A flat, vertical mirror will bounce your image straight back to you -- you'll see yourself. But if you tilt the mirror 45 degrees, it will reflect your image straight upward. You won't see yourself; you'll see an image of the ceiling. A curved mirror also deflects light at an angle. If you were to aim a laser pointer at a curved mirror, the laser beam would never bounce straight back to the pointer, no matter how you positioned it.
The stealth bomber's peculiar shape deflects radio beams in both ways. The large flat areas on the top and bottom of the plane are just like tilted mirrors. These flat areas will deflect most radio beams away from the station, presuming the station isn't directly beneath the plane. The plane itself also works like a curved mirror, particularly in the front section. The entire plane has no sharp, angled edges -- every surface is curved in order to deflect radio waves. The curves are designed to bounce almost all radio waves away at an angle.
The B-2 is designed to contain its own radio signals, the electromagnetic energy generated by onboard electronics. The plane does emit radio energy when using its radar scanner or communicating with ground forces and other aircraft, but the radar signal is small and highly focused, making it less susceptible to detection.
When the B-2 project began, the U. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in , the price had jumped even higher and the need for a huge fleet of B-2s had decreased. A few years later, President Clinton authorized the military to upgrade the original prototype B-2 to a working weapon, bringing the total to Because radio waves are likely to approach a plane from far away, they hit it at shallow, glancing angles.
To hide from radar, a stealth plane's panels all slant nearly horizontally, so that there are no broad surfaces for radio waves to bounce sideways off of and return to their source. Furthermore, the planes are designed such that any radio waves that do reflect from the plane are focused into a few bright beams that hit detectors like light glinting off a cut diamond.
Such signals are difficult to lock onto. Bright peaks are accomplished by aligning all the plane's panels in perfect parallel so that the light bouncing off of them interferes constructively. It also helps to be dressed in black. Stealth planes are coated with radar-absorbent materialssubstances with high absorbency of light at radio frequencies.
One such coating is iron ball paint, which contains microscopic iron spheres that resonate in tune with incoming radio waves and dissipate the majority of their energy as heat, leaving little to bounce back to detectors. Stealth planes must not only evade radar, but heat-sensing missiles as well. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots.
Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Stealth Technologies. How does stealth technology work? The airplane can be shaped so that any radar signals it reflects are reflected away from the radar equipment.
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