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Introduction to Stealth
This article will be explaining basic and in simple words terms and definition of stealth and aircrafts and the technology, conditions which lead to development of this technology.
Roots of Stealth: Development of Radars in World War 2, meant that fighter and bomber aircrafts no longer had the surprise attack edge over enemy forces in their territory, some Western experts have credited Radar and Brilliant Royal Air force for actually saving Britain from falling into hands of Adolf Hitler , Germans and Hitler knew that fall of Britain was been avoided for long due to this two critical factors and Germans actually started work on a aircraft which could had defeated, not so reliable radars of that era by trying to develop a Low Observable worlds first Stealth fighter close to end of the world war 2 called has Horten Ho 229 designed by Reimar and Walter Horten and built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik.
It was the first pure flying wing powered by a jet engine, aircraft was developed under Emergency Fighter Program where German commanders were working on many secret weapons systems to develop a wonder weapon which might have turned the tide against the enemy and save them from a defeat, Horten Ho 229 did not use any stealth metal but used rather conventional technology and stealth aeronautics to reduce its Radar Cross section , after few flights, aircraft indeed proved that it had reduced RCS and was much better in in avoiding detection , Reimar Horten said he mixed charcoal dust in with the wood glue to absorb electromagnetic waves (radar), which he believed could shield the aircraft from detection by British early warning ground-based radar known as Chain Home , Horten Ho 229 had a smaller radar cross-section than conventional contemporary twin-engine aircraft. This was because of wings blended into the fuselage.
By end of the war America had captured most of the research project of Reimar Horten and was transferred back to Main land , and the aircraft was long forgotten until in year 2008 when Northrop-Grumman Corporation which possessed all the research work on Horten Ho 229 ,decided to build a replica of Horten Ho 229 and test it with then British made radar to check if Horten Ho 229 was indeed predecessor of all stealth fighter , Northrop-Grumman did find that Horten Ho 229 gave a radar cross section only 40% that of other conventional aircraft of world war 2 era .So indeed Hitler almost was close to develop a reduced RCS aircraft of the that time ,could that had a major or turned the tide of the war in favor of Hitler? Well that Experts will debate for years to come, but our History teaches us that For every new Weapon a counter Weapon is always just across the corner
Predecessors of Modern Stealth Aircrafts: When we ask, which was the first Stealth Aircraft? Immediately Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk comes to our mind, we dont deny that F-117 was worlds first Real Stealth Aircraft but we cannot deny that they were many other aircrafts prior to that, which was designed keeping Stealth in mind; this article will highlight those aircrafts.
By 60s less than 15 years after World War-II had ended, it was clear that new Superpowers of the new world, United States of America and U.S.S.R had emerged so was the start of the Cold War between them, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Americas Prime Secret Agency wanted an aircraft which was able to penetrate Soviet Airspace and carry out reconnaissance, after U-2 spy plane was shoot down over Soviet Union , CIA wanted a plane that was not only Fast and fly way over SAM coverage of Soviet union but also possessed Stealth characters ,this lead to development of A-12 Predecessors of SR-71.
A-12: was Predecessors of SR-71, and was developed using a new metal known has Titanium , interestingly Titanium was then supplied by Soviet Union itself ,but they never had even a remote idea that it was used to build a aircraft which was supposed to ultimately spy on them . Around Twelve A-12 were build and operated by CIA and it was used in spy activates over North Vietnam and North Korea but never against Soviet Union which was considered too dangerous.
A-12 had many Stealth features and special attention was provided to reduce RCS of the aircraft, it was rumored that CIA and Lockheed Martin were provided full funding no question asked on funds, Aircraft when under its testing phase was kept in total secrecy and everyone who knew about the project were provided good salary and were told to be tight lipped about it, even a crash of A-12 was covered up by CIA has a crash of F-105. Aircraft was still under powered and budget constant meant A-12 had early retirement, but new aircraft based on A-12 was just around the corner.
SR-71:Lockheed Martin had to take special permission from CIA to reveal details of A-12 to United States Air Force and Lockheed convinced the U.S. Air Force that an aircraft based on the A-12 would provide a less costly alternative to the recently canceled North American Aviation XF-108, SR-71 was not only able to provide USAF a strategic reconnaissance, its Mach 3 speed made it untouchable among Soviet interceptors aircrafts , and sure it was untouchable, SR-71 sure had its nervous moments almost 4000 attempts were made to shoot it down, but never it was shoot down by Soviets because of its ability to operate over 800000 feet close to the outer space ,way out of reach of many latest Soviet SAM Systems ,SR-71 standard evasive action was simply to accelerate.
SR-71 was longer and heavier than the A-12, with a longer fuselage to hold more fuel, two seats in the cockpit, and reshaped chins. But A-12 which was a single seat aircraft had more room to carry better Spy Camera, it was also first aircraft to feature 15 % composite and rest been Titanium , SR-71 was designed keeping Stealth in mind ,early study had indicated that aircraft with flattened, tapering sides reduced RCS in the aircraft ,special radar-absorbing materials were used to further reduce RCS of the aircraft ,but then Aircraft flying over Mach 3 created enough heat around itself that it was easily detected mostly over Soviet union ,Lockheed agreed that Soviet Radar technology was advancing more faster than Stealth technology ,this was the prime reason why technological changes carried out in SR-71 to achieve stealth was easily defeated due to advancement in Radar technology by soviets .
SR-71 was powered by a Revolutionary Hybrid engine called J58 at lower speed it showed the characteristics of a turbo fan engine but at high Mach speed it was like a Ram-jet engine, faster it was pushed better it performed, this was the reason why it could out run Soviet SAM systems easily ,soon after its production ended many of the tools required to manufacture the aircraft was destroyed since it was found very risky to keep them in store around 30 aircrafts were built for US air force but lack of spares and high operating cost meant that the aircraft was retired in 1998, Stealth technology used in SR-71 was not totally useless but it was just a start to develop and produce a Stealth aircraft , SR-71 still holds many of the records even after been retired more than a decade ago and the contribution of SR-71 in development of Stealth Technology cannot be neglected ,due to this reason it has a special mention in this article .
First Gen Stealth fighter: CIA in its report to Us Government told that, in a full out war with soviets ever occur in near future whole United States Air force fleet will be wiped out in flat 7 days, due to advancement of Soviets SAM batteries and Radar technology, this rang alarm bells in USAF and Government and it was decided to develop an aircraft which will be able to defeat radars of the soviets union and also provide technological edge to USAF, so began work on Lockheeds secret project known has Have Blue which was more like a Proof of concept for developing a Stealthy aircraft ,under this project two Prototypes were developed which were close to 60 % of the size of the F-117 . In its first flight Have Blue Prototype flew over Army Radar station without been detected by Radar controllers who were fully aware of such flight by the aircraft. Once the concept was proved, soon began work on the F-117 prototype which had its first flight in 1981 and was under secrecy for over 8 years before been finally reveled to general public about its existence only in 1988, Well again idea and principal to achieve near stealth or full stealth aircraft was again provided by Soviets, a Soviet Mathematician Pyotr Ya. Ufimtsev provided a theory in early 60s, on how Aircrafts RCS could be reduced using his principals, but to prove his theory required advance computers which were not available at that time, so soon his theory and his principals were forgotten, until American Scientist stumbled about his theory while doing research on Stealth technology, advancement in computer technology in mid-70s allowed Americans to work on his theory to achieve Stealth technology.
F-1117 was world first Stealth Strike aircraft, it was designed to deflect radar signals and to keep the project secret and reduce cost most of the technology was incorporated from other fighters like F-16 /F-18 and F-15, well it did send alarm bells all over military corners of the world but reaction was quite cold to it , but after the first Gulf war in 1990s made F-117 much talked about aircraft , Iraq at that time was most heavy defended country in the middle east ,equipped with latest Soviet SAM Batteries most experts expected heavy loss to any evading air force , but F-117 was a game changer , not only it took out more than 30 % of the Strategic targets in first 24 hour raid it also bombarded Iraqi Capital Baghdad which was seen has most fortified city in whole of the region, Iraqi defense force and SAM operators had no idea what hit them ,and were seen firing towards the sky long after F-117 had existed the area , Success of F-117 meant that many Defence forces started working on new better techniques to counter this new weapon and carried out different level of changes to Radars and SAM batteries to detect and engage F-117 in future conflicts .
F-117 was shoot down in Kosovo war, using a modified SA-3 Soviet era SAM Battery, it has been told that spotters had spotted low flying F-117, using combination of previous flight path and high radar wave length Yugoslav militarys air defense were successful in bringing down the aircraft, Yugoslav forces invited Russian scientist to have a look at near intact F-117 airframe, which might have compromised closely guarded Stealth Technology which United States guarded for more than three decades ,eight years after this incident United states started retiring them , F-117 was a revolution in stealth aircraft technology but it had serious flaws , F-117 due to its shape was not highly Maneuverable aircraft ,not to compromise on stealth meant it could not carry any on board radar nor radar warning indicator ,it was optimized for strike roles only and when intercepted it had no chance of fighting off an enemy interceptor ,limited payload carrying capacity was also a hindrance ,but it marked development of other more improved Stealth aircrafts like B-2 Stealth bomber , F-22 ,F-35 and later catch up done by Russians in Pak-Fa and Recently flown Chinese J-20 .There is no single Stealth technology ,it is lot of factors that lead to Stealth aircrafts , Aeronautical shape ,mixture of less reflective metals to radar waves all this leads to Stealth .
Introduction to Stealth | idrw.org
This article will be explaining basic and in simple words terms and definition of stealth and aircrafts and the technology, conditions which lead to development of this technology.
Roots of Stealth: Development of Radars in World War 2, meant that fighter and bomber aircrafts no longer had the surprise attack edge over enemy forces in their territory, some Western experts have credited Radar and Brilliant Royal Air force for actually saving Britain from falling into hands of Adolf Hitler , Germans and Hitler knew that fall of Britain was been avoided for long due to this two critical factors and Germans actually started work on a aircraft which could had defeated, not so reliable radars of that era by trying to develop a Low Observable worlds first Stealth fighter close to end of the world war 2 called has Horten Ho 229 designed by Reimar and Walter Horten and built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik.
It was the first pure flying wing powered by a jet engine, aircraft was developed under Emergency Fighter Program where German commanders were working on many secret weapons systems to develop a wonder weapon which might have turned the tide against the enemy and save them from a defeat, Horten Ho 229 did not use any stealth metal but used rather conventional technology and stealth aeronautics to reduce its Radar Cross section , after few flights, aircraft indeed proved that it had reduced RCS and was much better in in avoiding detection , Reimar Horten said he mixed charcoal dust in with the wood glue to absorb electromagnetic waves (radar), which he believed could shield the aircraft from detection by British early warning ground-based radar known as Chain Home , Horten Ho 229 had a smaller radar cross-section than conventional contemporary twin-engine aircraft. This was because of wings blended into the fuselage.
By end of the war America had captured most of the research project of Reimar Horten and was transferred back to Main land , and the aircraft was long forgotten until in year 2008 when Northrop-Grumman Corporation which possessed all the research work on Horten Ho 229 ,decided to build a replica of Horten Ho 229 and test it with then British made radar to check if Horten Ho 229 was indeed predecessor of all stealth fighter , Northrop-Grumman did find that Horten Ho 229 gave a radar cross section only 40% that of other conventional aircraft of world war 2 era .So indeed Hitler almost was close to develop a reduced RCS aircraft of the that time ,could that had a major or turned the tide of the war in favor of Hitler? Well that Experts will debate for years to come, but our History teaches us that For every new Weapon a counter Weapon is always just across the corner
Predecessors of Modern Stealth Aircrafts: When we ask, which was the first Stealth Aircraft? Immediately Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk comes to our mind, we dont deny that F-117 was worlds first Real Stealth Aircraft but we cannot deny that they were many other aircrafts prior to that, which was designed keeping Stealth in mind; this article will highlight those aircrafts.
By 60s less than 15 years after World War-II had ended, it was clear that new Superpowers of the new world, United States of America and U.S.S.R had emerged so was the start of the Cold War between them, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Americas Prime Secret Agency wanted an aircraft which was able to penetrate Soviet Airspace and carry out reconnaissance, after U-2 spy plane was shoot down over Soviet Union , CIA wanted a plane that was not only Fast and fly way over SAM coverage of Soviet union but also possessed Stealth characters ,this lead to development of A-12 Predecessors of SR-71.
A-12: was Predecessors of SR-71, and was developed using a new metal known has Titanium , interestingly Titanium was then supplied by Soviet Union itself ,but they never had even a remote idea that it was used to build a aircraft which was supposed to ultimately spy on them . Around Twelve A-12 were build and operated by CIA and it was used in spy activates over North Vietnam and North Korea but never against Soviet Union which was considered too dangerous.
A-12 had many Stealth features and special attention was provided to reduce RCS of the aircraft, it was rumored that CIA and Lockheed Martin were provided full funding no question asked on funds, Aircraft when under its testing phase was kept in total secrecy and everyone who knew about the project were provided good salary and were told to be tight lipped about it, even a crash of A-12 was covered up by CIA has a crash of F-105. Aircraft was still under powered and budget constant meant A-12 had early retirement, but new aircraft based on A-12 was just around the corner.
SR-71:Lockheed Martin had to take special permission from CIA to reveal details of A-12 to United States Air Force and Lockheed convinced the U.S. Air Force that an aircraft based on the A-12 would provide a less costly alternative to the recently canceled North American Aviation XF-108, SR-71 was not only able to provide USAF a strategic reconnaissance, its Mach 3 speed made it untouchable among Soviet interceptors aircrafts , and sure it was untouchable, SR-71 sure had its nervous moments almost 4000 attempts were made to shoot it down, but never it was shoot down by Soviets because of its ability to operate over 800000 feet close to the outer space ,way out of reach of many latest Soviet SAM Systems ,SR-71 standard evasive action was simply to accelerate.
SR-71 was longer and heavier than the A-12, with a longer fuselage to hold more fuel, two seats in the cockpit, and reshaped chins. But A-12 which was a single seat aircraft had more room to carry better Spy Camera, it was also first aircraft to feature 15 % composite and rest been Titanium , SR-71 was designed keeping Stealth in mind ,early study had indicated that aircraft with flattened, tapering sides reduced RCS in the aircraft ,special radar-absorbing materials were used to further reduce RCS of the aircraft ,but then Aircraft flying over Mach 3 created enough heat around itself that it was easily detected mostly over Soviet union ,Lockheed agreed that Soviet Radar technology was advancing more faster than Stealth technology ,this was the prime reason why technological changes carried out in SR-71 to achieve stealth was easily defeated due to advancement in Radar technology by soviets .
SR-71 was powered by a Revolutionary Hybrid engine called J58 at lower speed it showed the characteristics of a turbo fan engine but at high Mach speed it was like a Ram-jet engine, faster it was pushed better it performed, this was the reason why it could out run Soviet SAM systems easily ,soon after its production ended many of the tools required to manufacture the aircraft was destroyed since it was found very risky to keep them in store around 30 aircrafts were built for US air force but lack of spares and high operating cost meant that the aircraft was retired in 1998, Stealth technology used in SR-71 was not totally useless but it was just a start to develop and produce a Stealth aircraft , SR-71 still holds many of the records even after been retired more than a decade ago and the contribution of SR-71 in development of Stealth Technology cannot be neglected ,due to this reason it has a special mention in this article .
First Gen Stealth fighter: CIA in its report to Us Government told that, in a full out war with soviets ever occur in near future whole United States Air force fleet will be wiped out in flat 7 days, due to advancement of Soviets SAM batteries and Radar technology, this rang alarm bells in USAF and Government and it was decided to develop an aircraft which will be able to defeat radars of the soviets union and also provide technological edge to USAF, so began work on Lockheeds secret project known has Have Blue which was more like a Proof of concept for developing a Stealthy aircraft ,under this project two Prototypes were developed which were close to 60 % of the size of the F-117 . In its first flight Have Blue Prototype flew over Army Radar station without been detected by Radar controllers who were fully aware of such flight by the aircraft. Once the concept was proved, soon began work on the F-117 prototype which had its first flight in 1981 and was under secrecy for over 8 years before been finally reveled to general public about its existence only in 1988, Well again idea and principal to achieve near stealth or full stealth aircraft was again provided by Soviets, a Soviet Mathematician Pyotr Ya. Ufimtsev provided a theory in early 60s, on how Aircrafts RCS could be reduced using his principals, but to prove his theory required advance computers which were not available at that time, so soon his theory and his principals were forgotten, until American Scientist stumbled about his theory while doing research on Stealth technology, advancement in computer technology in mid-70s allowed Americans to work on his theory to achieve Stealth technology.
F-1117 was world first Stealth Strike aircraft, it was designed to deflect radar signals and to keep the project secret and reduce cost most of the technology was incorporated from other fighters like F-16 /F-18 and F-15, well it did send alarm bells all over military corners of the world but reaction was quite cold to it , but after the first Gulf war in 1990s made F-117 much talked about aircraft , Iraq at that time was most heavy defended country in the middle east ,equipped with latest Soviet SAM Batteries most experts expected heavy loss to any evading air force , but F-117 was a game changer , not only it took out more than 30 % of the Strategic targets in first 24 hour raid it also bombarded Iraqi Capital Baghdad which was seen has most fortified city in whole of the region, Iraqi defense force and SAM operators had no idea what hit them ,and were seen firing towards the sky long after F-117 had existed the area , Success of F-117 meant that many Defence forces started working on new better techniques to counter this new weapon and carried out different level of changes to Radars and SAM batteries to detect and engage F-117 in future conflicts .
F-117 was shoot down in Kosovo war, using a modified SA-3 Soviet era SAM Battery, it has been told that spotters had spotted low flying F-117, using combination of previous flight path and high radar wave length Yugoslav militarys air defense were successful in bringing down the aircraft, Yugoslav forces invited Russian scientist to have a look at near intact F-117 airframe, which might have compromised closely guarded Stealth Technology which United States guarded for more than three decades ,eight years after this incident United states started retiring them , F-117 was a revolution in stealth aircraft technology but it had serious flaws , F-117 due to its shape was not highly Maneuverable aircraft ,not to compromise on stealth meant it could not carry any on board radar nor radar warning indicator ,it was optimized for strike roles only and when intercepted it had no chance of fighting off an enemy interceptor ,limited payload carrying capacity was also a hindrance ,but it marked development of other more improved Stealth aircrafts like B-2 Stealth bomber , F-22 ,F-35 and later catch up done by Russians in Pak-Fa and Recently flown Chinese J-20 .There is no single Stealth technology ,it is lot of factors that lead to Stealth aircrafts , Aeronautical shape ,mixture of less reflective metals to radar waves all this leads to Stealth .
Introduction to Stealth | idrw.org
