fighter fly by

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'll say. Either they pulled straight up and into orbit (joking). Or that tech is out of this world

a reply to: Crumbles

There are ways to make an aircraft disappear and not just in the radio band frequencies.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Like the tv show "The Event". I'm only joking. I'm sure it has to do with the coating blends in with the sky. Or active camouflage.

a reply to: Sammamishman

I don't think this was proven a hoax.

youtu.be...

a reply to: Crumbles

There's been a lot of ground breaking developments in the realm of meta-materials. And that has just been in the white world.
One could spend days researching and finding all kinds of intriguing info on them and other active camo. concepts on the net.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Badgermole42

What do you call it when an F-22 and F-16 go behind a cloud, you hear both still, but only see the F-16 afterwards?

I call it weird.

Are you saying the F-22 can make itself invisible to the naked eye ?

a reply to: madmick

No. I'm saying they tried some things that didn't work in the early days.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So, something that didn't work earlier is now working, and it can now make the aircraft seem invisible ?
I'm afraid I know very little about aircraft technology, but is that even possible, to make an aircraft seem invisible to the eye, or are you talking about something electronic, like RCS and radar return

a reply to: madmick

They were using optical camouflage on a 2 meter unmanned test aircraft at 2,000 feet in 2007. The way they did it was quickly classified, but it doesn't work on an F-22 so the few that had it, had it removed after trying it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wouldn't it be relatively easy. Flexible thin screens cover the bottom. A single camera pointing straight up. I know I'm wrong, but it sounded good.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Would it be reasonable to assume they may have perfected it since 2007 then ? Can such a thing work on a fighter aircraft. I mean, a small aircraft is quite hard to see a few thousand feet up and moving fast anyway, so if it has optical camouflage you are pretty much never going to see it until it's to late, is that about right.
"Quickly classified" means it went black I guess

I can't tell what kind of planes they were although it sounds like everyone has settled on the F-22. What I can tell you is the F-22 has a very distinctive whine or whistle when at slower speeds. You can always tell the F-22 by the sound, even when I can't see it. Sort of like the A-10 has a very distinct turbine sound.

a reply to: Crumbles

Not at supersonic speeds and 9Gs.

a reply to: madmick

It's hard for the system to keep up as they're maneuvering, or at the speeds they fly at.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I guess it wouldn't be much use anyway if you are travelling at near mach 2 and engines screaming. But, I can see where such a thing would be very useful on a slow moving, very quite, drone like aircraft, going in a straight line doing low level surveillance maybe. Can such technology be applied to any aircraft, i.e a blimp

a reply to: madmick

If they put that technology on a blimp I can only assume the accidents that would happen.

a reply to: madmick

If it's been perfected, and I'm not saying it has or hasn't, then I can see it going on a stealthy P-ISR platform.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What altitude would that be safe.

a reply to: Crumbles

Any. It could go in at medium or high altitude. Medium altitude would stay away from normal air traffic altitudes, and high altitude would be above normal commercial altitudes.

a reply to: Crumbles

Yeah, I get your point on that , but if it's at 80-100,000 ft, then there can't be much traffic.