The United States received the first Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft in 1982. During the decade many news articles discussed what they called the “F-19”. The Testor Corporation produced an F-19 scale model.^[3] The company had decades of experience in producing highly detailed models that pilots and aerospace engineers purchased, and used its sources in the United States military and defense contractors. The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and other media discussed the model after its January 1986 introduction. When the real stealth aircraft crashed in California in July 1986, news stories used the model to depict it. Representative Ron Wyden asked the chairman of Lockheed Corporation why an aircraft that Congressmen could not see was sold as model aircraft. The publicity helped to make the model the best-selling model aircraft of all time,^[4] but the model’s smooth contours bore little resemblance to the F-117 and its angular panels.^[3] The F-117 designation was publicly revealed with the actual aircraft in November 1988.

Like the Testor Corporation, Monogram models also released the “F-19A Specter” which was based on the design by Loral Inc.^[9]