Cliffs:
"The world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology is slipping quietly into history.
The inky black, angular, radar-evading F-117, which spent 27 years in the Air Force arsenal secretly patrolling hostile skies from Serbia to Iraq, will be put in mothballs next month in Nevada."
"The government has no plans to bring the fighter out of retirement, but could do so if necessary."
" The Air Force decided to accelerate the retirement of the F-117s to free up money to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology.
Fifty-nine F-117s were made; 10 were retired in December 2006 and 27 since then, the Air Force said. Seven of the planes have crashed, one in Serbia in 1999."
"A total of 558 pilots have flown the F-117 since it went operational."
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/11/stealth.fighter.ap/index.html
