
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990                   TAG: 9004220076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS, NEV.                                LENGTH: Medium

STEALTH OFFICIALLY SEEN

One of America's worst kept military secrets, the F-117A stealth fighter, was unveiled on Saturday to a crowd of thousands who cheered a demonstration flight by two of the $42.6 million aircraft.

The two bat-shaped planes swept in under thin cloud cover and passed over Nellis Air Force Base, banked sharply against the Las Vegas skyline and landed to give the public its first close-up of the once top-secret aircraft.

There was an eerie whine as the lead craft, piloted by Capt. Randall Peterson of Rock Island, Ill., made a pass 58 feet above the runway. The second, piloted by Maj. Steven Charles of Springfield, Mass., then swept by the crowd, circled and landed.

Both jets were surprisingly quiet in flight and while taxiing to an area encircled by several thousand people, including military families, VIPs and 225 reporters and photographers, including 37 from five foreign countries.

Viewing was opened to the public later and as many as 150,000 people were expected.

Foreign journalists represented Britain, France, Australia, Japan and West Germany. Asked if any Soviet reporters were on hand, Tech. Sgt. Bobby Shelton, the stealth unit information officer, replied, "They didn't ask us."

No performance details were released, other than that the radar-evading F-117A is a single-seat, twin-engine subsonic jet. "It is a fighter in every respect," Peterson, 30, told the crowd.

He said the jet has outstanding handling and gives the United States unprecedented capabilities. Pressed about those capabilities, he said, "We're not allowed to discuss any capability. A lot of the information is still classified."

Off-limits were questions on reports that a stealth fighter used in the U.S. invasion of Panama last year dropped bombs far from its target.

"The bombs hit exactly where they were aimed," Peterson said before another Air Force officer broke in and said, "We can't discuss information like that."

The stealth fighters are attached to the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at the Tonopah Test Range, a remote airfield 140 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

by CNB