Fighter jet retires to Palm Springs Air Museum

On Saturday the Palm Springs Air Museum celebrated the arrival of a Stealth Fighter F-117, which will be retiring at the museum indefinitely. The jet arrived on September 22.

"Stealths were retired in the late 2000s from combat. The Air Force made the decision that it was going to transition them to museums. The first 3 went to national museums, government museums, and we are the first private facility to receive one in the United States," Palm Springs Air Museum Vice Chairman, Fred Bell said.

Saturday's event hosted a symbolic 117 people, all of which purchased tickets priced at $117.

"We have 10 acres here. This is an outdoor event, this is a very low number of people on this square footage," said Bell.

Bell said they followed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, as well as those put forth by the county.

"Currently we’re under the guidelines within Riverside County. We can be operated at 25% occupancy which is 375 people, and so we’re well below that."

Tables were spread out, and chairs were also limited as Bell continuously reminded guests to social distance.

One avid fan, Karin Grance, came in with her husband from Temecula. She brought miniature plane collectables to get in the spirit.

"My father was World War II, he actually was a mechanic and worked on the planes," said Grance.

Another visitor came drove into Palm Springs from Corona with his wife.

"We’re avid plane, jet fans. When we heard the F-117 was coming out here we had to come out here and see it in person," Jose Loera said.

The Stealth Fighter F-117 could fly at altitudes of 35,000 feet, but it's the technology that have fans awe-inspired.

"It started to fly in what was a Black Program, a top secret program. In the early 80s they started to become operational," said Bell. "It was designed to evade enemy radar and it did really well at its job."

Former F-117 pilot, Ken Dwelle, participated in Saturday's event.

"I flew this very aircraft," said Dwelle.

The fighter jet's technology was once on the cutting edge. Dwelle described it as a game changer in all that it could do.

"People think it’s invisible but it’s not invisible. It’s very, very hard to find on the radar visually, electromagnetically, by noise and by infrared," said Dwelle.

The jet was formerly used in Kosovo, the Gulf War, and other places.

"It would go into the highly-defended target areas and drop a laser-guided bomb, actually 2 of them, of a very high degree of accuracy," said Dwelle.

The jet will be welcomed into the museum's permanent collection, but first it will go through a restoration period. If future visitor's would like to see it, museum officials expect to post future dates to view the plane on their website by the end of the week.