Hm… I just read some news that kind of startled me: the Air Force is retiring its F-117A Nighthawk fighter planes — a.k.a. “the stealth fighter” — this month. Next week, in fact. Monday, to be precise.

And why is this startling, you may ask? Mostly because it doesn’t seem like these weird little black arrowheads have been around all that long, but the article I read reveals that they’ve actually been in service for over twenty years, ever since 1983, although the Air Force denied their existence until 1988. (Makes you wonder how many UFO sightings prior to ’88 were actually Nighthawks being tested out and then flown on secret missions, doesn’t it?)

I’ll be honest, I’ve never much cared for the F-117 or its big brother, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber (which I tend to call “the bat-plane,” for obvious reasons). I admire airplanes in much the same way you admire automobiles or boats or any other machine that people tend to groove on; some designs appeal to my personal sense of “cool” or “beautiful,” and some don’t. So while the stealth planes are undeniably interesting, both in appearance and their capabilities, they don’t really do anything for me. I can look at an antique warbird and feel the history and romanticism in its lines, or I can be utterly wowed by the brute muscularity of F-16 flying over the Wasatch, but the stealth planes? Meh. Just not my bag, baby.

Still, as I said, they are interesting, and they’ve certainly had an interesting history (detailed in the article I linked above), most of which I was blissfully unaware of. It is a bit of a misnomer to call the F-117 a fighter, by the way; they’re actually small bombers, with no air-to-air weapons and probably not much in the way of dogfighting abilities. Which is, I would guess, a large part of why they’re on their way out — the new F-22 Raptor that’s coming online has both stealth characteristics and true air-to-air fighting ability.

Anyhow, if you’re interested at all in history, top-secret stuff, airplanes, or just knowing what the hell has been going on under our noses for the last couple of decades, I recommend that article about the Nighthawk’s retirement. There’s also an interactive feature with video, photos, and a timeline of the plane’s development and lifespan.

Incidentally, is it just me, or do you feel like an era is coming to a close? If you follow this military stuff at all — and maybe this is just one of my fetishes that’s of no interest to anyone else, I don’t know — it seems like big changes are afoot. The F-14 Tomcats (think Top Gun) are now retired; last I heard, the F-15s were all grounded because they’ve developed a disconcerting tendency to come apart in mid-air; the US is no longer buying new F-16s (although they’re still being built for other countries); and in general we seem to be moving toward unmanned, remotely controlled airplanes, in spite of the Air Force’s excitement over the new F-22. I realize I’m highly sensitized to the passing of things I grew up with, so maybe I imagine doors closing all around me even when they’re not, but I wonder if perhaps the days of the hotshot flyboy are coming to an end…