SCIENCE sciencemag.org 28 FEBRUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6481 987PHOTO: U.S. AIR FORCE
S
ince the beginning of aerial combat,
designers have attempted to make
aircraft invisible. With each advance,
however, other technologists have de-
veloped better methods for detecting
covert combatants.
Although scientists and engineers worked
on both sides of this difficult problem for
years, it was not until the 1970s that the cre-
ation of an aircraft invisible to radar became
more than a mere possibility. In his excellent
new book, Stealth, Peter Westwick argues that
the solution was the product of a host of spe-
cial circumstances, fortuitous geography, and
the aggregation of thousands of innovative
and highly skilled individuals in Southern
California. This concise, highly readable his-
tory of the creation, development, and applica-
tion of one of the most important technologies
of the Cold War brings clarity and a thorough
understanding to this complex subject.
Westwick’s story examines not the seniorENGINEERINGBOOKS et al.
Out of sight
leaders of U.S. aerospace and the military
but the brilliant and generally unknown
individuals in the trenches—the engineers,
project managers, and shop floor workers—
who conceived of the idea of stealth, identi-
fied the problems involved, and found solu-
tions for seemingly intractable challenges.
These “men in the middle” worked primarily
for either the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation,
in Burbank, or the Northrop Corporation, 20
miles away in El Segundo, both of which were
challenged to create a stealth
bomber by the U.S. Department
of Defense in 1979.
Tensions between the aeronau-
tical engineers and the electrical
engineers arose immediately at
both Lockheed and Northrop.
The deflection and absorption
of radio waves was an electrical
problem, yet the aeronautical
engineers were loath to surren-
der any of their stature as the
lead designers. Engineers tend
to be rational, however, and over
time the two parties began to collaborate.
With the fortuitous discovery of the work
of Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev, which de-
scribed equations for predicting the reflec-
tion of magnetic waves from two- and three-
dimensional objects, Lockheed began at-
tempts to create an aircraft consisting of
radar-deflecting facets. In 1981, after much
work and little sleep, the Lockheed F-117A
was introduced. This stealth aircraft—armed
with newly developed precision-guided muni-
tions and controlled by computers that kept
the unstable aircraft flying—finally gave the
Pentagon the force multiplier it had been
looking for. Lockheed won the Department of
Defense’s initial contract for the stealth fighter.
Across the Los Angeles basin, Northrop
kept working. The U.S. Air Force was look-ing for a long-range, high-altitude stealth
bomber to augment the aging B-52 and the
new, but troubled, B-1 bombers. From its
work developing Tacit Blue—a high-altitude
battlefield surveillance aircraft that was ulti-
mately scrapped—the team had learned that
curved surfaces, if properly designed, could
deflect radar as well.
Northrop founder John K. “Jack” Northrop
had been obsessed with “flying wing” aircraft
(fixed-wing planes that lacked a defined fu-
selage) and for good reason. Pure
flying wings have no upright tail
surfaces and are extremely aero-
dynamic, making them an ideal
shape for a long-range aircraft that
is inherently low-observable. The
company had lost interest in the
flying wing when the Air Force can-
celed the YB-49 in 1949, but when
Lockheed began to circle back to
the design, Northrop mounted a
renewed effort, delivering the B-2
flying wing bomber in 1989, much
to the delight of its retired founder.
Although stealth technology did not end the
Cold War, it helped prevent a nuclear conflict
by making a precision stealth attack poten-
tially as destructive as a nuclear strike. It also
inspired the creation of technologies that have
benefited both civilians and the military in
ways not originally foreseen. New aircraft, par-
ticularly commercial airliners, are equipped
with computer-driven fly-by-wire controls and
built from innovative composite materials that
provide greater strength and lightness.
Today, the F-117A is retired, but the B-2 flies
on, joined by new aircraft and a host of re-
motely piloted vehicles and missiles. Together,
these technologies dominate the skies—a
tribute to the creativity and hard work of the
countless men and women “in the middle.” j
10.1126/science.aba5372The reviewer is curator of air transportation and special
purpose aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum,
Washington, DC 20560, USA. Email: [email protected]A historian investigates the
Cold War competition to
create an invisible aircraft
By F. Robert van der LindenStealth: The Secret
Contest to Invent
Invisible Aircraft
Peter Westwick
Oxford University Press,- 272 pp.
A pair of F-117 Nighthawks
accompany a B-2 Spirit bomber.Published by AAAS