With the imminent retirement of the type, this book comes along at an opportune time. Author Warren Thompson is well known for his excellent books and thorough research into them. Mark Styling provides 13 pages of profiles and door artwork to add to the spice of the book.

This edition does not go so much into the development history of the aircraft as it does the operational history of the type. This starts with the early years of secrecy with missions being flown only at night to keep out of the public eye. All this night flying was as much planned as it was done for stealth as the vast majority of missions that this aircraft would be flying would be at night. So might as well get the crews used to it.

As you know, the F-117 is really a fighter bomber as it carries no defensive weaponry and is not even close to being a dog-fighter, thanks to its unique design. It is also a difficult aircraft to fly with a rather narrow maneuverability range. However, it excels at being difficult to detect on radar, hence its usefulness.

The book covers not only the operational development of the type, but the preparations taken to put it in the field and that needed for precise planning for its use. As it was based at King Khalid air base in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Storm, planning was paramount. The goal was to have it enter and leave Iraqi air space during the hours of darkness, not an easy task as the base was about as far from Iraq as any in Saudi Arabia. Missions were long and often required refueling immediately upon reaching friendly territory. Often the missions were scrubbed due to bad weather and the aircraft had to return with their weapons still on-board. However, the aircraft was a huge success, with no airplanes being lost to enemy action and each mission that was completed performing the task for which it was sent.

All of this and more are told in this excellent book, full of color and black and white photographs of the machines and the people who helped maintain it. As with other Osprey titles in this series, it is one I can recommend to you with confidence.

April 2007

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