1
00:00:03,960 --> 00:00:07,280
Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from stuff

2
00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:17,000
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff.

3
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,480
Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm m and Today we want

4
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:22,320
Speaker 1: to talk to you a little bit about a subject

5
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: that was sent into us by one of our listeners.

6
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,400
Speaker 1: Listener Kevin sent us a request via Facebook, and Kevin

7
00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: wanted to know about stealth technology. So, yeah, being stealthy,

8
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:38,840
Speaker 1: I'm an expert at this, Because what are you talking about?

9
00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:44,080
Speaker 1: I am, I'm like the stealthiest stealth whoever, stealth like

10
00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 1: Super Ninja. They and half century is what you're saying,

11
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,880
Speaker 1: to be fair and more pirate than Ninja. So um, okay,

12
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,760
Speaker 1: are pirates concerned with being stealthies? You have to know

13
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,080
Speaker 1: the weapons of your enemy, is what I'm saying. And

14
00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:59,520
Speaker 1: pirates and Ninja being natural enemies in the wild, it's

15
00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,600
Speaker 1: important to study your enemies techniques. All Let's talk of

16
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,400
Speaker 1: pirates and ninjas reminds me very much of the Cold War, right,

17
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,039
Speaker 1: and that is an important reason why stealth technology even exists.

18
00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:13,600
Speaker 1: So thank you for getting us back on track, Lauren. So,

19
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:17,880
Speaker 1: stealth technology in general, stealth technology refers to the types

20
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:21,360
Speaker 1: of tech we use in aircraft to make them difficult

21
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,080
Speaker 1: or impossible to detect, mainly via radar, although we also

22
00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:29,200
Speaker 1: think about things like infrared scanners that sort of stuff

23
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 1: and uh, and really to understand how stealth works, we

24
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:38,160
Speaker 1: first have to understand what radar is and how that works. Right,

25
00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,040
Speaker 1: Radar radar works thanks to to basic concepts, and that's

26
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:45,520
Speaker 1: echo and Doppler shift. Yes, so yeah, and echo. I

27
00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:48,200
Speaker 1: mean like if you if you were to shout out, uh,

28
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,160
Speaker 1: you know, you go visit the Grand Canyon and you

29
00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,320
Speaker 1: shout as loudly as you can, uh, you might hear

30
00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: after a few seconds your voice coming back to you.

31
00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,120
Speaker 1: And that's because some when you when you shout something out,

32
00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: you know, your your voices traveling out in sound waves.

33
00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,240
Speaker 1: They will collide with the other side of the canyon,

34
00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:07,680
Speaker 1: and some of those sound waves will bounce back at

35
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,200
Speaker 1: you and eventually arrive back to where you are. And

36
00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:13,880
Speaker 1: if you are loud enough when you make the initial sound,

37
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,400
Speaker 1: you should be able to hear some of that sound return.

38
00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:18,720
Speaker 1: So that's why you've got that little delay right right.

39
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,240
Speaker 1: And now, if if you were to measure the length

40
00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,799
Speaker 1: of time that it took for that sound to bounce

41
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,440
Speaker 1: back to you and measure it pretty accurately, then you

42
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:30,040
Speaker 1: could mathematically calculate about how far that sound went. Yeah,

43
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 1: and of course you also need to know some other

44
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,959
Speaker 1: factors like air pressure, humidity, things that would affect how

45
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,799
Speaker 1: fast the sound is traveled. Yeah, because as we know,

46
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,440
Speaker 1: sound will travel at different speeds through different media, and

47
00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,520
Speaker 1: that even includes different atmospheres. So if you are you know,

48
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,600
Speaker 1: if you're really at sea level, sound travels at a

49
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,639
Speaker 1: different speed than it would if you were at thirty feet.

50
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:56,560
Speaker 1: But it's not necessarily detectable to a human ear, but

51
00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:59,200
Speaker 1: it would definitely be a meshable in in day to

52
00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,040
Speaker 1: day conversation for example. But you know, I I don't

53
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,000
Speaker 1: go down to Florida and go like, man, it's really humid.

54
00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,840
Speaker 1: I can barely hear you from this point five. You

55
00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,239
Speaker 1: know it's taking it's taking longer for your words to

56
00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:14,240
Speaker 1: hit my ear. Yeah. But anyway, the same principle works

57
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,720
Speaker 1: on radar, except instead of sound, we're talking about electromagnetic

58
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:21,639
Speaker 1: waves or radio waves, and so you use radio waves

59
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,680
Speaker 1: to you project them out and if they come into

60
00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 1: contact with something, some of those radio waves will bounce back.

61
00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,359
Speaker 1: So if you have a receiver, then you can detect

62
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,600
Speaker 1: those incoming waves and determine by how long it took

63
00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:39,200
Speaker 1: to go out and back about how far away that

64
00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,240
Speaker 1: object is now. You also mentioned Doppler shifts, so we

65
00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,640
Speaker 1: have to talk about right right and Doppler shift as

66
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 1: for example, why a car's horn sounds higher pitched when

67
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:50,120
Speaker 1: the car is moving towards you than it does when

68
00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,040
Speaker 1: the car is moving away from you. Yeah, there's there's

69
00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:54,400
Speaker 1: a great article on How Stuff Works that explains this

70
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,240
Speaker 1: that I like a lot. Marshall Brain actually wrote He's

71
00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 1: the founder of How Stuff Works and U and in it,

72
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 1: Marshall talked about how if you were if the car

73
00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,680
Speaker 1: is sitting still and the driver leans on the horn

74
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,640
Speaker 1: for a minute. First of all, you must be in Boston. Uh.

75
00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,800
Speaker 1: And second, uh, that means that if you are far

76
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 1: enough away. Let's say that your far enough away that

77
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,560
Speaker 1: the sound takes six seconds to get to you, all right,

78
00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,040
Speaker 1: and you're sitting there. That means that the the horn

79
00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,840
Speaker 1: will have been uh sounding for six seconds before you

80
00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:27,440
Speaker 1: can even hear it, right, But then it'll it'll last

81
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,680
Speaker 1: for a minute. That's how long because the person is

82
00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,280
Speaker 1: leaning on Now, if that car is traveling toward you,

83
00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,680
Speaker 1: then the pitch of that is going to be higher

84
00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:42,400
Speaker 1: than it would be if if it were just saying still,

85
00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:47,920
Speaker 1: those those waves are essentially compressed a higher frequency in

86
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 1: the same amount of time. So and then of course,

87
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:51,839
Speaker 1: if the car goes by you. You know you've heard

88
00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,800
Speaker 1: this if you've ever heard a siren when an emergency

89
00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:58,159
Speaker 1: vehicle has either come up behind or approached you and

90
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:00,919
Speaker 1: then passed. As it goes As it's traveling towards you,

91
00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:02,560
Speaker 1: it's a higher pitch, and as it's going away it's

92
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,000
Speaker 1: a lower pitch. And that's because of the frequency of

93
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,240
Speaker 1: the waves in the way that the object making the

94
00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:11,520
Speaker 1: sound is traveling versus the sound itself traveling. So the

95
00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:15,000
Speaker 1: interesting thing about Doppler shift is if you can detect

96
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,039
Speaker 1: the uh, if you know what the frequency of the

97
00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,440
Speaker 1: waves were when it was going out. So in other words,

98
00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:23,320
Speaker 1: you've got a transmitter, right, that's that's your your radar

99
00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,719
Speaker 1: transmitter and antenna that's transmitting the high burst of high

100
00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,720
Speaker 1: frequency radio waves. You know what the frequency is when

101
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,280
Speaker 1: you transmit. When the frequency comes back, uh, it's going

102
00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:38,320
Speaker 1: to be or when the radio waves come back, rather

103
00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 1: it's going to be possibly a different frequency than it

104
00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:42,719
Speaker 1: was when it went out. Now, that means that the

105
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:45,840
Speaker 1: object that hit was in motion. If it's a higher frequency,

106
00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,280
Speaker 1: that means that object is essentially moving towards you. If

107
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:50,960
Speaker 1: it's a lower frequency, that object is moving away. So

108
00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 1: and by measuring exactly the difference in the pitch, you

109
00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,760
Speaker 1: can measure how fast it's going, Yeah, exactly, or at

110
00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,800
Speaker 1: least get an estimate, pretty good idea. Yes. And because

111
00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,320
Speaker 1: we're talking, you know, radio waves move essentially at the

112
00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,120
Speaker 1: speed of light, so you know, the delays here are

113
00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:08,680
Speaker 1: really really super tiny, and and the transmission is like,

114
00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,839
Speaker 1: is a fraction of a second long. So you transmit

115
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:15,040
Speaker 1: these really short bursts and uh, and then turn off

116
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,200
Speaker 1: the transmitter and allow the waves to come back, right,

117
00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:20,680
Speaker 1: and you measure the delay between when it went out

118
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,000
Speaker 1: and when it came back, and you measure the Doppler shift,

119
00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:24,800
Speaker 1: and that gives you an idea of the position and

120
00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,880
Speaker 1: speed at which the object is moving. So if it's

121
00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:32,680
Speaker 1: moving towards you or away. Uh. And it's very useful

122
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,400
Speaker 1: for detecting things like aircraft, and in fact, we use

123
00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:38,200
Speaker 1: it all the time, not just in military applications but

124
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,800
Speaker 1: air traffic control. So here's the thing. If you are

125
00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,480
Speaker 1: running a military operation and you want to run surveillance

126
00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:51,600
Speaker 1: or some sort of uh sortie against an enemy territory,

127
00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:54,720
Speaker 1: then you probably don't want your vehicles to be detected.

128
00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:57,640
Speaker 1: It's generally a bad policy, yeah, because that means that

129
00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:00,960
Speaker 1: they can be shot down or or other wise compromised.

130
00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 1: And so you want to be able to run your

131
00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:09,560
Speaker 1: mission without any kind of entanglements. And so that's when

132
00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,600
Speaker 1: people started thinking, well, the radar is a really useful

133
00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,800
Speaker 1: tool for detection. How can we get around radar so

134
00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,000
Speaker 1: that our enemies don't know when we are there? And

135
00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:24,320
Speaker 1: that's what really got the United States thinking about stealth technology.

136
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:27,120
Speaker 1: And really it was the Cold War. Yeah, yeah, this

137
00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,680
Speaker 1: was all during the nineteen seventies. Everyone was really tense. Yeah. Yeah.

138
00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,120
Speaker 1: The Soviet Union or the then Soviet Union and the

139
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,720
Speaker 1: United States had been in a Cold War pretty consistently

140
00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:42,120
Speaker 1: since shortly after World War Two, and by the nineteen

141
00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,560
Speaker 1: seventies that said, really we were seeing escalation on both sides.

142
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,800
Speaker 1: Arsenals were getting more and more powerful and complex. It

143
00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,920
Speaker 1: was a lot of posturing on the part of both countries, definitely, uh,

144
00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,520
Speaker 1: And the rest of the world was mostly saying, guys,

145
00:07:56,640 --> 00:08:00,040
Speaker 1: can we can we chill out? Yeah, this is in

146
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,320
Speaker 1: a little tense for all of us. Let me go

147
00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,800
Speaker 1: get a pizza. Yeah, because once you start talking about

148
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,600
Speaker 1: how many times each country could destroy the other country

149
00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,080
Speaker 1: via nuclear weapons, like we could destroy the the United

150
00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:14,400
Speaker 1: States ten times over, Well, we can destroy the so

151
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 1: Union twelve times over. And everyone's just say, really, is

152
00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,920
Speaker 1: there this much need for these many Well, one of

153
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:26,080
Speaker 1: the thoughts was, how can we deliver a nuclear payload

154
00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,560
Speaker 1: to an enemy territory without the about them detecting that

155
00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,640
Speaker 1: we're there and stopping us. But we can, yeah, before

156
00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:34,680
Speaker 1: the aircraft gets shot down or even or you know,

157
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,559
Speaker 1: how can we run spy missions? And you know exactly

158
00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:41,320
Speaker 1: And so at the time, the main aircraft that was

159
00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,240
Speaker 1: being used in bombing runs in the United States was

160
00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:47,880
Speaker 1: the B fifty two bomber. And the B fifty two

161
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,280
Speaker 1: is not a stealth vehicle at all. Anti that. Yeah,

162
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,319
Speaker 1: it's actually has a quite quite a large radar footprint.

163
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,880
Speaker 1: It's very detectable, but it can travel quite fast and

164
00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,440
Speaker 1: it can carry very large payloads. And it was first

165
00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,120
Speaker 1: introduced back in nineteen fifty five, and it's known for

166
00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,760
Speaker 1: being a reliable aircraft, so much so that there are

167
00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:14,920
Speaker 1: still more than any two in active service. And um, yeah,

168
00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:18,240
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's actually projected after a couple of

169
00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:23,000
Speaker 1: upgrades that will happen between now and it's projected to

170
00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:28,760
Speaker 1: be an active part of our air force until the Yeah,

171
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,920
Speaker 1: so this is a this is a longevity issue here.

172
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,480
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's definitely a workhorse, but it is

173
00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,400
Speaker 1: not a stealth vehicle. So the United States started to

174
00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,840
Speaker 1: open up the possibility for different companies to bid on

175
00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:48,920
Speaker 1: developing a a an aircraft that could stealthily fly and

176
00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:51,480
Speaker 1: not be detected by radar and and still have the

177
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:56,360
Speaker 1: carrying capacity to deliver large nuclear payloads. Yeah. Yeah, that's

178
00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:59,520
Speaker 1: that was the other part of it. Yes, Um, scary

179
00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,040
Speaker 1: scary stuff. Well, there was simultaneously development of other stealth

180
00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,480
Speaker 1: stealth technology going on that we'll talk about a little

181
00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,520
Speaker 1: bit later on, but that was that was more on

182
00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:11,000
Speaker 1: that research kind of side of things. And right, the

183
00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:13,760
Speaker 1: B two, which is what came out of all that

184
00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,040
Speaker 1: we're talking about right now. Yeah, the B two was

185
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:17,440
Speaker 1: the big one. I mean, that was the one that

186
00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:21,680
Speaker 1: was unveiled and uh and talked about the most. And

187
00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,440
Speaker 1: the B two is also better known as the stealth bomber.

188
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 1: It's also the called the B two Spirit, and most

189
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,960
Speaker 1: of the individual planes are called the Spirit of something

190
00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,120
Speaker 1: or other and uh, yeah. It was first unveiled publicly

191
00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,680
Speaker 1: on November twenty second, nineteen in Palmdale, California, at the

192
00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:44,480
Speaker 1: Air Force Plant forty two. That same year, another stealth

193
00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,800
Speaker 1: aircraft was unveiled. That was the F one seventeen Nighthawk,

194
00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:49,640
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that more in a little bit.

195
00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,120
Speaker 1: It was a North Grumman that ended up winning that

196
00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:56,960
Speaker 1: that bidding battle, and they're the ones who developed the

197
00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,120
Speaker 1: B two. It took about a decade for them to

198
00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:04,280
Speaker 1: make it, and about forty billion dollars in research and development, yeah,

199
00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:07,080
Speaker 1: which which was up over what they had originally stated

200
00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:09,199
Speaker 1: they might be able to do it for. Yeah, and

201
00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:13,200
Speaker 1: uh and also the planes themselves, the bombers themselves, were

202
00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:16,559
Speaker 1: more expensive than what they originally intended. They first thought

203
00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:20,280
Speaker 1: that they could deliver the entire order for you know,

204
00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:23,160
Speaker 1: I have a hundreds hundred thirty two planes for like

205
00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,920
Speaker 1: forty billion twenty well I think it went from twenty

206
00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:30,000
Speaker 1: to seventy. Yeah. Yeah, the original contract was for twenty

207
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,839
Speaker 1: two billions. From what I've read, and then um as

208
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:37,440
Speaker 1: of when when when has unveiled it had the total

209
00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 1: price had jumped to like over seventy and eventually they

210
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,120
Speaker 1: figured that each aircraft would cost about one to two

211
00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:48,800
Speaker 1: billion dollars a piece, and so it got really expensive

212
00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:53,040
Speaker 1: really fast. Like that ended up being the UH the

213
00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:56,360
Speaker 1: target of a lot of criticism, you know, people saying

214
00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:00,439
Speaker 1: that these contracts are all based on estimates, that we're

215
00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:05,200
Speaker 1: not realistic, and whether or not the companies were aware

216
00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:07,880
Speaker 1: of how unrealistic they were was a matter of doubt,

217
00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 1: and it just got into a really sore subject. But

218
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,680
Speaker 1: something happened that ended up kind of taking a little

219
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:17,160
Speaker 1: of the sting out, which is that in nine the

220
00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:21,000
Speaker 1: Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly people didn't really have so

221
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:23,880
Speaker 1: much of a need to UH to carry large amounts

222
00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:30,640
Speaker 1: of nuclear warheads across enemy territory quietly. And yeah, when

223
00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:35,040
Speaker 1: you're when you're chief nemesis, UH goes under and of

224
00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:38,480
Speaker 1: course we can. You know, today when you look at

225
00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:42,240
Speaker 1: the United States and Russia, there are other issues where

226
00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,280
Speaker 1: you might say things are starting to turn around at

227
00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,480
Speaker 1: some points. You know, there's always cheri and and there's

228
00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:50,120
Speaker 1: always tension between various world powers. Like that. It's like

229
00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:57,120
Speaker 1: Korea right now. Yeah, there's there's always always chicanery, right. So,

230
00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,360
Speaker 1: so anyway, because the so Union collapsed, that that helped, uh,

231
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:03,800
Speaker 1: the United States come to the decision to reduce the

232
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,320
Speaker 1: order from one thirty two to twenty one aircraft, twenty

233
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:10,360
Speaker 1: of which are still flying around today. And I'll talk

234
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:12,400
Speaker 1: a little bit about that. But before I do that,

235
00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:15,200
Speaker 1: I guess we should kind of describe what the B

236
00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:17,800
Speaker 1: two looks like in case you guys have never seen one.

237
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,720
Speaker 1: They're funky, they are. That The design is called a

238
00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,240
Speaker 1: flying wing actually because with most aircraft, you know, I mean,

239
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:28,319
Speaker 1: it's you've you've seen an airplane. It's got it's got

240
00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,839
Speaker 1: a body, it's got wings, it's got stabilizers, stabilizers coming

241
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:33,720
Speaker 1: off in the little strange angles. But yeah, but but

242
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:36,960
Speaker 1: this flying wing is designed so that the entire craft

243
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,040
Speaker 1: generates lift. Yeah. So it's it doesn't have all that

244
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,040
Speaker 1: like the fuselage and the wings. It's it's all one body.

245
00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 1: It's not it's not like, you know, you've got a

246
00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:47,839
Speaker 1: tube that's the fuselage and then you've got the to

247
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:50,959
Speaker 1: the two wings attached to that. No, it's all one

248
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:54,000
Speaker 1: giant wing and Yeah, like you said, you know, you

249
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:56,240
Speaker 1: just go fast enough and it generates the lift it

250
00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:59,959
Speaker 1: needs to fly. And yeah, the eliminating the tail of

251
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,880
Speaker 1: the fuselage reduced drag. And yeah, it also means that

252
00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:06,520
Speaker 1: because of its design it doesn't have like it's it's

253
00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:10,160
Speaker 1: easier for it to avoid radar detection based on the

254
00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,160
Speaker 1: stuff it's made of. And we'll talk more about that

255
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,640
Speaker 1: and how the stealth stuff actually works in a little bit.

256
00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,040
Speaker 1: It is one D seventy two ft wide, which is

257
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:21,920
Speaker 1: fifty two point four meters, which is which is a bunch. Yeah,

258
00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,440
Speaker 1: it's it's essentially if you were to look at an

259
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:29,120
Speaker 1: American football field, a a B two bomber from wingspan

260
00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,720
Speaker 1: from wing tip to wingtip would be more than half

261
00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,000
Speaker 1: the length of an American football field. Yeah, and this

262
00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:36,840
Speaker 1: is this is a vehicle built for two people. Yeah,

263
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,200
Speaker 1: it's it's a two person aircraft. Yeah. It's also sixty

264
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:44,240
Speaker 1: nine feet from tail I mean quote unquote tail to tip.

265
00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,120
Speaker 1: It doesn't really have a tail. Yeah, I guess the

266
00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:49,400
Speaker 1: length of the bit of the wings exactly where the

267
00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:53,080
Speaker 1: B two stops being to where the B two starts

268
00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:58,040
Speaker 1: being right, and and is sevent feet high and uh,

269
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,560
Speaker 1: it can fly about six thousand nautical miles, which is

270
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:06,000
Speaker 1: about eleven thousand, twelve kilometers before it needs to refuel.

271
00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:09,320
Speaker 1: And if you have an aerial refueling as part of

272
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,160
Speaker 1: its mission, it can go ten thousand nautical miles or

273
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:16,840
Speaker 1: about eighty kilometers. That's a that's a long trip. And

274
00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:19,880
Speaker 1: uh and and we've seen some recent use of that.

275
00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:24,880
Speaker 1: It can carry twenty tons of conventional and nuclear weapons.

276
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:28,520
Speaker 1: It is that considered a high sub sonic flight, which

277
00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:30,520
Speaker 1: means that it's top speed isn't just under the speed

278
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:33,960
Speaker 1: of sound some something like what a thousand feet per

279
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,440
Speaker 1: second something like that. Yeah, it's it's it's really Uh.

280
00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,000
Speaker 1: It goes about as fast as an aircraft can go

281
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,440
Speaker 1: before it starts becoming super sonic. Right, so, which would

282
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,120
Speaker 1: cause a boom, which is obviously something you want a

283
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,680
Speaker 1: stealth vehicle to do. You know, if the stealth vehicle

284
00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:53,560
Speaker 1: causes booms, it's not that stealthy pirates have discovered this

285
00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:59,600
Speaker 1: to their own unfortunate detriment. Right, Cannons go boom, whereas

286
00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,480
Speaker 1: the again goes. Yeah, we all are familiar with the

287
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,520
Speaker 1: Shurrikan sound. So remember I said that there are twenty

288
00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,320
Speaker 1: of those twenty one aircraft still flying around. That's because

289
00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:14,960
Speaker 1: in February two eight, there was an accident during a

290
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,120
Speaker 1: takeoff at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, and that

291
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,920
Speaker 1: resulted in the loss of the Spirit of Kansas B

292
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,160
Speaker 1: two bomber and UH nineteen of those twenty are at

293
00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:29,120
Speaker 1: Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri because I don't say Missouri,

294
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,000
Speaker 1: and the other one is at Edwards Air Force Base

295
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:36,760
Speaker 1: in California, which is used for flight testing purposes. The

296
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,000
Speaker 1: thing about these B twos, and I guess anything that

297
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,840
Speaker 1: has that is covered in this stealth technology paint and

298
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,000
Speaker 1: tape and stuff, is that all of all of that

299
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,720
Speaker 1: is extremely temperature and weather sensitive. Um. If you if

300
00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 1: you get it too warm, and it's it's like a

301
00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:52,720
Speaker 1: mag wife. If you get warm, if you get it wet,

302
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:54,720
Speaker 1: if you feed it after midnight, if you feed it

303
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,520
Speaker 1: after midnight, um, it starts to fall apart. And and

304
00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,280
Speaker 1: all of that has to be reapplied freakly basically every

305
00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:03,560
Speaker 1: time that they take it out of these temperature controlled hangars.

306
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,840
Speaker 1: And they've started designing um portable temperature controlled hangars so

307
00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,080
Speaker 1: that they can run missions overseas. Right, Yeah, that's that

308
00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:13,320
Speaker 1: is one of the big drawbacks to the B two

309
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:17,159
Speaker 1: is that it does require these these climate controlled hangars

310
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,520
Speaker 1: to essentially live in between missions, because otherwise the material

311
00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:25,199
Speaker 1: that keeps it stealthy would degrade very rapidly, and it

312
00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:30,120
Speaker 1: would not be a secure method of delivering payloads under

313
00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:32,640
Speaker 1: the radar, so to speak. They're not literally going under

314
00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:38,360
Speaker 1: the radar um So. Also, recently, very recently, and as

315
00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:40,640
Speaker 1: of the Timber recording this podcast, the United States had

316
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,400
Speaker 1: sent two of the B two bombers over to South

317
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,320
Speaker 1: Korea for training exercises. This is all part of that

318
00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:53,000
Speaker 1: escalating issue between North Korea and South Korea, Japan, United States,

319
00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:56,360
Speaker 1: where you know, this is the training exercises are are

320
00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:59,760
Speaker 1: this this annual exercise happens over there, and they don't

321
00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:03,720
Speaker 1: miss fairly right, Yeah, need to be Yeah, it's kind

322
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:06,560
Speaker 1: of a show of force. It's going just hey, guys,

323
00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,000
Speaker 1: remember what we got We got these things right, right.

324
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:12,320
Speaker 1: It's it's essentially because North Korea has a history of

325
00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,639
Speaker 1: posturing and threatening South Korea, as well as lots of

326
00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:20,320
Speaker 1: other nations and uh, and then the United States and

327
00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:22,720
Speaker 1: South Korea have a history of sort of giving a

328
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,919
Speaker 1: giving a show of force not directly against North Korea,

329
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 1: but just kind of saying, look at all the stuff

330
00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,399
Speaker 1: we have, think twice before you start to make anything.

331
00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 1: So um and some of the rest of the lots

332
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,480
Speaker 1: of the rest of the world ends up saying, guys again,

333
00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,400
Speaker 1: can we can you know, you remember the Cold War

334
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:42,640
Speaker 1: and remember how tense things got. It's kind of happening again.

335
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:44,960
Speaker 1: Remember that pizza, wasn't it good? Can we go back

336
00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,600
Speaker 1: to just the pizza. I mean, I'm not want to

337
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,920
Speaker 1: judge whether or not it's the right call, because that's

338
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:55,760
Speaker 1: way above my pay grade, and I honestly couldn't tell

339
00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,120
Speaker 1: you what's the right thing to do, but it's definitely

340
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:00,320
Speaker 1: it was definitely one of those things where the United

341
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 1: States is saying, look, we want to show South Korea

342
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 1: that we are not going to abandon them, nor are

343
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,880
Speaker 1: we going to abandon the other nations that are often

344
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:15,240
Speaker 1: threatened by North Korea, Japan being one of them. So

345
00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:16,960
Speaker 1: really as the United States kind of saying like, you

346
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 1: guys aren't alone. But you know, it's one of those

347
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:21,399
Speaker 1: one of those deals where when you read the news,

348
00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 1: it gets a little nerve racking to see kind of

349
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:27,680
Speaker 1: the escalation of tensions but besides the B two, there

350
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,520
Speaker 1: are a couple of other stealth aircraft that are worth mentioning.

351
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:35,720
Speaker 1: There's actually several aircraft that have been in either prototype

352
00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,320
Speaker 1: or development stages, but I wanted to specifically mentioned a

353
00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 1: couple that were developed and tested or at least tested.

354
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: And one of my favorite places in the hawai world. Yeah,

355
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:51,600
Speaker 1: it's right there behind Disneyland. There's Disneyland Area fifty one

356
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:56,040
Speaker 1: and then Smithsonian so um yeah. The not not that

357
00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:00,440
Speaker 1: those are locationally adjunct, just that that that's the that

358
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,320
Speaker 1: would be terrific. That wouldn't be I mean it would

359
00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 1: be a pretty pretty bad secret base if it would

360
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 1: also be a pretty warm Disneyland. Yes, being out there

361
00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 1: in the middle of the desert, so um so Area

362
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,879
Speaker 1: fifty one, also known as Groom Lake, a place that

363
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:19,400
Speaker 1: the Air Force has used for testing various prototype aircraft

364
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 1: secretly to make sure that they were going to meet

365
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,760
Speaker 1: the military specifications and needs uh and be away from

366
00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,080
Speaker 1: prying eyes. Now, the B two wasn't necessarily flown there.

367
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,119
Speaker 1: It may have been, but not that we know of. Ye,

368
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,439
Speaker 1: But there are a couple of other aircraft that were

369
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,440
Speaker 1: known to have flown out of area fifty one. One

370
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,320
Speaker 1: of those was called the Have Blue aircraft, which later

371
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,400
Speaker 1: became the F one seventeen, a stealth fighter better known

372
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 1: as the Nighthawk. And uh, that one also was unveiled

373
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:55,840
Speaker 1: in although from from what I understand, it had been

374
00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,680
Speaker 1: kicking around in research a lot longer. Yeah, the very

375
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:03,720
Speaker 1: fur to have Blue I think flew sometime in nineteen

376
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,199
Speaker 1: eleven years or maybe maybe January February, I think is

377
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 1: the first test. That so fun, fun factoid. I'm pretty

378
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 1: sure that before it was called have Blue, the very

379
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 1: very very first name for this technology was Project Harvey,

380
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:24,199
Speaker 1: based on the film and stage show Harvey. We're in

381
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 1: um oh, Jimmy Stewarts talking to a j a rabbit

382
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: that's visible only to Jimmy Stewart's character, not to Jimmy Stewart.

383
00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:35,840
Speaker 1: Thought that would be even more meta and awesome. Yeah,

384
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 1: I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I didn't know that, though.

385
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I wrote the how arey of fifty one works?

386
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,600
Speaker 1: And I did not know that that's really cool? So

387
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:45,639
Speaker 1: of course I might have written that in that article,

388
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:48,280
Speaker 1: and I just forgot the Other thing about that is

389
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 1: that Lockheed was the one that designed the have blue

390
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 1: Slash one seventeen a. UH. Northrop Grumman also created another

391
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 1: stealth aircraft besides the B two bomber. It was called

392
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:05,239
Speaker 1: Tacit Blue, and that was a stealth surveillance aircraft. So

393
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:09,080
Speaker 1: this was just designed to fly over and essentially spy

394
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,399
Speaker 1: on nations. It wasn't a combat vehicle, and it was

395
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 1: never developed beyond the prototype stage. In fact, I think

396
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 1: there's one in a museum at this point, I'd have

397
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:19,639
Speaker 1: to go, and I'm sure I wrote about in the

398
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 1: Area fifty one article, But the F one seventeen A

399
00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: actually did go into production, so that that's a stealth fighter,

400
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,639
Speaker 1: not a not a bomber. Could it could also carry

401
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 1: nuclear payloads. The original contract was for five test craft

402
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 1: and fifteen production craft or operational YEP, and it's been

403
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:41,119
Speaker 1: used in lots of United States operations, including Operation Desert Thunder,

404
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:46,919
Speaker 1: Operation Allied Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom

405
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,640
Speaker 1: and UH. The during Operation Allied Force back in nineteen

406
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 1: it was the one and only instance of an F

407
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 1: one seventeen A being shot down. It was shot down

408
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,640
Speaker 1: by an anti aircraft missile that was operated by what

409
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 1: was at the time the Army of Yugoslavia because it

410
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 1: crashed and seemed to be relatively intact. After it crashed,

411
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:10,880
Speaker 1: the pilot, by the way, ejected safely and was recovered

412
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,879
Speaker 1: by the U S forces, so he was safe. But

413
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 1: the aircraft landed crash landed giving clearly because there was

414
00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:23,400
Speaker 1: no one flying it and was apparently landed mostly intact,

415
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:27,400
Speaker 1: and in fact, UH it seems that Russian and Serbian

416
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 1: forces were able to observe and possibly even copy the

417
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:35,440
Speaker 1: stealth technology, which means that the stealth technology was compromised

418
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: as a result of that crash. It is again the

419
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,640
Speaker 1: one and only time that we have lost a stealth

420
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: aircraft in a combat situation as opposed to an accident.

421
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,080
Speaker 1: I think I think that I've heard UH of at

422
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,480
Speaker 1: least one test accident that happened where and then, apart

423
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: from the F one seventeen, which by the way, was

424
00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:59,720
Speaker 1: retired in two thousand and eight, turned out that it

425
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 1: was just it wasn't really meeting the needs of the

426
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:05,880
Speaker 1: military at the time, and they started to rely more

427
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,119
Speaker 1: heavily on the F twenty two Raptor, which also has

428
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 1: stealth technology and also was designed by Lockheed. UH. They

429
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 1: retired the F one, seventeen and two thousand eight, but

430
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: there's still a fleet of them, so right, Yeah, I

431
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,640
Speaker 1: think that fifty nine in total were built from Yeah,

432
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: and and there's at least some of those still in existence.

433
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: They're just not an active service so um, I mean

434
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: we I guess they could be put back into active

435
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,160
Speaker 1: service if necessary. But the F twenty two Raptors essentially

436
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: taken over their spot in the military, and that was

437
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: unveiled in nineteen seven and that remains in service. So

438
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: that's kind of a rundown on the aircraft, the main

439
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: aircraft in the United States that use stealth technology. We're

440
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break and when we come back,

441
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: we will talk about how stealth technology actually works. So

442
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: we'll do that in a minute, but first, let's take

443
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 1: a quick moment to thank our sponsored Okay, back to stealth.

444
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 1: So we know that stealth is all about avoiding radar,

445
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: and we know about the various aircraft that incorporates stealth

446
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 1: technology to some extent. So exactly how the stealth work?

447
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,440
Speaker 1: How can you avoid radar? Well, so there this comes

448
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:19,919
Speaker 1: in a couple of different parts. First of all, you

449
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 1: can you can design the shape of the plane in

450
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: such a way that it bounces the radar rather than

451
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: directly back to the transmitter receiver apparatus, um, somewhere else entirely. Oh,

452
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 1: I see. So let's say, like, let's say I've got

453
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: a flashlight and you have a mirror, Lauren and I,

454
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 1: and you're just holding the mirror straight up to me.

455
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: I turned the flashlight on, and I can see the

456
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: flashlight reflected right back at me. But if you were

457
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: to tilt that mirror so that the top of the

458
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 1: mirror comes closer to you and the bottom of the

459
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 1: mirror is further away from you, then the beam is

460
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,959
Speaker 1: beamed up rather than at me. So if you were

461
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,920
Speaker 1: to design an aircraft so that lots of the large

462
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: flat surfaces were angled in weird wonky love crafty in

463
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 1: ways using non Euclidean geometry or at least some weird angles,

464
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: those radio waves would not bounce right back to the

465
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:12,439
Speaker 1: radar station. Correct. Um. And also if you use slightly

466
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,359
Speaker 1: curved surfaces, um, that will also help because you know

467
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 1: the same way that if you again, if you've got

468
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 1: a flashlight and you pointed at a curved mirror, yeah,

469
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:22,680
Speaker 1: it's not going to bounce right back it's going to

470
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: bounce in a in a slightly different direction. So yeah,

471
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: the Stealth B two bomber, as well as the other

472
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,959
Speaker 1: aircraft we've talked about, have these kind of surfaces. Uh.

473
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,159
Speaker 1: If you look at the stealth bomber, you see like

474
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 1: there's some large, really oddly angular flat surfaces and then

475
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: some other kind of bulgy, uh curve surfaces. Um. In fact,

476
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 1: an interesting point, you remember we were talking about that

477
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: F one seventeen that was shot down. From what I understand,

478
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:54,199
Speaker 1: the way that the anti aircraft missile system detected the

479
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 1: F one seventeen was that the F one seventeen's bomber

480
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: doors had opened, which increased its radar footprint just enough

481
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: for it to be detected. Yeah. Yeah, and other things

482
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 1: that a plane can do can also throw this off.

483
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 1: I mean, if if you start to roll the plane

484
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,440
Speaker 1: it's going to the surfaces might might line up and

485
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: might line up in a different way. Yeah. So that's

486
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,679
Speaker 1: one thing is actually designing the surfaces of the aircraft

487
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: itself can help essentially reflect the radio waves in a

488
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,880
Speaker 1: different direction. So you send out that burst of high

489
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,160
Speaker 1: frequency radio signal and nothing comes back, it's the same

490
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: as if nothing is there a right right or you know,

491
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:33,160
Speaker 1: or you might only get as much radio signal back

492
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: as you would get from a bird or an insect, right,

493
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: which in which case you'd say, well, that's that's nothing

494
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: to worry about, you know that you start worrying about

495
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 1: every bird, yeah, which would probably drive you pretty crazy

496
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. So that's one way. That's one way. And

497
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:53,359
Speaker 1: then the other way is to use those materials um

498
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,280
Speaker 1: that you are building the outside of the plane from

499
00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 1: in ways that don't that absorb rather than reflect, right,

500
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: And this at first you might think, well, what kind

501
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: of special space age technology is this, But then when

502
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,880
Speaker 1: you think about it, you know, radio waves are part

503
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: of the electromagnetic spectrum, as is say visible light. So

504
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: when you think about visible light, you know, like if

505
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,680
Speaker 1: you use black paint that absorbs light, you know, it's

506
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: it's reflecting some light back, but not very much. I mean,

507
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: depending on how the quality of the paint you're using,

508
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 1: how how black the black is. It also absorbs heat

509
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: more readily. Yep. So again that's the infrared radiation. So

510
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,120
Speaker 1: in that case, we already know of materials that can

511
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: absorb light. So so really this is the same sort

512
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: of thing, except instead of absorbing light, it's absorbing radio waves.

513
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: And it could be paint, it can be um a

514
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 1: powder like substance that's worked into the actual composite material

515
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: that makes up the plane tapes. And again it's this

516
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: paint and tape that really needs to be replaced each

517
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: time the B two goes out. The F twenty two

518
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: Raptor relies more on the shape of the aircraft than

519
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: this sort of material, which means that you can fly

520
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: in F twenty two rapt Or more frequently without having

521
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 1: to replace all those exterior parts or or to touch

522
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: up all the exterior parts. Uh. In fact, that was

523
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: one of the things that Lockheed put in mind when

524
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: they started designing the F twenty two, and it's because

525
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,440
Speaker 1: they learned their lessons from the F one s and

526
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 1: the B two Bomber. So yeah, that that's the other

527
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: thing is that you create these materials that actually absorb

528
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: the radio waves, and again that means that there are

529
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: fewer waves bouncing back from the aircraft and less of

530
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 1: a chance to actually be picked up on radar. Now,

531
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, I also mentioned the

532
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 1: fact that stealth technology it's not just about radar that's

533
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: the primary that we share that well, that's the primary

534
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: censor that people are using to detect planes at longer

535
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: distances than anything else. Right. But you you can also

536
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 1: detect planes either by hearing them, by seeing them, or

537
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: you know, by detecting a heat signature. Now the heats

538
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: nature thing. I think that's really interesting. The way the

539
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: B two gets around the heat signature is a very

540
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 1: creative exhaust system, right, because the way that people pick

541
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: up on the heat of planes is is not by

542
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: you know, reading like the heat of an engine directly,

543
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 1: it's by reading the exhaust right. Uh. And so yeah,

544
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: so so if you if you take steps to disguise

545
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: that by by for example, cooling the exhaust off before

546
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:30,320
Speaker 1: it actually exits the plane plane, or by putting the

547
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: exhaust ports on top of the plane where fewer sensors

548
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: are likely to be you know, hovering hovering above the

549
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,959
Speaker 1: plane than they are on the ground. Yeah. So so

550
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: that's it's pretty interesting. Yeah, there is this cooling system

551
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 1: that the B two has, So the exhaust actually passes

552
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: through this cooling system, losing a lot of that heat

553
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: and it just keeps. Uh, it's internalized by the plane,

554
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 1: by the bomber, and so once the exhaust comes out,

555
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: it's not as hot as it would be without that

556
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: cooling system, making it more difficult to detect the uh,

557
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: the B two with a with like some sort of

558
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: thermal sensor. And then it's also the way the actual

559
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: plane is designed. It's designed such a way that it's

560
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: difficult to tell which way it's facing when you just

561
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: glance at it, because it's got that flying wing structure. Yeah, yeah,

562
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: it's it's just a sort of triangular. And at that

563
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: point it's like, yeah, so if you if you aren't

564
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: able to get a really good bead on it from

565
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 1: the ground, it can be very difficult or from anywhere, really,

566
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 1: it can be really difficult to tell what direction it's

567
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 1: moving in, which again makes it a little bit uh

568
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: more likely that the B two will be able to

569
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: complete its mission without any any problems, right right, if

570
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: it's flying at night, of course, the black paint will

571
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: also help it kind of melt in the night sky

572
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: and uh. And so they're also systems aboard the B

573
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: two that allow it to target, to to locate targets

574
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: even in darkness. Sometimes you're talking about pilots who are

575
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: wearing night vision goggles essentially. Um, so you know it's

576
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: it's it's again it's a weapon designed for secrets seen stealth,

577
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's it's kind of a cool thing and

578
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 1: it's scary too. Yeah. They also take an electromagnetic energy

579
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: created on board the plane into account when they're doing

580
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: all of this. They take steps to damp in anything

581
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 1: so that it's not going to be radiating outward, radiating outward.

582
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: Lots of lots of electromagnetic shielding. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah,

583
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of things you have to

584
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: think about when you are designing an aircraft that is

585
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,160
Speaker 1: supposed to be uh, it's supposed to be able to

586
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: escape detection. Um. And so it's kind of uh, I mean,

587
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 1: it's really it's a fascinating subject to me. And by

588
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: the way, this has meant that that there's also been

589
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: developments in radar technology as people have tried to find

590
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 1: other ways to make it more possible to detect steal

591
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: their craft. Yeah. Another instrument on these planes tends to

592
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: be a radar warning receiver. Yeah. So that so that

593
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: if you do notice that you're being watched, you can

594
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 1: take steps to rite you can at least be all

595
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: did to that fact, and try to keep on the

596
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: lookout for any ground defenses like anti aircraft missiles if

597
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: you need to whatever, or you know, radio back home

598
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: and say please advise. Do we continue on with the

599
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: mission or do we abort the mission? Yeah? And it's

600
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: it's it's fascinating stuff and we do. We actually do

601
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: know quite a bit about it, although the actual secret

602
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: sauce of the stuff that goes on these aircraft remains

603
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: a secret for obvious reasons. Right right, I I know

604
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:32,720
Speaker 1: that it's sprayed on by four independently active robots. Wow. Boy,

605
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: the stories those guys must tell when they're just sipping

606
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: down oil over at the oil cooler the end of

607
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 1: a long day. My world is the magical world. It

608
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 1: sounds like it. Yeah, but but anyway, that's that's the

609
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: low down on stealth technology. It's actually pretty straightforward, and

610
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: it's mostly all about physics. When you think about it's

611
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: kind of it's to me, it's kind of interesting that

612
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 1: took as long as it did to start to develop

613
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 1: aircraft that could effectively avoid radar, because once you understand

614
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,239
Speaker 1: how ray our works, then you already know what it

615
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: takes to get around it. I guess it just mostly

616
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 1: depends on developing the materials that are very good at

617
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:11,440
Speaker 1: absorbing radar, because obviously you could design an aircraft that

618
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 1: has these weird angles on it, although to make such

619
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: an aircraft flight worthy, I suppose as a bit of

620
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: a challenge, right. And that's the other really interesting part

621
00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:22,319
Speaker 1: about the development of all of these technologies was that

622
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,439
Speaker 1: it was happening in a time when people were first

623
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 1: starting to computer design blueprints, right, and and also computer

624
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:35,520
Speaker 1: construct use computers to actually do the construction of materials,

625
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 1: you know those robots that we're talking about, using robots

626
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,720
Speaker 1: on an assembly line to extremely precisely put something together.

627
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember when the stealth Bomber was unveiled.

628
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 1: Do you remember, Lauren? Not not in the slightest Yeah,

629
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 1: I was all enough to remember this, Okay, I was

630
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,760
Speaker 1: older than that. I remember when the Stealth Bomber was unveiled.

631
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: I remember thinking it was the coolest looking thing I

632
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,160
Speaker 1: had seen since the Lamborghini Kuntash and uh that in

633
00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: some ways it reminded me of the Lambrighini ratosh. I

634
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: also thought it was interesting even as a kid, you know,

635
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 1: growing up in this era of the Cold War. I

636
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,279
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting the reaction that people had

637
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 1: to this, because people were kind of a little they

638
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: were a little unnerved by the thought of secret, silent, secret, secret,

639
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 1: secret aircraft that could be flying over and you would

640
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 1: never know. Now, I never know when aircraft are flying

641
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:30,239
Speaker 1: over me anyway, unless it's loud enough for me to

642
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 1: notice or I'm looking up. Otherwise I'm largely ignorant of it.

643
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: So it doesn't really that doesn't really bother me so much.

644
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,399
Speaker 1: But I can understand why it's unnerving. But it's it's

645
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 1: interesting technology, and I'm sure that the technology itself has

646
00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 1: advanced well beyond what we're talking about. But because of

647
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 1: the very nature of what it is, that information is

648
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: not easily available right right, certainly not to ask. Yeah, yeah,

649
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 1: we're not on that list now, not anymore. Okay, guys,

650
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 1: if you have any other topics that you would guess

651
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:02,640
Speaker 1: to tackle, you know, we really enjoyed this discussion on

652
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:07,000
Speaker 1: stealth technology something. Thanks so much to Kevin. Ye be

653
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 1: like Kevin. Kevin was great. We want more Kevin's out there.

654
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,479
Speaker 1: So if you're a Kevin, or if you're not a Kevin,

655
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,759
Speaker 1: but you have a great idea I suggest sending it

656
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,880
Speaker 1: into us. You can do that over email our addresses

657
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 1: tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or send us a

658
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 1: message on Facebook or Twitter or a handle at both

659
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 1: of those locations. Is text stuff hs W. We look

660
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: forward to hearing from you, and you'll hear from us

661
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 1: really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

662
00:36:49,560 --> 00:37:00,640
Speaker 1: does it has to works dot Com