How were stealth planes discovered?

I'm not putting a conspiracy angle on this, I'm just interested in knowing how the Stealth plane was discovered. Anyone willing to divulge some information?

The main purpose of 'stealth technology' is reducing the RCS (radar cross section) of an aircraft. Doing this will reduce the size of the dot that appears on a radar operators screen whilst the aircraft is in the air.

Work first began in 1975 at the Lockheed-Martin Skunk Works.



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Two stealth test-planes followed, Have Blue and Tacit Blue...These were simply test aircraft. The info collected from these two would later be used to develop the F-117A and B-2.


So theres the answer to your question (i hope)...

Stealth was discovered through years of work and testing!

Or we could just say that we stole it off some Alien ship that crashed here on Earth...That would be easier...


Mic

It was discovered to solve a pretty simple problem.

Prior to rader no one knew where planes were. After it was invented you could easily track enemy aircraft.

So the obvious question that had to be asked was: "How do we make our planes not show up on radar"

And the research began.

Nice info MickeyDee

To MacDonagh

You're question is not exactly clear to me so i will try and answer it in both the ways that i understood it.

1)
It was started by the nazi's they wanted to make a aircraft that would be able to avoid radar. later on in america a guy named Overholster? worked out that if you angle the surface of a aircraft you can make it "invisible" to radar.

The first ever RAM coating was actually made for a aircraft called Horten HoIX in the 1940's in germany. made from a plywood sandwhich filled with sawdust, adheasive and carbon < carbon absorbs radar. It was designed to reduce the radar signiture of the aircraft.

Horton HoIX:
www.rense.com...



2) this is my second interpretation of your question.

the stealth aircraft was discover by a journalist for a conspiricy magazine in america. He sneaked into "Area 51" with his camera and took the worlds first public picture of the F-117a he published it in his magazine and exposed the aircraft to the world although the image was from the bottom side so you couldn't really see what it really was becuase the picture was also taken at night. The government just brushed his picture of as a "conspiricy" theory and discredited him even though it was a proper picture of the F-117a. Years later the government revealed the aircraft to the public.



if i have made any errors in the above please correct me.

[edit on 22-4-2006 by iqonx]

Stealth technology evades Radar. Radar is radio emissions, EM radiation that is projected into the sky, bounces off objects, and the bounce is detected by the Radar stations.

Think of it as a plane is a mirror, and the radar is a big flashlight. When the light hits the mirror, it bounces back, and you can see that there is a mirror or object there.

So to be stealthy, you need to not reflect the EM transmissions. Part of doing this is absorbing the Radar signal. The most important part involves having the EM radiation bounce off the plane in such a way that it is channeled, and doesn't reflect back to the Radar Station.

The basic work on that aspect was actually accomplished by a russian physicist, who studed the effects that angular surfaces have on the reflection of EM radiation waves.

The americans that developed stealth were 'jump started' by that research, which was for the most part ignorned in Russia and the rest of the world and forgotten.

the term "stealth" and its elements when applied 2 an aircraft can be traced back all way 2 WW1 when GERMAN and BRITISH aviators sought to make their fighters "invisible" 2 the naked eye by covering an aircraft in clear coated skin(cellophane was used as an example), but in the end all failed

when radar was created prior 2 WW2 instead of using metal 4 the exterior an aircraft some opted used wood instead(example the DE HAVILLAND Mosquito)

the wood on the Mosquito acted as an early form of RAM

unknown really at the time its "stealthy" potential the GERMANs developed an "all wing" prototype bomber(which lead 2 later future designs...the B2)

after WW2 the search continued and in the 50s US famed SKUNK WORKs developed the U2 and SR-71 that combined iron based paints and RAM

BUT, some times over looked you must give credit 2 fellow COMRADE PYOTR UFLMTSEV

he wrote the scientific paper which was the key piece 2 the US stealth formula

his work proposed and suggested that an "aircraft that had flat surfaces and irregular angles vs an aircraft that had an classic aerodynamic profile could greatly reduce its RCS

this finding lead 2 BILL SCHROEDER(an mathematician 4 LOCKHEED) developing the computer program that made it possible 2 predict precisely the RCS of such an aircraft.

his methods lead 2 the design were exterior facets focused incoming radar radiation into narrow beams and then redirect them away which lead 2 the prototypes, the diamond shaped F117, F22,
and the B2 to a certain degree(its method framework is still unknown exactly)

The Mosquito wasn't made out of wood to evade radar, this was a completely unexpected bonus which was, however, largely negated by the radar returns off the huge metal propellers anyway.

The decision by De Havilland to make it out of wood was purely to ease the strain on strategic materials.

Exactly... And how they where discovered... When a F-117 opens its bombs bays... It will light ap a huuuge lamp and say, here I am...

According to retired Colonel Phillip J. Corso, stealth technolgies were the result of reverse engineering of a downed alien space craft. The Day After Roswell. As well as his claims of many other technologies. hmmm I wonder

I think he's pretty wacky... There's nothing "strange" with stealth, it's all science...

-link-



[edit on 23-4-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

very true

i stand correct, your right

Claims about alien tech always amuse me, why do people assume our scientists are far too dim to work things out within the laws of physics for themselves?

The F-117/Have Blue/etc were designed using a formula put forward by a Soviet scientist. They released it in a scientific magazine (IIRC), and Lockheed Martin got their hands on it and ran with it. True stealth was a hit and miss prospect until the 1970s when there were finally computers able to calculate all the angles needed. As waynos said, the metal propellors used on WWII planes made stealth an impossibility.

[edit on 4/23/2006 by Zaphod58]

Propably because they think it's so interesting to have theories of everything... And maybe they eve think they are smarter that way... (stange logic i know)...

Zaphod is right the first practical applications of modern Stealth came about as a direct result of the work of Pyotr Ufimtsev, a Russian mathematician. He developed the new method for calculating radar cross section of different shapes.

The Soviets thought so little of the importance of this work they never even bothered to classify his papers. Thus people were able to use his work in the West and develop the first modern stealth shapes for planes.

I'm not certain, but I don't think that the soviet researcher's paper was a military project anyway, or put into military terms. He was just studying how EM waves bounce of angled material, it was basic phsyics research, and thus not something that woudl be classifed.

Incredibly ironic of course!

Ufimtsev has actualy revisted a century-old set of formulas derived by Scotish physiscist James Clerk Maxwell which were later refined by the German electromagetics expert Arnold Johnnaes Sommerfield. These calculations predicted the manner in which a given geometric configuration would reflect electromagetic radiation.

I Think allot of people are trying to claim the credit for stealth. I read once whilst testing the Northrop YB-49 Flying wing aircraft it was noticed that the radar cross section was very small & some bright spark put 2&2 together. -this was maybe just for the benefit of the B2 though.

Low observables have been researched almost ever since military planes took to the sky.

Low radar returns were noticed in the early 1940's (obviously with the advent of large radar nets) and subsequently investigated.

In the USA 'iron ball' RAM was developed in 1945 (which was nothing like the crude and unproven mix of charcoal and resin applied to the Horten 9 in Germany that some claim to be 'RAM'......that was it's explicit intent so I guess that at least is a first of sorts, but, I have never seen a report on its actual effectiveness, ever).

During WW2 Germany attempted to develop RAM matting for the U-boats although as they had major problems determining the radar wavelengths the allies were using this was crude to say the least (they couldn't believe the 'allies' had centimentric radar and so didn't even look for it).

......and let's not do this one again.

The small number of Horten flying wings (mostly gliders and the jet ones almost entirely utterly untried theories and paper designs) did not lead to the Northrop B2.

It was the umteen Northrop flying wings (which were tested, flown and built in significant numbers, small, large, very large, glider, piston engined, multi engined - piston and jet) which did.
OK?

[edit on 23-4-2006 by sminkeypinkey]

That's funny because the concept of stealth and work on stealth occured BEFORE Roswell.



Just to shoot down the "Alien's gave us Stealth" conspiracy. We were bound to get it perfectly eventually, and it did exist within some dimension before Roswell. So it was known, no one gave us stealth, we worked it out ourselves.

Shattered OUT...