Designing Aircraft for Stealth

  • By Lauren Aguirre
  • Posted 02.04.03
  • NOVA

Designing for stealth means minimizing all the ways that an enemy can detect a plane, whether by sight, noise, heat, or radar waves. While there are trade-offs between stealth and aircraft flight performance, being able to enter enemy territory without detection offers obvious advantages. Here, explore Boeing's ultra-stealthy Bird of Prey fighter plane to see ways that engineers achieve stealth.

Launch Interactive Printable Version

How do you render a 15-ton hunk of flying metal nearly invisible to radar and other means of detection?

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Battle of the X-Planes.

Credits

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© Boeing

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