COBI Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk - Limited Edition Set 5902

COBI's Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Limited Edition is a 1:48 model built from 826 blocks, 41 cm long, under Lockheed Martin licence. The cockpit opens, the ailerons move, the wheels turn on rubber tires and the bomb bay opens. This edition adds a display base in the colours of the American flag with adjustable locking pins — the first of its kind in the COBI range, allowing the model to be posed at any angle and fixed there with wedges — two extra precision-guided bombs in GBU-10 and GBU-27 Paveway form, a laser-engraved plate with an individual edition number and the Lockheed Martin logo, a pilot figure in period flight gear, and a certificate signed by hand by COBI's chief executive.

They are still flying

The F-117 was officially retired in 2008. It never stopped flying.

A number of airframes were kept in flyable storage at Tonopah in Nevada rather than scrapped, and since the mid-2010s they have been photographed regularly over Nevada and California — often by civilian spotters with long lenses, sometimes refuelling from tankers in daylight.

The Air Force has gradually acknowledged what they are doing. The aircraft act as stealth adversaries in training exercises, giving pilots and radar operators a genuinely low-observable target to work against, and as testbeds for sensors and coatings. Some have been seen in unusual paint schemes, including a mirror-like finish and a desert pattern.

So a type retired for being obsolete has spent seventeen years in second careers, and the reason it can is that nothing else available is a real stealth aircraft you are willing to risk in training.

What the base is for

Worth noting because it is genuinely new: most COBI stands hold a model level. This one has adjustable pins that lock, so the aircraft can be set banking or climbing. On an airframe with no curves at all, the angle changes how it reads completely.

In the COBI range

Set 5903 is the standard F-117 with 795 pieces, two bombs and a fixed adjustable base.

Specifications

Pieces: 826 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:48 · Licensed by Lockheed Martin · Four bombs total, adjustable locking base, numbered plate, signed certificate
Model dimensions: 41 × 28 × 8 cm, plus 10 cm base