F-117N Seahawk: When Lockheed Tried To Put The Stealth Fighter On Navy Carriers, And The Navy Said No Twice

F-117N Seahawk: When Lockheed Tried To Put The Stealth Fighter On Navy Carriers, And The Navy Said No Twice

In the early 1990s, the United States Navy was offered carrier-based stealth twice, by the only company on earth that had actually built an operational stealth aircraft, and turned it down both times. The F-117N Seahawk is usually filed under aviation trivia, a curiosity with artist renderings and no metal. It deserves harder treatment, because the timing makes it one of the most consequential refusals in naval aviation history: the offers arriv…