F-19: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:07, 3 September 2005

Revision as of 21:33, 4 September 2005

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In the same year, the [[Tom Clancy]] novel ''[[Red Storm Rising]]'' mentioned an '''F-19 Ghostrider'''. Taken in by the myth, the typically accurate [[Jane's Information Group]] published an entry to the F-19, with the Testor's artwork, in their aircraft recognition guide, ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1986-1987''. In 1988, [[Microprose]] released a computer game entitled ''[[F-19 Stealth Fighter]]'', which to this day remains the definitive computer simulation of [[stealth]] air combat.

When the actual aircraft was publicly revealed in [[1988]], it was called the [[F-117 Nighthawk]] (an odd designation, although [[Joe Baugher]] asserts that the first manuals had the meaningless number "F-117" on the cover, and the designation stuck, despite the apparent connection to the old series of fighter numbers). If the USAF aircraft were renumbered under the Air Force's pre-Unified System, the F-117 comes at the same point in the sequence that F-19 should under the Unified System. This may have been to seem like the aerospace community did not know about the nominally classified aircraft after all, maintaining an aura of mystery to US military aircraft development. There seems not to be any evidence that "F-19" was ever used to designate the Nighthawk, although the [[National Museum of the United States Air Force]] website ([[as of 20032005]]) does include the cryptic entry "Lockheed F-19 CSIRS (see F-117)".

At one point, a [[USAF]] spokesman claimed that it was to avoid confusion with the [[MiG-19]], but this seems never to have interfered with the use of 17, 21, and 23 for instance.