This plane disappeared on radar #shorts #history #aviation

this plane is invisible on radar this is have blue the first practical combat stealth aircraft that paved the way for the f17 which one engineer that worked on it described as being made of a whole host of aerodynamic sins stealth has always been a major goal in aviation in the 1950s the CIA developed U2 was designed to fly high enough that it wouldn't be caught on radar but we know that that one didn't end very well in the 1970s DARPA started looking into different technologies that could more effectively cloak planes flying through the Sky engineers at lockheed's famed Skunk Works developed this idea a hugely angular plane that was designed to bounce pings off of its body so that it wouldn't show up on a radar it also debuted radar absorbent materials different exhaust Cooling and heat dissipation setups and new windshield coating one early test saw half blue on a giant pillar so Engineers could see how stealthy it really was Ben Rich who was head of skunk's works at the time was there that day and he had the model put on the pillar he went inside the radar room and a technician said it looks like the plane fell off because we don't see anything so rich went back outside and the plane was still there it was actually that invisible the radar technician eventually saw a signal and thought okay maybe we are picking up a plane but its signal is Tiny turns out it was a bird a bird had landed on the model the plane was completely invisible the bird showed up on radar the F-117 went into service in 1983 I love this story because a it's great and B it's such a weird design I love that the engineering behind this actually worked this plane does not look like it should fly and granted it was described as not the most stable design out there however it did work and the fact that it was basically invisible is just so cool