Flying retirement? F-117 Nighthawk spotted in the skies near ‘Area 51’

A number of photos surfaced on social media late Tuesday that appear to show an F-117 Nighthawk conducting low-flying maneuvers in Nevada, not far from the Nellis Test Range and the air strips in the dry lake bed that was once Groom Lake, more commonly known as “Area 51.”

The pictures, which were first uploaded to Instagram by user NeilJackson10 and first published by The Aviationist, show the distinctive silhouette of what was once one of America’s best-kept secrets. The F-117 was America’s first operational stealth bomber, despite its “F” prefix which, the story goes, was used to entice the Air Force’s top fighter pilots to pursue flying the classified bomber. The Lockheed-produced aircraft first took to the skies in 1981, and was officially retired from active service in April of 2008.