Stealth Aircraft; Secrets of Future Airpower

Osceola, Wisconsin: Motorbooks International Publishers & Wholesalers Inc, 1986. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. 96 pages. Includes Introduction; Bibliography, Biography, and Index. Chapters include Chapter 1, Now you see it...; Chapter 2, Stealth in the sixties; Chapter 3, Design for Stealth; Chapter 4; Stealth fighter; Chapter 5, Stealth Bomber; and Chapter 6, Vanishing air force. Bill Sweetman (born 1956) is a former editor for Jane's and an editor for Aviation Week group. He is a writer of more than 50 books on military aircraft. He lives in Oakdale, Minnesota. He is noted for his dogged pursuit of the Aurora project. He appeared as an Aerospace Consultant on in the Nova PBS TV program "Battle of the X-Planes" about the Joint Strike Fighter Program. None of the material in this book has been obtained from classified sources. A writer needs classified data like a fish needs a bicycle. Not only is in unusable, but if it confirms a point which has been deduced or obtained elsewhere it may become impossible to use the legitimately obtained information. Some of the material in this book is drawn directly from open sources, technical papers, textbooks, catalogs, trade journals, and unclassified briefings. A few pieces of information in this book, such as the shapes of the principal Stealth aircraft under development, are based on unconfirmed reports, published and otherwise. Stealth aircraft are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radar, infrared, visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio, collectively known as stealth technology. The F-117 Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft specifically designed around stealth technology. Other examples of stealth aircraft include the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 Raptor, the F-35 Lightning II, the Chengdu J-20, and the Sukhoi Su-57. While no aircraft is totally invisible to radar, stealth aircraft make it more difficult for conventional radar to detect or track the aircraft effectively, increasing the odds of an aircraft successfully avoiding detection by enemy radar and/or avoiding being successfully targeted by radar guided weapons. Stealth is the combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as low-probability-of-intercept radars, radios and laser designators. These are usually combined with active measures such as carefully planning all mission maneuvers in order to minimize the aircraft's radar cross-section, since common actions such as hard turns or opening bomb bay doors can more than double an otherwise stealthy aircraft's radar return. It is accomplished by using a complex design philosophy to reduce the ability of an opponent's sensors to detect, track, or attack the stealth aircraft. This philosophy also takes into account the heat, sound, and other emissions of the aircraft as these can also be used to locate it. Sensors made to reduce the impact of current low observable technologies exist or have been proposed such as IRST (infrared search and track) systems to detect even reduced heat emissions, long wavelength radars to counter stealth shaping and RAM focused on shorter wavelength radar, or radar setups with multiple emitters to counter stealth shaping. However these do so with disadvantages compared to traditional radar against non-stealthy aircraft. Full-size stealth combat aircraft demonstrators have been flown by the United States (in 1977), Russia (in 2000) and China (in 2011). As of January 2020, the only combat-ready stealth aircraft in service are the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (1997), the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (2005); the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (2015); and the Chengdu J-20 (2017), with a number of other countries developing their own designs. There are also various aircraft with reduced detectability, either unintentionally or as a secondary feature.