WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets Stealthy 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:07.280 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from stuff 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:17.000 works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.480 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm m and Today we want 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:22.320 to talk to you a little bit about a subject 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:24.840 that was sent into us by one of our listeners. 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.400 Listener Kevin sent us a request via Facebook, and Kevin 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:33.800 wanted to know about stealth technology. So, yeah, being stealthy, 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:38.840 I'm an expert at this, Because what are you talking about? 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:44.080 I am, I'm like the stealthiest stealth whoever, stealth like 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.920 Super Ninja. They and half century is what you're saying, 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.880 to be fair and more pirate than Ninja. So um, okay, 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.760 are pirates concerned with being stealthies? You have to know 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.080 the weapons of your enemy, is what I'm saying. And 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.520 pirates and Ninja being natural enemies in the wild, it's 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.600 important to study your enemies techniques. All Let's talk of 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.400 pirates and ninjas reminds me very much of the Cold War, right, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.039 and that is an important reason why stealth technology even exists. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.600 So thank you for getting us back on track, Lauren. So, 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.880 stealth technology in general, stealth technology refers to the types 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.360 of tech we use in aircraft to make them difficult 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:26.080 or impossible to detect, mainly via radar, although we also 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.200 think about things like infrared scanners that sort of stuff 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.800 and uh, and really to understand how stealth works, we 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.160 first have to understand what radar is and how that works. Right, 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.040 Radar radar works thanks to to basic concepts, and that's 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.520 echo and Doppler shift. Yes, so yeah, and echo. I 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.200 mean like if you if you were to shout out, uh, 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.160 you know, you go visit the Grand Canyon and you 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.320 shout as loudly as you can, uh, you might hear 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.120 after a few seconds your voice coming back to you. 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.120 And that's because some when you when you shout something out, 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.880 you know, your your voices traveling out in sound waves. 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.240 They will collide with the other side of the canyon, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.680 and some of those sound waves will bounce back at 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.200 you and eventually arrive back to where you are. And 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.880 if you are loud enough when you make the initial sound, 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.400 you should be able to hear some of that sound return. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:18.720 So that's why you've got that little delay right right. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.240 And now, if if you were to measure the length 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:23.799 of time that it took for that sound to bounce 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.440 back to you and measure it pretty accurately, then you 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.040 could mathematically calculate about how far that sound went. Yeah, 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:31.880 and of course you also need to know some other 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.959 factors like air pressure, humidity, things that would affect how 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:38.799 fast the sound is traveled. Yeah, because as we know, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.440 sound will travel at different speeds through different media, and 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.520 that even includes different atmospheres. So if you are you know, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.600 if you're really at sea level, sound travels at a 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.639 different speed than it would if you were at thirty feet. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:56.560 But it's not necessarily detectable to a human ear, but 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.200 it would definitely be a meshable in in day to 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.040 day conversation for example. But you know, I I don't 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.000 go down to Florida and go like, man, it's really humid. 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.840 I can barely hear you from this point five. You 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.239 know it's taking it's taking longer for your words to 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.240 hit my ear. Yeah. But anyway, the same principle works 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:17.720 on radar, except instead of sound, we're talking about electromagnetic 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.639 waves or radio waves, and so you use radio waves 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.680 to you project them out and if they come into 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.200 contact with something, some of those radio waves will bounce back. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.359 So if you have a receiver, then you can detect 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.600 those incoming waves and determine by how long it took 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.200 to go out and back about how far away that 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.240 object is now. You also mentioned Doppler shifts, so we 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.640 have to talk about right right and Doppler shift as 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.320 for example, why a car's horn sounds higher pitched when 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.120 the car is moving towards you than it does when 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:52.040 the car is moving away from you. Yeah, there's there's 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.400 a great article on How Stuff Works that explains this 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.240 that I like a lot. Marshall Brain actually wrote He's 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.480 the founder of How Stuff Works and U and in it, 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.320 Marshall talked about how if you were if the car 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.680 is sitting still and the driver leans on the horn 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.640 for a minute. First of all, you must be in Boston. Uh. 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.800 And second, uh, that means that if you are far 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:14.640 enough away. Let's say that your far enough away that 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.560 the sound takes six seconds to get to you, all right, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.040 and you're sitting there. That means that the the horn 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.840 will have been uh sounding for six seconds before you 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.440 can even hear it, right, But then it'll it'll last 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.680 for a minute. That's how long because the person is 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.280 leaning on Now, if that car is traveling toward you, 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.680 then the pitch of that is going to be higher 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.400 than it would be if if it were just saying still, 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:47.920 those those waves are essentially compressed a higher frequency in 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.120 the same amount of time. So and then of course, 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:51.839 if the car goes by you. You know you've heard 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.800 this if you've ever heard a siren when an emergency 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.159 vehicle has either come up behind or approached you and 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:00.919 then passed. As it goes As it's traveling towards you, 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:02.560 it's a higher pitch, and as it's going away it's 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.000 a lower pitch. And that's because of the frequency of 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.240 the waves in the way that the object making the 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.520 sound is traveling versus the sound itself traveling. So the 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.000 interesting thing about Doppler shift is if you can detect 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.039 the uh, if you know what the frequency of the 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.440 waves were when it was going out. So in other words, 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.320 you've got a transmitter, right, that's that's your your radar 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.719 transmitter and antenna that's transmitting the high burst of high 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.720 frequency radio waves. You know what the frequency is when 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.280 you transmit. When the frequency comes back, uh, it's going 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.320 to be or when the radio waves come back, rather 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.640 it's going to be possibly a different frequency than it 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:42.719 was when it went out. Now, that means that the 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.840 object that hit was in motion. If it's a higher frequency, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.280 that means that object is essentially moving towards you. If 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.960 it's a lower frequency, that object is moving away. So 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.800 and by measuring exactly the difference in the pitch, you 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.760 can measure how fast it's going, Yeah, exactly, or at 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.800 least get an estimate, pretty good idea. Yes. And because 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.320 we're talking, you know, radio waves move essentially at the 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.120 speed of light, so you know, the delays here are 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.680 really really super tiny, and and the transmission is like, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.839 is a fraction of a second long. So you transmit 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.040 these really short bursts and uh, and then turn off 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.200 the transmitter and allow the waves to come back, right, 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.680 and you measure the delay between when it went out 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.000 and when it came back, and you measure the Doppler shift, 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:24.800 and that gives you an idea of the position and 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.880 speed at which the object is moving. So if it's 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.680 moving towards you or away. Uh. And it's very useful 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.400 for detecting things like aircraft, and in fact, we use 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.200 it all the time, not just in military applications but 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:42.800 air traffic control. So here's the thing. If you are 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.480 running a military operation and you want to run surveillance 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:51.600 or some sort of uh sortie against an enemy territory, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.720 then you probably don't want your vehicles to be detected. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.640 It's generally a bad policy, yeah, because that means that 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.960 they can be shot down or or other wise compromised. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.360 And so you want to be able to run your 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:09.560 mission without any kind of entanglements. And so that's when 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.600 people started thinking, well, the radar is a really useful 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.800 tool for detection. How can we get around radar so 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.000 that our enemies don't know when we are there? And 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:24.320 that's what really got the United States thinking about stealth technology. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.120 And really it was the Cold War. Yeah, yeah, this 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.680 was all during the nineteen seventies. Everyone was really tense. Yeah. Yeah. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.120 The Soviet Union or the then Soviet Union and the 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.720 United States had been in a Cold War pretty consistently 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.120 since shortly after World War Two, and by the nineteen 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.560 seventies that said, really we were seeing escalation on both sides. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.800 Arsenals were getting more and more powerful and complex. It 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.920 was a lot of posturing on the part of both countries, definitely, uh, 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.520 And the rest of the world was mostly saying, guys, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.040 can we can we chill out? Yeah, this is in 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.320 a little tense for all of us. Let me go 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.800 get a pizza. Yeah, because once you start talking about 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.600 how many times each country could destroy the other country 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.080 via nuclear weapons, like we could destroy the the United 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.400 States ten times over, Well, we can destroy the so 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.480 Union twelve times over. And everyone's just say, really, is 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.920 there this much need for these many Well, one of 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:26.080 the thoughts was, how can we deliver a nuclear payload 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.560 to an enemy territory without the about them detecting that 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.640 we're there and stopping us. But we can, yeah, before 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.680 the aircraft gets shot down or even or you know, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.559 how can we run spy missions? And you know exactly 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.320 And so at the time, the main aircraft that was 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.240 being used in bombing runs in the United States was 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.880 the B fifty two bomber. And the B fifty two 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.280 is not a stealth vehicle at all. Anti that. Yeah, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.319 it's actually has a quite quite a large radar footprint. 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.880 It's very detectable, but it can travel quite fast and 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.440 it can carry very large payloads. And it was first 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.120 introduced back in nineteen fifty five, and it's known for 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.760 being a reliable aircraft, so much so that there are 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:14.920 still more than any two in active service. And um, yeah, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.240 I mean it's it's actually projected after a couple of 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:23.000 upgrades that will happen between now and it's projected to 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:28.760 be an active part of our air force until the Yeah, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.920 so this is a this is a longevity issue here. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.480 I mean it's it's definitely a workhorse, but it is 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.400 not a stealth vehicle. So the United States started to 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.840 open up the possibility for different companies to bid on 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:48.920 developing a a an aircraft that could stealthily fly and 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.480 not be detected by radar and and still have the 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:56.360 carrying capacity to deliver large nuclear payloads. Yeah. Yeah, that's 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.520 that was the other part of it. Yes, Um, scary 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.040 scary stuff. Well, there was simultaneously development of other stealth 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.480 stealth technology going on that we'll talk about a little 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.520 bit later on, but that was that was more on 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.000 that research kind of side of things. And right, the 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.760 B two, which is what came out of all that 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.040 we're talking about right now. Yeah, the B two was 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:17.440 the big one. I mean, that was the one that 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.680 was unveiled and uh and talked about the most. And 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.440 the B two is also better known as the stealth bomber. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.360 It's also the called the B two Spirit, and most 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.960 of the individual planes are called the Spirit of something 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.120 or other and uh, yeah. It was first unveiled publicly 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:40.680 on November twenty second, nineteen in Palmdale, California, at the 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.480 Air Force Plant forty two. That same year, another stealth 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.800 aircraft was unveiled. That was the F one seventeen Nighthawk, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:49.640 and we'll talk about that more in a little bit. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.120 It was a North Grumman that ended up winning that 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.960 that bidding battle, and they're the ones who developed the 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.120 B two. It took about a decade for them to 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.280 make it, and about forty billion dollars in research and development, yeah, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.080 which which was up over what they had originally stated 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.199 they might be able to do it for. Yeah, and 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.200 uh and also the planes themselves, the bombers themselves, were 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.559 more expensive than what they originally intended. They first thought 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.280 that they could deliver the entire order for you know, 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.160 I have a hundreds hundred thirty two planes for like 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.920 forty billion twenty well I think it went from twenty 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.000 to seventy. Yeah. Yeah, the original contract was for twenty 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.839 two billions. From what I've read, and then um as 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.440 of when when when has unveiled it had the total 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.240 price had jumped to like over seventy and eventually they 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.120 figured that each aircraft would cost about one to two 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.800 billion dollars a piece, and so it got really expensive 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.040 really fast. Like that ended up being the UH the 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.360 target of a lot of criticism, you know, people saying 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.439 that these contracts are all based on estimates, that we're 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.200 not realistic, and whether or not the companies were aware 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.880 of how unrealistic they were was a matter of doubt, 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.640 and it just got into a really sore subject. But 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.680 something happened that ended up kind of taking a little 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.160 of the sting out, which is that in nine the 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:21.000 Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly people didn't really have so 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.880 much of a need to UH to carry large amounts 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:30.640 of nuclear warheads across enemy territory quietly. And yeah, when 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:35.040 you're when you're chief nemesis, UH goes under and of 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.480 course we can. You know, today when you look at 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.240 the United States and Russia, there are other issues where 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.280 you might say things are starting to turn around at 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.480 some points. You know, there's always cheri and and there's 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.120 always tension between various world powers. Like that. It's like 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:57.120 Korea right now. Yeah, there's there's always always chicanery, right. So, 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:01.360 so anyway, because the so Union collapsed, that that helped, uh, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.800 the United States come to the decision to reduce the 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.320 order from one thirty two to twenty one aircraft, twenty 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.360 of which are still flying around today. And I'll talk 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.400 a little bit about that. But before I do that, 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.200 I guess we should kind of describe what the B 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.800 two looks like in case you guys have never seen one. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.720 They're funky, they are. That The design is called a 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.240 flying wing actually because with most aircraft, you know, I mean, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.319 it's you've you've seen an airplane. It's got it's got 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.839 a body, it's got wings, it's got stabilizers, stabilizers coming 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.720 off in the little strange angles. But yeah, but but 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.960 this flying wing is designed so that the entire craft 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.040 generates lift. Yeah. So it's it doesn't have all that 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.040 like the fuselage and the wings. It's it's all one body. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.720 It's not it's not like, you know, you've got a 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:47.839 tube that's the fuselage and then you've got the to 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.959 the two wings attached to that. No, it's all one 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.000 giant wing and Yeah, like you said, you know, you 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.240 just go fast enough and it generates the lift it 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.959 needs to fly. And yeah, the eliminating the tail of 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.880 the fuselage reduced drag. And yeah, it also means that 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.520 because of its design it doesn't have like it's it's 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.160 easier for it to avoid radar detection based on the 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.160 stuff it's made of. And we'll talk more about that 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.640 and how the stealth stuff actually works in a little bit. 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.040 It is one D seventy two ft wide, which is 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.920 fifty two point four meters, which is which is a bunch. Yeah, 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.440 it's it's essentially if you were to look at an 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:29.120 American football field, a a B two bomber from wingspan 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.720 from wing tip to wingtip would be more than half 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.000 the length of an American football field. Yeah, and this 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.840 is this is a vehicle built for two people. Yeah, 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:41.200 it's it's a two person aircraft. Yeah. It's also sixty 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.240 nine feet from tail I mean quote unquote tail to tip. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:46.120 It doesn't really have a tail. Yeah, I guess the 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.400 length of the bit of the wings exactly where the 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:53.080 B two stops being to where the B two starts 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:58.040 being right, and and is sevent feet high and uh, 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.560 it can fly about six thousand nautical miles, which is 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.000 about eleven thousand, twelve kilometers before it needs to refuel. 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.320 And if you have an aerial refueling as part of 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.160 its mission, it can go ten thousand nautical miles or 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.840 about eighty kilometers. That's a that's a long trip. And 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.880 uh and and we've seen some recent use of that. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.880 It can carry twenty tons of conventional and nuclear weapons. 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.520 It is that considered a high sub sonic flight, which 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.520 means that it's top speed isn't just under the speed 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.960 of sound some something like what a thousand feet per 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.440 second something like that. Yeah, it's it's it's really Uh. 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.000 It goes about as fast as an aircraft can go 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.440 before it starts becoming super sonic. Right, so, which would 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.120 cause a boom, which is obviously something you want a 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.680 stealth vehicle to do. You know, if the stealth vehicle 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.560 causes booms, it's not that stealthy pirates have discovered this 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:59.600 to their own unfortunate detriment. Right, Cannons go boom, whereas 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.480 the again goes. Yeah, we all are familiar with the 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.520 Shurrikan sound. So remember I said that there are twenty 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.320 of those twenty one aircraft still flying around. That's because 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.960 in February two eight, there was an accident during a 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.120 takeoff at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, and that 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.920 resulted in the loss of the Spirit of Kansas B 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.160 two bomber and UH nineteen of those twenty are at 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.120 Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri because I don't say Missouri, 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.000 and the other one is at Edwards Air Force Base 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.760 in California, which is used for flight testing purposes. The 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.000 thing about these B twos, and I guess anything that 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.840 has that is covered in this stealth technology paint and 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.000 tape and stuff, is that all of all of that 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.720 is extremely temperature and weather sensitive. Um. If you if 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:50.080 you get it too warm, and it's it's like a 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.720 mag wife. If you get warm, if you get it wet, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:54.720 if you feed it after midnight, if you feed it 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.520 after midnight, um, it starts to fall apart. And and 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.280 all of that has to be reapplied freakly basically every 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:03.560 time that they take it out of these temperature controlled hangars. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.840 And they've started designing um portable temperature controlled hangars so 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.080 that they can run missions overseas. Right, Yeah, that's that 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.320 is one of the big drawbacks to the B two 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.159 is that it does require these these climate controlled hangars 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.520 to essentially live in between missions, because otherwise the material 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.199 that keeps it stealthy would degrade very rapidly, and it 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:30.120 would not be a secure method of delivering payloads under 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:32.640 the radar, so to speak. They're not literally going under 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:38.360 the radar um So. Also, recently, very recently, and as 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.640 of the Timber recording this podcast, the United States had 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.400 sent two of the B two bombers over to South 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.320 Korea for training exercises. This is all part of that 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:53.000 escalating issue between North Korea and South Korea, Japan, United States, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.360 where you know, this is the training exercises are are 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.760 this this annual exercise happens over there, and they don't 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.720 miss fairly right, Yeah, need to be Yeah, it's kind 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.560 of a show of force. It's going just hey, guys, 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.000 remember what we got We got these things right, right. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.320 It's it's essentially because North Korea has a history of 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.639 posturing and threatening South Korea, as well as lots of 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.320 other nations and uh, and then the United States and 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.720 South Korea have a history of sort of giving a 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.919 giving a show of force not directly against North Korea, 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.040 but just kind of saying, look at all the stuff 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.399 we have, think twice before you start to make anything. 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.080 So um and some of the rest of the lots 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.480 of the rest of the world ends up saying, guys again, 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.400 can we can you know, you remember the Cold War 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.640 and remember how tense things got. It's kind of happening again. 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:44.960 Remember that pizza, wasn't it good? Can we go back 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.600 to just the pizza. I mean, I'm not want to 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.920 judge whether or not it's the right call, because that's 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.760 way above my pay grade, and I honestly couldn't tell 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.120 you what's the right thing to do, but it's definitely 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:00.320 it was definitely one of those things where the United 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.040 States is saying, look, we want to show South Korea 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:08.520 that we are not going to abandon them, nor are 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.880 we going to abandon the other nations that are often 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.240 threatened by North Korea, Japan being one of them. So 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:16.960 really as the United States kind of saying like, you 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.480 guys aren't alone. But you know, it's one of those 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:21.399 one of those deals where when you read the news, 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.480 it gets a little nerve racking to see kind of 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.680 the escalation of tensions but besides the B two, there 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.520 are a couple of other stealth aircraft that are worth mentioning. 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.720 There's actually several aircraft that have been in either prototype 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.320 or development stages, but I wanted to specifically mentioned a 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.280 couple that were developed and tested or at least tested. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.080 And one of my favorite places in the hawai world. Yeah, 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.600 it's right there behind Disneyland. There's Disneyland Area fifty one 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:56.040 and then Smithsonian so um yeah. The not not that 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:00.440 those are locationally adjunct, just that that that's the that 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.320 would be terrific. That wouldn't be I mean it would 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.000 be a pretty pretty bad secret base if it would 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.359 also be a pretty warm Disneyland. Yes, being out there 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.760 in the middle of the desert, so um so Area 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.879 fifty one, also known as Groom Lake, a place that 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:19.400 the Air Force has used for testing various prototype aircraft 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.840 secretly to make sure that they were going to meet 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.760 the military specifications and needs uh and be away from 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.080 prying eyes. Now, the B two wasn't necessarily flown there. 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.119 It may have been, but not that we know of. Ye, 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.439 But there are a couple of other aircraft that were 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.440 known to have flown out of area fifty one. One 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.320 of those was called the Have Blue aircraft, which later 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.400 became the F one seventeen, a stealth fighter better known 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.200 as the Nighthawk. And uh, that one also was unveiled 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.840 in although from from what I understand, it had been 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.680 kicking around in research a lot longer. Yeah, the very 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.720 fur to have Blue I think flew sometime in nineteen 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.199 eleven years or maybe maybe January February, I think is 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.720 the first test. That so fun, fun factoid. I'm pretty 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.480 sure that before it was called have Blue, the very 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:20.280 very very first name for this technology was Project Harvey, 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.199 based on the film and stage show Harvey. We're in 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:29.119 um oh, Jimmy Stewarts talking to a j a rabbit 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.600 that's visible only to Jimmy Stewart's character, not to Jimmy Stewart. 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.840 Thought that would be even more meta and awesome. Yeah, 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.040 I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I didn't know that, though. 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.480 That's interesting. I wrote the how arey of fifty one works? 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.600 And I did not know that that's really cool? So 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:45.639 of course I might have written that in that article, 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.280 and I just forgot the Other thing about that is 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.800 that Lockheed was the one that designed the have blue 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.320 Slash one seventeen a. UH. Northrop Grumman also created another 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.800 stealth aircraft besides the B two bomber. It was called 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:05.239 Tacit Blue, and that was a stealth surveillance aircraft. So 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.080 this was just designed to fly over and essentially spy 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.399 on nations. It wasn't a combat vehicle, and it was 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.720 never developed beyond the prototype stage. In fact, I think 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.000 there's one in a museum at this point, I'd have 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:19.639 to go, and I'm sure I wrote about in the 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.240 Area fifty one article, But the F one seventeen A 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.240 actually did go into production, so that that's a stealth fighter, 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.639 not a not a bomber. Could it could also carry 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.720