WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Gets Stealthy 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.159 and I love all things tech and it's time for 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.680 another classic episode, another Friday classic. We're looking at an 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.160 episode that originally published on April twenty second, two thousand thirteen. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.920 This episode is titled text Stuff Gets Stealthy and Yeah, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.680 it's all about stealth technology and how that works. Let's 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.360 listen in. Are pirates concerned with being stealthy? Then you 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.559 have to know the weapons of your enemy, is what 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.720 I'm saying. And pirates and Ninja being natural enemies in 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:52.239 the wild, it's important to study your enemies techniques. All 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.400 let's talk of pirates and Ninja's reminds me very much 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.800 of the Cold War, right, and that is an important 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.280 reason why stealth technology even exist. So thank you for 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.920 getting us back on track, Lauren. So, stealth technology in general, 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.880 stealth technology refers to the types of tech we use 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.880 in aircraft to make them difficult or impossible to detect, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.160 mainly via radar, although we also think about things like 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.000 infrared scanners that sort of stuff, and uh. And really 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:24.360 to understand how stealth works, we first have to understand 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.240 what radar is and how that works. Right, Radar radar 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.679 works thanks to to basic concepts and that's echo and 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.040 Doppler shift. Yes, so yeah and echo. I mean like 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.560 if you if you were to shout out, uh, you know, 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.840 you go visit the Grand Canyon and you shout as 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.840 loudly as you can, uh, you might hear after a 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.960 few seconds your voice coming back to you. And that's 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.440 because some when you when you shout something out, you know, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.560 your your voice is traveling out in sound waves, they 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.720 will collide with the other side of the canyon, and 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.000 some of those sound waves will bounce back at you 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.320 and eventually arrive back to where you will are. And 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.000 if you are loud enough when you make the initial sound, 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:05.520 you should be able to hear some of that sound return. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.840 So that's why you've got that little delay right right. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.360 And now, if if you were to measure the length 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.919 of time that it took for that sound to bounce 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.560 back to you and measure it pretty accurately, then you 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.160 could mathematically calculate about how far that sound went. Yeah, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.000 And of course you also need to know some other 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.880 factors like air press, your humidity, things that would affect 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.919 how fast the sounds traveled. Yeah, because as we know, 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.560 sound will travel at different speeds through different media, and 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.640 that even includes different atmospheres. So if you are you know, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.720 if you're really at sea level, sound travels at a 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.760 different speed than it would if you were at thirty feet. 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.720 But it's not necessarily detectable to a human ear. But 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.239 we're definitely not a misable in in day to day conversation. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.440 For example. But you know, I I don't go down 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.240 to Florida and go like, man, it's really humid. I 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.160 can barely hear you from this point five. You know 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.560 it's taking it's taking longer for your words to hit 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.800 my Yeah. But anyway, the same principle works on radar, 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.320 except instead of sound, we're talking about electromagnetic waves or 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.840 radio waves, and so you use radio waves to you 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.080 project them out and if they come into contact with something, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.640 some of those radio waves will bounce back. So if 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.520 you have a receiver, then you can detect those incoming 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.079 waves and determine by how long it took to go 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.200 out and back about how far away that object is. Now. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.760 You also mentioned Doppler shifts, So we have to talk 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.960 about right right and Doppler shifts. For example, why a 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.120 car's horn sounds higher pitched when the car is moving 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:39.839 towards you than it does when the car is moving 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.040 away from you. Yeah, there's there's a great article on 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.800 How Stuff Works that explains this that I like a lot. 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.200 Marshall Brain actually wrote it. He's the founder of How 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.680 Stuff Works and uh, And in it, Marshall talked about 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.200 how if you were if the car is sitting still 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.360 and the driver leans on the horn for a minute. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.840 First of all, you must be in Boston. Uh. And second, uh, 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:02.720 that means that if you are far enough away. Let's 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.840 say that you're far enough away that the sound takes 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.280 six seconds to get to you, all right, and you're 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.520 sitting there, that means that the the horn will have 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.360 been uh sounding for six seconds before you can even 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.360 hear it, right, But then it'll it'll last for a minute, 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.920 that's how long because the person's leaning. Then, now, if 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.440 that car is traveling toward you, then the pitch of 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.160 that is going to be higher than it would be 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.640 if if it were just saying still. Those those waves 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:37.560 are essentially compressed a higher frequency in the same amount 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.600 of time. So and then of course, if the car 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.360 goes by you. You know you've heard this if you've 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.000 ever heard a siren when an emergency vehicle has either 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.560 come up behind or approached you and then passed. As 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.760 it goes as it's traveling towards you, it's a higher pitch, 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:52.359 and as it's going away it's a lower pitch. And 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.800 that's because of the frequency of the waves and the 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.960 way that the object making the sound is traveling versus 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.839 the sound itself traveling. So the interesting thing about doubler 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.159 shift is if you can detect the if you know 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.159 what the frequency of the waves were when it was 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.000 going out. So, in other words, you've got a transmitter, right, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.479 that's that's your your radar transmitter and antenna that's transmitting 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.680 the high burst of high frequency radio waves. You know 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.200 what the frequency is when you transmit. When the frequency 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.200 comes back, uh, it's going to be or when the 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.560 radio waves come back, rather it's going to be possibly 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.600 a different frequency than it was when it went out. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.320 Now that means that the object that hit was in motion. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.840 If it's a higher frequency, that means that object is 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 essentially moving towards you. If it's a lower frequency, that 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.000 object is moving away. So and by measuring exactly the 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.320 difference in the pitch, you can measure how fast it's going, yeah, exactly, 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.320 or at least get an estimate, pretty good idea. Yes. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.240 And because we're talking, you know, radio waves move essentially 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.880 at the speed of light, so you know, the delays 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.480 here are really really super tiny, and and the transmission 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.240 is like, is a fraction of a second long. So 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.800 you transmit these really short bursts and uh, and then 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:05.560 turn off the transmitter and allow the way it's to 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.280 come back, right, and you measure the delay between when 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.039 it went out and when it came back, and you 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.080 measure the Doppler shift, and that gives you an idea 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:17.240 of the position and speed at which the object is moving, 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.560 so if it's moving towards you or away. Uh. And 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.120 it's very useful for detecting things like aircraft, and in fact, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.000 we use it all the time, not just in military applications, 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.640 but air traffic control. So here's the thing. If you 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.760 are running a military operation and you want to run 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:40.720 surveillance or some sort of sortie against an enemy territory, 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.840 then you probably don't want your vehicles to be detected. 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.760 It's generally a bad policy, yeah, because that means that 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.159 they can be shot down or or otherwise compromised. And 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.880 so you want to be able to run your mission 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:59.440 without any kind of entanglements. And so that's when people 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.000 started thinking, well, the radar is a really useful tool 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.120 for detection. How can we get around radar so that 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.479 our enemies don't know when we are there? And that's 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:13.440 what really got the United States thinking about stealth technology. 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.240 And really it was the Cold War. Yeah, yeah, this 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.800 was all during the nineteen sevent days. Everyone was really tense. Yeah. Yeah. 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.240 The Soviet Union or the then Soviet Union and the 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.880 United States had been in a Cold war pretty consistently 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.240 since shortly after World War Two, and by the nineteen 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.680 seventies that said, really we were seeing escalation on both sides. 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.960 Arsenals were getting more and more powerful and complex. It 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.960 was a lot of posturing on the part of both countries, definitely, uh, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.600 And the rest of the world was mostly saying, guys, 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.320 can we can chill out? Yeah, this is getting a 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.640 little tense for all of us, and we go get 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.160 a pizza. Yeah, because once you start talking about how 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:58.080 many times each country could destroy the other country via 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.200 nuclear weapons, Like we could just stroy the the United 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.560 States ten times over, well, we can destroy the so 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.600 Union twelve times over. And everyone's just saying, really, is 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.960 there this much need for these many Yeah, Well, one 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.640 of the thoughts was, how can we deliver a nuclear 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.600 payload to an enemy territory without the about them detecting 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.760 that we're there and stopping us. We can, yeah, before 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.800 the aircraft gets shot down or even or you know, 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.680 how can we run spy missions? And you know exactly 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.440 And so at the time, the main aircraft that was 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.400 being used in bombing runs in the United States was 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.000 the B fifty two bomber. And the B fifty two 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.400 is not a stealth vehicle at all. Anti that. Yeah, 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.439 it's actually has a quite quite a large radar footprint. 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.000 It's very detectable, but it can travel quite fast and 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.560 it can carry very large payloads. And it was first 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.240 introduced back in nineteen fifty five, and it's known for 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.880 being a reliable aircraft, so much so that there are 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:04.040 still more than any fifty two in active service. And um, yeah, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.400 I mean it's it's actually projected after a couple of 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:12.120 upgrades that will happen between now and it's projected to 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:17.840 be an active part of our air force until the Yeah, 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.040 so this is a this is a longevity issue here. 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.600 I mean it's it's definitely a workhorse, but it is 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.520 not a stealth vehicle. So the United States started to 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.960 open up the possibility for different companies to bid on 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:38.360 developing an aircraft that could stealthily fly and not be 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.840 detected by radar and still have the carrying capacity to 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.200 deliver large nuclear payloads. Yeah. Yeah, that's it was the 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.720 other part of it. Yes, um, scary scary stuff. Well, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.520 there was simultaneously development of other stealth stealth technology going 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.160 on that we'll talk about a little bit later on, 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.800 but that was that was more on that research kind 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.280 of side of things. And the B two, which is 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.439 what came out of all that we're talking about right now. Yeah, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:05.960 the B two was the big one. I mean, that 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.839 was the one that was unveiled and uh and talked 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.199 about the most. And the B two is also better 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.040 known as the stealth bomber. It's also the called the 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.280 B two Spirit and most of the individual planes are 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.480 called the Spirit of something or other and uh. Yeah. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:27.359 It was first unveiled publicly on November twenty second, nineteen 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.559 in Palmdale, California, at the Air Force Plant forty two. 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.160 That same year, another stealth aircraft was unveiled, that was 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.880 the F one seventeen Nighthawk, and we'll talk about that 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.760 more in a little bit. It was a North Grumman 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:44.839 that ended up winning that that bidding battle, and they're 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.319 the ones who developed the B two. It took about 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.640 a decade for them to make it, and about forty 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.959 billion dollars in research and development, yeah, which which was 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.880 up over what they had originally stated they might be 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.120 able to do it for. Yeah, and uh, and also 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.280 the sanes themselves, the bombers themselves were more expensive than 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.079 what they originally intended. They first thought that they could 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:11.160 deliver the entire order for you know, ADO plans aren't 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.719 thirty two planes for like forty billion. Twenty Well, I 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.360 think it went from twenty to seventy. Yeah. Yeah, the 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.400 original contract was for twenty two billions from what I've read, 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:25.920 and then um as when when when has unveiled it 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.920 had the total priced jump to like over seventy And 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.640 eventually they figured that each aircraft would cost about one 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:37.160 to two billion dollars a piece, and so it got 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.480 really expensive really fast. Like that ended up being the 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.800 UH the target of a lot of criticism, you know, 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:49.040 people saying that these contracts are all based on estimates 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.319 that were not realistic, and whether or not the companies 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.560 were aware of how unrealistic they were was a matter 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.439 of doubt, and it just got into a really sore subject. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.560 But something happened that ended up kind of taking a 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.280 little of the sting out, which is that in n 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.840 the Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly people didn't really have 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.600 so much of a need to h to carry large 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:19.520 amounts of nuclear warheads across enemy territory quietly, and yeah, 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:24.160 when you're when your chief nemesis goes under, and of 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.600 course we can you know today when you look at 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.360 the United States and Russia, there are other issues where 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.400 you might say things are starting to turn around at 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.880 some points. You know, there's always and and there's always 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:41.280 tension between various world powers like that. It's like our 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.839 career right now, you know, there's there's always always chicanery, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:49.000 right So, so anyway, because the so Union collapsed, that 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.200 that helped UH the United States come to the decision 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.400 to reduce the order from one thirty two to twenty 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.000 one aircraft, twenty of which are still flying around today. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.200 I'll talk a little bit about that, but before I 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.040 do that, I guess we should kind of describe what 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.240 the B two looks like in case you guys have 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.599 never seen one. They're funky, they are. The design is 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.000 called a flying wing actually because with most aircraft, you know, 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.280 I mean, it's you've seen an airplane, it's got it's 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.640 got a body, it's got wings, it's got stabilizers. Stabilizer 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:22.600 is coming off in the little strange angles. But yeah, 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.160 but but this flying wing is designed so that the 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.800 entire craft generates lift. Yeah, so it's it doesn't have 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.240 all that like the fuselage and the wings. It's it's 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.360 all one body. It's not it's not like, you know, 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.640 you've got a tube that's the fuselage and then you've 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.040 got the to the two wings attached to that. No, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.640 it's all one giant wing. And yeah, like you said, 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:44.880 you know, you just go fast enough and it generates 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.479 the lift it needs to fly. And yeah, the eliminating 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.520 the tail and the fuselage reduced drag and it also 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.160 means that because of its design it doesn't have like 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.680 it's it's easier for it to avoid radar detection based 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:00.880 on the stuff it's made of. And we'll talk more 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.200 about that and how the stealth stuff actually works in 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.800 a little bit. It is one hundred seventy two ft wide, 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.040 which is fifty two point four meters, which is which 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.920 is a bunch. Yeah, it's it's it's essentially if you 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.240 were to look at an American football field, a B 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.520 two bomber from wingspan from wing tip to wing tip 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:21.880 would be more than half the length of an American 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.160 football field. Yeah, and this is this is a vehicle 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:29.200 built for two people. Yeah, it's a two person aircraft. Yeah. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.280 It's also sixty nine feet from tail I mean quote 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.480 unquote tail to tip. It doesn't really have a tail. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.720 I guess the length of the bit of the wing 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.440 exactly where the B two stops being to where the 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:46.200 B two starts being right, and is sevent ft high. 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:50.320 And uh. It can fly about six thousand nautical miles 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.200 which is about eleven thousand, one twelve kilometers before it 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.760 needs to refuel. And if you have an aerial refueling 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.400 as part of its mission. It can go ten thousand 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.760 nautical miles or about eight kilometers. That's a that's a 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.280 long trip. And uh and and we've seen some recent 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.160 use of that. I can carry twenty tons of conventional 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:17.080 and nuclear weapons. It is considered a high sub sonic flight, 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.360 which means that it's top speed isn't just under the 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.920 speed of sounds some something like what a thousand feet 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.560 per second something like that. Yeah, it's it's it's really Uh. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.160 It goes about as fast as an aircraft can go 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.600 before it starts becoming super sonic. Right, So, which would 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.200 cause a boom, which is obviously something you want a 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:38.440 stealth vehicle to do. Right. You know, if the stealth 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.560 vehicle causes booms, it's not that stealthy pirates have discovered 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:48.000 this to their own unfortunate detriment. Right, Cannons go boom, 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:52.520 whereas the hurricane goes. Yeah, we all are familiar with 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.960 the hurrican sound. Hey guys, it's Jonathan from being all 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.800 quiet and stealthy like. So we can take a quick 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:12.120 break to think our sponsors. So remember I said that 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.080 there are twenty of those twenty one aircraft still flying around. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.920 That's because in February two eight, there was an accident 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.080 during a takeoff at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.200 and that resulted in the loss of the Spirit of Kansas. 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:30.280 B two bomber and UH. Nineteen of those twenty are 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.880 at Whiteman Air Force based in Missouri because I don't 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.000 say Missouri, and the other one is at Edwards Air 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.560 Force Base in California, which is used for flight testing purposes. Okay. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.280 The thing about these B twos, and I guess anything 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.960 that has that is covered in this stealth technology paint 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.200 and tape and stuff, is that all of all of 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.120 that is extremely temperature and weather sensitive. If you if 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:55.480 you get it too warm, and it's it's like a 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.120 mad wife. If you get warm, if you get it wet, 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.160 if you feed it after midnight, you it after midnight, um, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.440 it starts to fall apart, and and all of that 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.120 has to be reapplied frequently, basically every time that they 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.640 take it out of these temperature controlled hangars. And they've 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.520 started designing um portable temperature controlled hangars so that they 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.840 can run missions overseas, right, Yeah, that's that is one 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.160 of the big drawbacks to the B two is that 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.560 it does require these these climate controlled hangars to essentially 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:27.440 live in between missions, because otherwise the material that keeps 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.040 it stealthy would degrade very rapidly, and it would not 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:36.040 be a secure method of delivering payloads under the radar, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.480 so to speak. You're not literally going under the radar 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.920 um So, also recently, very recently, and as of the 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.680 Timber recording this podcast, the United States had sent two 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.359 of the B two bombers over the South Korea for 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.719 training exercises. This is all part of that escalating issue 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:58.480 between North Korea and South Korea, Japan, the United States 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.760 where you know, this is the training exercises. Are are 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.200 this this annual exercise happens over there? And they don't 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.199 necessarily right, yeah, need to be Yeah, it's kind of 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.439 a show of force. It's going just hey guys, remember 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.640 what we got. We got these things right, right. It's 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.840 it's essentially because North Korea has a history of posturing 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.280 and threatening South Korea as well as lots of other 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.960 nations and uh, and then the United States and South 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.400 Korea have a history of sort of giving a giving 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.439 a show of force, not directly against North Korea, but 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.600 just kind of saying, look at all the stuff we 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.080 have think twice before you start to make so um 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:39.639 and some of the rest of the lots of the 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.120 rest of the world ends up saying, guys again, can 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.439 we can You know, you remember the Cold War and 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.040 remember all tense things got it's kind of happening again. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.360 Remember that pizza, wasn't it good? Can we go back 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.000 to just the pizza. I mean, I'm not want to 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.320 judge whether or not it's the right call, because that's 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.200 way above my pay grade, and I honestly couldn't tell 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.520 you what's the right thing to do, but it's definitely 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:05.720 it was definitely one of those things where the United 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.439 States is saying, look, we want to show South Korea 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.960 that we are not going to abandon them, nor are 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.280 we going to abandon the other nations that are often 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.639 threatened by North Korea, Japan being one of them. So 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.560 really as the United States kind of saying like, you, guys, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.040 aren't alone. But you know, it's one of those one 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.000 of those deals where when you read the news it 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:28.920 gets a little nerve racking to see kind of the 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:33.280 escalation of tensions. But besides the b too, there are 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.919 a couple of other stealth aircraft that are worth mentioning. 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.120 There's actually several aircraft that have been in either prototype 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.720 or development stages, but I wanted to specifically mentioned a 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.679 couple that were developed and tested or at least tested 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.480 and one of my favorite places in the hawai world. Yeah, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:57.359 it's right there behind Disneyland. There's Disneyland Area fifty one 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.439 and then Smithsonian so um yeah. The not not that 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.520 those are locationally adjunct, just that that that's the man 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.320 would that would be terrific? That wouldn't be I mean 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.800 it would be a pretty pretty bad secret base if 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.479 it would also be a pretty warm Disneyland. Yes, being 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:15.720 out there in the middle of the desert, so um 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.639 so Area fifty one, also known as Groom Lakes a 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.840 place that the Air Force has used for testing various 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.760 prototype aircraft secretly to make sure that they were going 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.359 to meet the military specifications and needs uh and be 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.879 away from prying eyes. Now, the B two wasn't necessarily 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.600 flown there. It may have been, but not that we yet. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.760 But there are a couple of other aircraft that were 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.840 known to have flown out of Area fifty one. One 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.720 of those was called the have Blue Aircraft, which later 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.800 became the F one seventeen, a stealth fighter better known 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.600 as the Nighthawk, and uh, that one also was unveiled 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.240 in although from from what I understand, it had been 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.080 kicking around in research a lot longer. Yeah, the very 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:10.719 first have Blue I think flew sometime in nineteen eleven 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.720 years or maybe maybe January February, I think is the 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:18.119 first test that. Yeah, so fun, fun factoid. I'm pretty 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.880 sure that before it was called have Blue, the very 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.680 very very first name for this technology was Project Harvey, 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:31.200 based on the film and stage show Harvey. We're in, um, oh, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.680 Jimmy Stewarts talking to a Jimmy jusible. A rabbit is 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.840 visible only to Jimmy Stewart's character, not to Jimmy Stewart. 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.359 That would be even more meta and awesome. Yeah, I 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.440 know what you're talking about. Yeah, I didn't know that though. 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.879 That's interesting. I wrote the how are you fifty one works? 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.000 And I did not know that that's really cool, So 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:51.000 of course I might have written that in that article, 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.679 and I just forgot. The Other thing about that is 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:58.640 that Lockheed was the one that designed have Blue. Slash 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.439 one seventeen a uh. Northrop Grumman also created another stealth 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:07.240 aircraft besides the B two bomber. It was called Tacit Blue, 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.000 and that was a stealth surveillance aircraft. So this was 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.320 just designed to fly over and essentially spy on nations. 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:19.040 It wasn't a combat vehicle, and it was never developed 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:21.720 beyond the prototype stage. In fact, I think there's one 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:23.639 in a museum at this point. I'd have to go, 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.119 and I'm sure I wrote about in the Area one article, 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.080 But the F one seventeen A actually did go into production, 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:33.320 so that that's a stealth fighter, not a not a bomber. 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.960 Could it could also carry nuclear payloots. The original contract 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.800 was for five test craft and fifteen production craft or 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:44.160 operational YEP, and it's been used in lots of United 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.600