How did F117 get it's designation?

Long before the B1 and B2 there was the B52, B58, and B70.

That is why I asked.

Not long after fighters got north of 100, the USAF started over again.
Bombers followed not long after.

all the best -- Dan Ford
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see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
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In article , Cub Driver
wrote:

Long before the B1 and B2 there was the B52, B58, and B70.

That is why I asked.

Not long after fighters got north of 100, the USAF started over again.
Bombers followed not long after.


In what is mostly a comedy what-if, I picture some hotshot P-38 driver
hearing an F[1]-22 is nearby, and laughing at the idea of dogfighting an
antique until "WTF was THAT?"

[1] Yes, I know, I know, it should have been P-22, and F-22 would have
been a recon bird at the time. Still...

"Andreas Parsch" wrote in message
...

The speculation is rather academic anyway, because the was a valid reason
why the JSF demonstrators used [snip] non-sequential
numbers.


That valid reason being the assignment of the intervening numbers, X-33 and
X-34, to other projects.

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
The speculation is rather academic anyway, because the was a valid reason
why the JSF demonstrators used [snip] non-sequential
numbers.


That valid reason being the assignment of the intervening numbers, X-33
and X-34, to other projects.

.... and that the X-32 slot, originally assigned to the JAST (Joint Advanced
Strike Technology) program, was taken over by the JSF program. Although
JSF's objectives were much different than JAST's (develop - in the long
term - an operational aircraft vs. "only" technology demonstration), JSF
was effectively a continuation of JAST by another name. Therefore keeping
the allocated vehicle designation was a logical decision, even if the JSF
demonstrator(s) wouldn't be _purely_ experimental machines. If JSF hadn't
had JAST as a precursor program, it's IMHO much more likely the aircraft
would have been designated F-24/25 from the beginning.

Andreas