John,
I beg to differ with your beg to differ. My old room mate, who I talked to more this afternoon was an original 117 test pilot back when "there was no such thing as the 117". He was one of the guys who was dual qualified as an A-7 pilot as a smoke screen to explain why they flew so many night missions.
He has hundreds of hours logged flying the F-117 and clearly described the vertical surfaces as "fins". He went on in depth to explain why they were called "fins" instead of rudders, ruddervators, elevons ETC. Since he actually flew them I would think he would know what he is talking about. He said that due to the designed dynamic instability in pitch and roll...the FCCs would send primary yaw and secondary roll inputs to the fins and primary pitch and roll inputs to the 4 elevons. He said that when the pilot made a control input, the FCCs would first query the fuel system to check the CG at that moment in time and then make combined deflections to best fulfill what the pilot was asking for.
Beave
ORIGINAL: John Redman
I would beg to differ on the ''fins'' of the 117. They were rudders is all accounts. Rigged , removed, and reinstalled those for a good many years and never were they ever referred to as fins; by Lockheed, tech manuals, or those that lived with them. They were rudders only and only provided yaw control. At least that is what we rigged them and operationaly checked them for. All roll control came from the (4) elevons. Either way, that new bird does look pretty awesome!
I would also agree totally with the comment on the RCS, unless they have figured out a way to change the laws of physics.