Legend: This Is Plane That Started the Stealth Revolution

Sebastien Roblin

Security,

Meet the F-117. 

The Nighthawk’s radar cross section is generally given as .001 cubic meters—excellent compared to the 5 to 10 cubic meters of a conventional jet fighter. Nonetheless, the Raptor’s cross section is believed to be ten time better, at .0001 meters squared. Given the continual improvements made to both low-and high-bandwidth radars in order to counter stealth fighters, minimizing the cross section is vital.

The F-117 Nighthawk, America’s original stealth plane with a deeply sinister appearance, is an example of a weapon system designed around the limitations imposed by a promising new technology. The Nighthawk was revolutionary when it entered service in 1983—not that many could appreciate that, as the plane was kept secret from the public for five years.

Ironically, the Pentagon had a Russian researcher named Pyotr Ufimtsev to thank for first elaborating in a 1964 paper the concept that visibility on radar was not based purely on the size of an object, but also the angle at which radar waves reflected off its edges. Ufimtsev devised a method for calculating the Radar-Cross Section of objects, determining how visible they are on radar.

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