How are planes made stealth?

outsite of the "regular" # like the stealth paint and the interair cooler.
And of course its shape. because i been told that with the tamara system u can shoot stealth planes down or see them!
oh yea, the kolchabra or something as well.

[edit on 9-8-2004 by 187onu]

They just apply some of that super black paint. Nobody can see it then.

Originally posted by 187onu
outsite of the "regular" # like the stealth paint and the interair cooler.
And of course its shape. [edit on 9-8-2004 by 187onu]

I dont think they actually use # on the planes. But I could be wrong. Its actually a blend of RAM, and shapings. Two differnet types of shaping. The faceted Type (F-117) and the contoured type (A-12 II, F-22, B-2, Tacit Blue was the first) The faceting was partly because the computers of the times could not compute the coplex shapes blended steath required.

This link might help you out a little bit.

Stealth Technology: Planes moving unseen

And what are the major parts involved in radiowave reflections? They include

1) Gaps and Breaks in the surface
2) Unshielded cockpits
3) External weapons
4) Exposed Engines
5) Large right angled tail surfaces
6) Right Angle wing design

Other mechanical designs involved in rendering the plane invisible to radars are:-
1) Shielded cockpits
2) No seams or gaps in the skin of the ship
3) No right angles on the tail surfaces
4) Having angled wings that direct the radar waves away from the surface rather than reflecting them.
5) Having its design by angular plates that reduce specular reflections and diffract radar waves into space
6) Screens cover engine ducts to prevent radar waves from entering, amplifying, reflecting and going back. These screens are similar to the screens used in your microwave ovens.
7) Serrated waves diffract radar waves away from the radar antenna.

I'm assuming you mean radar stealth. You Need to have NO 90 degree angles, and no straight up & down part on it, like the tail for instance can't be placed straight up like the F-15 they need to be crooked like the F-22.

Then of course theres heat stealth, which is one off the harded ones to conceal, but there are ways to cool down the high temps.

Then there's optical stealth, but that one is still just rumors.

It is indeed possible to Cloak an entire aircraft with today's technology, but that is not the case here.

As Murcielago has said, in order to fool a RADAR system, you cannot have any 90 degree angles on the wings, canards, or the tail fins.

The body of the aircraft must also be panel shaped or have curves at every end, there cannot be any straight lines, for it makes it easier for signals to bounce off the airframe.

It is also evident that you would need some sort of RAM paint to cover the body of the aircraft, so that there is a much smaller cross-section.

That is the reason why if the paint on the B-2 Stealth Spirit Bomber was to be scratched, then it would lose its small cross-section and would be seen on RADAR.

Several precations must be taken to ensure that an aircraft is stealth, and so the price of the aircraft would be therefore reasonable, if its not stealth, its not worth 350 million dollars a piece.(The B-2 is worth 500 million but costs almost a billion, any wonder why?)

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by Murcielago
Then there's optical stealth, but that one is still just rumors.

Optical Stealth was first tried in Project Yehudi in WWII. It involved putting a bank of lights on the wings and fuselage that eliminated the black spot planes left in the sky. It cut the visual detection range by quite a bit.

but the F-117/a doesn't have a radar onboard right??
thats why the tamara and kolchabra (or something) can detect it because the AWACS has to tell it how to fly a straight line each time for instance?!
but the F-22 stealth plane does have a radar even two onboard, wont' it be possible to detect the waves that the radar is transmitting?

The F-117 isn't that stealthy considering todays technology. The British Rapier SAM can track and shoot down a F-117 with ease, as it is IR based. It was shown a few years back on a news report at Farnborugh Air Show. They screened a shot from the view of the Rapier control screen, slear as day was the F-117, right in the centre crosshairs of a very capable missile.

B2 is different as it cools it's jets, but I would assume it still emits IR.

And I remeber hearing something about a system that was being developed to track the disturbances in the air caused by an aircraft moving through it. This would allow you to track an incoming bomber, even if all other sensory systems told you it was a pigeon (travelling at MACH 1 )

Originally posted by stumason
The F-117 isn't that stealthy considering todays technology. The British Rapier SAM can track and shoot down a F-117 with ease, as it is IR based. It was shown a few years back on a news report at Farnborugh Air Show. They screened a shot from the view of the Rapier control screen, slear as day was the F-117, right in the centre crosshairs of a very capable missile.

I don't doubt it locked on, but what is the range of the Rapier? The F-117 would have been pretty low and easy to pick up, but in an attack runs it flys pretty high to aviod flack etc.

Internal structure also plays a part I believe.

EM waves that do penetrate the skin can be reflected back and forth (dissipating energy) within the internal structure (if it is correctly designed) so that when or if they escape the structure to return they will do so weakly and be less likely to be detected.

The range of the rapier is about 7km, max speed Mach 2+, max altitude 3km.

The rapier doesn't have to lock on. It can be guided manually onto the target with IR optical sites.

Originally posted by stumason
The range of the rapier is about 7km, max speed Mach 2+, max altitude 3km.The rapier doesn't have to lock on. It can be guided manually onto the target with IR optical sites.

If the F-117 is at attack altitude, the Rapier may not see it if it is up high. However, beacuae it is a friendly aircraft, maybe a Patriot can hit it

I thought that one of the Soviet High altidute SAMS has a IR backup on it?

No maybe not, I have no idea how high 3km is in feet, but we wouldn't want to shoot you guys down anyway (even if we where to get you "back"!!)


Patriots are pretty nifty at bringing down Tornados.........................

Originally posted by FredT

I thought that one of the Soviet High altidute SAMS has a IR backup on it?

- Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the standard Russian operating proceedure to fire pairs of IR and radar (versions of the same) missile?

what does this mean?? IR backup

www.globalsecurity.org...

A quick look at the F-22 reveals an adherence to fundamental shaping principles of a stealthy design. The leading and trailing edges of the wing and tail have identical sweep angles (a design technique called planform alignment). The fuselage and canopy have sloping sides. The canopy seam, bay doors, and other surface interfaces are sawtoothed. The vertical tails are canted. The engine face is deeply hidden by a serpentine inlet duct and weapons are carried internally.

Advances in low-observable technologies provide significantly improved survivability and lethality against air-to-air and surface-to-air threats. The F-22's combination of reduced observability and supercruise accentuates the advantage of surprise in a tactical environment. The most publicized and most revolutionary technology for aircraft is stealth. Stealth makes an object become very difficult to detect by sensors such as radar, heat seekers (infrared), sound detectors and even the human eye. While not invisible, the F-22's radar cross section is comparable to the radar cross sections of birds and bees. Compared to other current fighters, the F-22 is much more difficult to detect

Originally posted by 187onu
what does this mean?? IR backup

Infra Red ..... Heat seekeing....

Kind of a backup if the radar can't lock on or fails

Originally posted by 187onu
but the F-117/a doesn't have a radar onboard right??
thats why the tamara and kolchabra (or something) can detect it because the AWACS has to tell it how to fly a straight line each time for instance?!
but the F-22 stealth plane does have a radar even two onboard, wont' it be possible to detect the waves that the radar is transmitting?

The F-117 can recieve signals from the data link, but that is not traceable. It usues GPS and inertial navagation. The E-3A can't really pick it up at distance and if that were the case it would have to orbit pretty close to the target area and be vulnerable.

The F-22 has an ESRA and usues a low energy level the gives it LPI or low probability of intercept to avoid detection.

but the F-22 stealth plane does have a radar even two onboard, wont' it be possible to detect the waves that the radar is transmitting?

The F/A 22's radar uses a variety of radar beams all at different frequencies which makes it it harder for the enemy to detect the Raptor's radar and find it's locations. Read below it�s long but you will understand how the Raptors radar is hard to detect.

The AN/APG-77 radar is an active-element, electronically scanned (that is, it does not move) array that features a separate transmitter and receiver for each of the antenna's several thousand, finger-sized radiating elements. Most of the mechanical parts common to other radars have been eliminated, thus making the radar more reliable. This type of antenna, which is integrated both physically and electromagnetically with the airframe, provides the frequency agility, low radar cross-section, and wide bandwidth necessary to support the F-22's air dominance mission. The radar is key to the F-22's integrated avionics and sensor capabilities. It will provide pilots with detailed information about multiple threats before the adversary's radar ever detects the F-22.

The AN/APG-77 radar a novel type of electronically scanned phased array. In what is likely to be the most advanced airborne radar in the world, individual transmit and receive modules are located behind each element of the radar array. The transmit function of the solid-state microwave modules supplants the traveling wave tubes used in prior radars like the APQ-164. The active, electronically scanned array (ESA) configuration has a wider transmit bandwidth while requiring significantly less volume and prime power. The system represents about half the weight of an equivalent passive ESA design. Each of the hundreds of individual solid-state devices generates only small amounts of power, but the aggregate for the entire array is substantial.

The F-22 s APG-77 electronically scanned array antenna is composed of several thousand transmit/receive modules, circulators, radiators and manifolds assembled into subarrays and then integrated into a complete array. The baseline design used thousands of hand-soldered flex circuit interconnects to make the numerous radio frequency, digital, and direct current connections between the components and manifolds that make up the subarray. Northrop Grumman Corporation, of Baltimore, MD, has developed an improved manufacturing process for F-22 aircraft radar components. The new process could result in a cost avoidance of nearly $87 million on the planned production run for the aircraft. By replacing the hand-soldered flex circuit interconnects with automated ribbon bond interconnects, the first pass yield of the subarray assembly has been vastly improved.

The AN/APG-77 radar antenna is a elliptical, active electronically scanned antenna array of 2000 transmitter/receive modules which provides agility, low radar cross section and wide bandwidth. The radar is able to sweep 120 degrees of airspace instantaneously. In comparison to the F-15 Strike Eagle's APG-70 radar takes 14 seconds to scan that amount of airspace. The APG-77 is capable of performing this feat by electronically forming multiple radar beams to rapidly search the airspace.

The system exhibits a very low radar cross section, supporting the F-22's stealthy design. Reliability of the all-solid-state system is expected to be substantially better than the already highly reliable F-16 radar, with MTBF predicted at more than 450 hours.

The APG-77 radar offers significant advantages over previous combat radars. Among its most attractive benefits is the integration of agile beam steering. This feature allows a single APG-77 radar to carry out multiple functions, such as searching, tracking, and engaging targets simultaneously. Agile beam steering also enables the radar to concurrently search multiple portions of airspace, while allowing continued tracking of priority targets.

The Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) capability of the radar defeats conventional RWR/ESM systems. The AN/APG-77 radar is capable of performing an active radar search on RWR/ESM equipped fighter aircraft without the target knowing he is being illuminated. Unlike conventional radars which emit high energy pulses in a narrow frequency band, the AN/APG-77 emits low energy pulses over a wide frequency band using a technique called spread spectrum transmission. When multiple echoes are returned, the radar's signal processor combines the signals. The amount of energy reflected back to the target is about the same as a conventional radar, but because each LPI pulse has considerably less amount of energy and may not fit normal modulation patterns, the target will have a difficult time detecting the F-22.

The F-22 and its APG-77 radar will also be able to employ better Non-Cooperative Target Recognition (NCTR). This is accomplished by forming fine beams and by generating a high resolution image of the target by using Inverse Synthetic Aperture radar (ISAR) processing. ISAR uses Doppler shifts caused by rotational changes in the targets position to create a 3D map of the target. The target provides the Doppler shift and not the aircraft illuminating the target. SAR is when the aircraft provides the Doppler shift. The pilot can compare the target with an actual picture radar image stored in the F-22's data base.

AN/APG-77 Radar