly the same RCS as a small bird or insect.

The way I understand it (I'm not mathematician or aircraft designer or anything of that sort) radar works by sending pulses and "recognizing" a plane when pulse strikes a vertical material and reflects back to radar so F-117A stays stealthy because it's shape consists of surfaces that are tilted at least 30 degrees away from vertical so radar signals are bounced upward or downward. Same happens with look-down radar except for when it is at 30 or whatever degrees required to be above F-117A to reflect the signal back to radar which probably shouldn't happen a lot which makes F-117A relatively stealthy for radar.

F-117A is painted in black because it was intended to fly at nights so that the risk of being detected would be even lower.

The decision to produce the F-117A was made after combat experience in the Vietnam War when increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) downed heavy bombers. In 1978 a contract was awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, popularly known as the Skunk Works.

In April 1990, two F-117A aircraft were flown into Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, arriving during daylight and publicly displayed to a crowd of tens of thousands.

Most modern U.S. military aircraft use post-1962 designations in which the designation "F" is usually an air-to-air fighter, "B" is usually a bomber, "A" is usually a ground-attack aircraft, etc.

Ironically, although F-117A is primarily an ground-attack aircraft and was designed to be a bomber, it doesn't contain a "B" letter in the name. A televised documentary quoted a senior member of the F-117A development team as saying that the top-notch USAF fighter pilots required to fly the new aircraft were more easily attracted to an aircraft with an "F" designation for fighter, as opposed to a bomber ("B") or attack ("A") designation.

It is believed that F-117A is what was thought to be called "F-19" throughout the 1980s before it was publicly revealed in 1988.

The Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft that was developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). The F-117A was based on the Have Blue technology demonstrator, and was the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology. The maiden flight of the Nighthawk took place in 1981 and the aircraft achieved initial operating capability status in 1983. The Nighthawk was shrouded in secrecy until it was revealed in 1988.

The U.S. Air Force retired the F-117A on 22 April 2008, primarily due to the fielding of the F-22 Raptor. Sixty-four F-117As were built, 59 of which were production versions with the other five being demonstrators/prototypes.

F-117A lacks afterburners (which injects additional fuel into the jet pipe to increase thrust and is required for air-to-air combat) since it was designed to be a bomber.

F-117A carries no radar which lowers emissions and cross-section. Whether it carries any radar detection equipment is classified.

F-117A is limited to subsonic speeds and has lower engine thrust than most air-to-air fighters due to design considerations related to stealthiness.

The F-117A fleet was based at Tonopah Test Range Airport, Nevada where it served under the 4450th Tactical Group. Most personnel and their families lived in Las Vegas.

The F-117 has been used several times in war. Its first mission was during the United States invasion of Panama in 1989. During that invasion two F-117A Nighthawks dropped two bombs on Rio Hato airfield.

During the Gulf War in 1991, the F-117A flew approximately 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq. It all started at 00:20 on 17th of January, 1991 when multiple waves of F-117As were deploying bombs on targets in Baghdad, Iraq. Find more details in unclassified account of accomplishments during operations "DESERT SHIELD" and "DESERT STORM". Some interesting video recordings about F-117A participation in Gulf War are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsncQ6O4wYw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMV_0iTk1qs

One F-117 was lost to enemy action. It was shot down during a mission against the Army of Yugoslavia on 27 March 1999, during Operation Allied Force by SA-3s launched from a Yugoslav version of the Soviet Isayev S-125 "Neva" (NATO name SA-3 "Goa") anti-aircraft missile system. The troops spotted the aircraft on radar when its bomb-bay doors opened, raising its radar signature. The wreckage of shot down F-117A is now on display in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. See the interview of Yugoslavian commander from that event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbjdEjhHeXg and here is the video of how Yugoslavian commander and the pilot of F-117A that was shot down met (pretty amazing to see that, isn't it?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC70XTe5T54

Glossary

• RCS - Radar cross-section. RCS is a measure of how detectable an object is with a radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected.

• LGB - Laser guided bomb

• RAM - Radar-Absorbing Material

• SAM - surface-to-air missile

• AWAC - airborne early warning and control, an airplane equipped with radar and flying on high altitude, scans the area and may be a real trouble for enemy fighter pilots

• EMV - Electromagnetic Visibility

• EGR - Enemy ground-based radar

• EAR - Enemy aircraft radar

• MFD - Multi-functional display in the cockpit

• INS - Inertial Navigation System

Resources

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/weapons/stealth.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk

• Documentary movie

Controls

OS X Controls overrides

I'm running F-117A NIGHTHAWK STEALTH FIGHTER 2.0 on Windows 7 via OS X Parallels on MacBook Pro. My keyboard doesn't have numeric keypad as well as PageUp/PageDown/Delete buttons. Because these buttons are used in the game I have to remap some keystrokes to mimic those. I'm using a tool called Karabiner. And here is the source of the Karabiner profile for F-117A game Basically the modifier key is LEFT CTRL which is mapped to Fn, so any combined keystrokes start with Fn in my case.

Here are the mappings used in the configuration above:

• where Delete is required to be pressed, I press \

• where Numpad 2 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + ,

• where Numpad 4 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + 4

• where Numpad 6 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + l

• where Numpad 8 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + i

• where Numpad 3 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + .

• where Numpad 9 is required to be pressed, I press Fn + m

• where Home is required to be pressed, I press Fn + left arrow

• where End is required to be pressed, I press Fn + right arrow

• where PgUp is required to be pressed, I press Fn + up arrow

• where PgDown is required to be pressed, I press Fn + down arrow

What you need to know

Radars

There are 2 types of enemy radars in this game: Pulse (dotted arcs) and Doppler (solid arcs). Additionally there are AWACS and ground searches, both represented by expanding circles. Aircraft radars and ground tracking radars are short arcs.

Missiles

When the Missile Proximity Klaxon sounds, you should drop a chaff cartridge (press 2) against radar missiles when RAD light is on or flare cartridge (press 1) against IR missiles when IR light is on. Or, as a last resort option, attempt some maneuvering. Enemy fired missiles can be seen on left tactical display (press F3 to toggle between tactical and satelite displays) as a small color-coded lines - radar missiles are yellow and IR missiles are red.

Additionally, a decoy can be launched by pressing 5. That will lure everything for several seconds.

Also, a ECM jammer against radar missiles (press 4) can be used as well as IR jammer (press 3) against IR missiles. After turning on a jammer, change course, or you may be followed by that missile again (if that missile is advanced enough to pass through jammers).

If radar missile was fired on you, you can avoid it by lowering the EMV. Following increases the EMV:

• higher altitude

• higher speed

• opened bay doors

• lower gear

• use of jammers

Getting Started

During the briefing, map shows your takeoff point (T), your primary (P) and secondary (S) targets, and landing point (L).

Cockpit and HUD

Cycle through different views with following keys:

• SHIFT + / - View Ahead

• SHIFT + > - View Rear

• SHIFT + < - View Left

• SHIFT + M - View Right

• F1 - Cockpit view

• SHIFT + F1 - Slot View

• SHIFT + F2 - Chase View

• SHIFT + F3 - Side View

• SHIFT + F4 - Missile View

• SHIFT + F5 - Tacti View

• SHIFT + F6 - Invrs Tacti View

Left MFD (Multi-functional display) displays either Satelite or Tactical (grid with icons) maps, press F3 to toggle. Use Satelite screen for long-term flights and Tactical when shooting at targets.

Right MFD displays either one of data screens:

• Weapons (F5) - The weapons currently in your weapons bays

• Select waypoint (F7) - A list of current INS and fuel bar. The black area at right represents fuel already consumed. The four color-coded bands in the middle represent the amount of fuel needed to reach each of the four waypoints. The final band on the left represents the amount of reserve fuel available.

  In order to use extra fuel, cycle through weapons with SPACE BAR until EXTRA FUEL is selected and press ENTER. Now selecting F7 screen will display updated fuel status.

• Change waypoint (F8) - A list of the four INS waypoints, which you can cycle through with Keypad 3/9 (Fn + o/. in my OS X setup) and change their location on the satelite map (on the Left MFD) by pressing Keypad 4/2/6/8 (Fn + j/,/l/i in my OS X setup)

• Reset waypoints (SHIFT + F8) - resets waypoints to the initial defaults

• Mission (F10) - A brief summary of your mission orders

..either camera of outside world when one of following keys is pressed:

• / - Aims the camera at the nearest standard target ahead

• > - Aims the camera at the nearest standard target behind

• < - Aims the camera at the nearest standard target to your right

• M - Aims the camera at the nearest standard target to your left

• B - Cycles through all standard targets in the current direction

• N - Aims forward camera at nearest target (any type) ahead

HUD has three operating modes: NAV for navigation, AIR for aerial combat and GND for ground attacks. Tap F2 to cycle through the three modes. Remember that HUD's mode affects what objects can be focused by camera.

Start mission

Assuming you've passed the briefing and weapon selection.

• Extend Flaps by pressing 9. Flaps give you more lift during takeoff.

• If taking off from aerodrome just increase the throttle by pressing SHIFT +, if taking off from aircraft carrier, press 0 to activate catapult, increase throttle by pressing SHIFT + and release catapult by pressing 0 once again

• Once reached 200 knots, pull down by pressing down arrow key. A bar on speed scale on the left side of the HUD will gradually drop down. This is the Stall Speed Indicator. When the Stall Speed Indicator bar drops below the center tick on the scale your plane is past stall speed and you're travelling fast enough to climb into the sky.

  Once you're flying more than 10 knots (kts) faster than stall speed, pull back to point your nose skyward. Don't climb so steeply you lose sight of the horizon because you may stall.

• If needed, ALT + P will pause the game

• SHIFT + Z accelerates time, SHIFT + X returns to normal time.

• If in training mission, you can quickly move your plane around by pressing ALT + h/j/k/u and resupply/rearm by pressing ALT + R

• Retract landing gear by pressing 6. Don't leave the gear down - high speeds can rip it off.

• Retract flaps by pressing 9. You no longer need extra lift.

• If in night mission, enable FLIR by pressing F6 - this will enable

• Don't chase gauges, instead wait a few seconds after you roll left/right, pitch up/down, change the throttle, the flaps or the brakes to see the result.

• In order to fly straight, make sure the Flight Path Indicator on the right side of the HUD rests on the horizon.

• Fly on course. Look at the heading scale across the top of your HUD, find the INS cursor (the small bright triangle above the top) and turn toward it. When turning left/right, release the stick when the bank angle is about 45.

• For stealth flight, fly between 500 and 1,000, above 1k is too high. Minimum safe altitude is about 200`.

• Activate autopilot by pressing 7 if you don't want to control your plane manually before reaching next waypoint.

• to be continued...