国家地理:Wings Over The Gulf 波湾战机 - 7

The F-117 is a product of Lockheed's Advanced Development Projects group, which for decades has designed the most top-secret planes in the air force inventory¹, including the SR-71 Blackbird. In many ways, the Blackbird was the first stealth aircraft, its sleek² shape making it harder to spot on radar³.

Stealth technology was developed in response to the heavy losses the United States suffered in Vietnam from surface-to-air missiles and radar-guided guns. The development of radar-seeking missiles was one response to the threat. The other was a top secret effort to create an aircraft that would be nearly impossible to detect by radar. If it could be built, such a plane would bring the element of surprise back to air warfare⁴.

The first known result of the program was Have Blue, the predecessor⁵ of today's stealth fighter. Have Blue remains⁶ classified to this day. But it proved so stealthy that in 1978 Congress authorized⁷ production of an F-117 prototype, code-named Senior Trend. By 1981, funds were allocated⁸ for an entire wing of F-117s, 59 planes in all.

A new facility was built specifically to keep the highly classified project under wraps. The stealth base at Tonopah Test Range sits deep in the Nevada desert. Tonopah's so remote that pilots and crew are flown in for week-long stays. The secrecy⁹ was considered necessary because of the tension between the United States and the Soviet¹⁰ Union during the 1980s. The F-117 was a major leap forward in the evolution of fighter aircraft. And the air force knew it. Even the shape of the plane was kept secret for years.

The secrecy was eased somehow after December, 1989 when the Nighthawk struck the first blow in Panama. Still the only concrete details that emerged were about its cost, 52 million dollars per plane, 8.2 billion for the total program. Crashes during training caused skeptics to brand the plane "the wobbly goblin".

All the pilots who fly it really think that's a bogus wrap. There was, there was one that was crashed in testing, in the books called the Have Blue program when this was started. And we've lost two and that were operational at night. It was probably, no one really knows why they crashed. It was probably due to spatial¹¹ disorientation back to us. (It's) a single-seat night airplane. It's easy to f(ly), you can lose your orientation¹² which way is up which way is down. Or be working on a task and an airplane will do something and you may not notice it, and it could have gone out of control. It's all subjective¹³, you know, it's all speculation¹⁴. No one knows. But the airplane is rock-steady. I don't know of any airplane is as stable as this thing is. It's easy to fly. It's stable. That name is totally bogus.

The F-117 is a comparable airplane in size of the F-15 as their manufactures share a lot of the same components¹⁵, landing gear on the F-15, and this airplane has the same, same tires, a lot of the same substances. Avionic system, hydraulics and pneudraulics, pneumatic types of controlling things to it. The cockpit is also about the same as that in the F-15.

1 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

2 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

3 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

4 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

5 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

8 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

9 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

10 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

11 spatial   

adj.空间的，占据空间的

参考例句：

• This part of brain judges the spatial relationship between objects.大脑的这部分判断物体间的空间关系。
• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。

12 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

13 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

14 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

15 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。