The Su-27 is a highly maneuverable air superiority aircraft. About 600 machines of all modifications were built.
F-16 "Fighting Falcon" is a light multifunctional fighter. 4500 cars built.
The F-117A "Nighthawk" is a subsonic tactical strike aircraft made using stealth technology. 59 combat vehicles and 5 YF-117 prototypes built.
Question: how did an aircraft built in such an insignificant amount become one of the most striking symbols of aviation at the end of the 20th century? "Stealth" sounds like a sentence. 59 tactical bombers turned into a terrible scarecrow, the most terrible threat, eclipsing all other military means of NATO countries.
What is this? The result of the unusual appearance of the aircraft, coupled with aggressive PR? Or, indeed, the revolutionary technical solutions used in the Lockheed F-117 made it possible to create an aircraft with unique combat qualities?
Stealth Technology
This is the name of a set of methods for reducing the visibility of combat vehicles in the radar, infrared and other areas of the detection spectrum by means of specially designed geometric shapes, radar-absorbing materials and coatings, which significantly reduces the detection range and thereby increases the survivability of the combat vehicle.
Everything new is well-forgotten old. Even 70 years ago, the Germans were very upset by the British high-speed bomber DeHavilland Mosquito. High speed was only half the problem. During interception attempts, it suddenly turned out that the all-wood Mosquito was practically invisible on radar - the tree was transparent to radio waves.
A similar property was even more possessed by the German "wunderwaffe" Go.229, a jet fighter-bomber created under the 1000/1000/1000 program. An all-wood miracle without vertical keels, similar to a stingray fish, logically, was generally invisible to the British radars of those years. The appearance of the Go.229 is very reminiscent of the modern American "stealth" bomber B-2 "Spirit", which gives some reason to believe that the American designers kindly took advantage of the ideas of their colleagues from the Third Reich.
On the other hand, the Horten brothers, when creating their Go.229, hardly attached any sacred meaning to the design, they only seemed to have a promising “flying wing” scheme. Under the terms of the military order, Go.229 was supposed to deliver one ton of bombs to a range of 1000 km at a speed of 1000 km/h. And stealth was the tenth thing.
In addition, attention was paid to reducing radar visibility when creating the Avro Vulkan strategic bomber (UK, 1952) and the SR-71 Black Bird supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft (USA, 1964).
The first studies in this area showed that flat shapes with tapering sides have a lower RCS ("effective scattering area" - a key parameter of aircraft visibility). In order to reduce radar visibility, the vertical tail was tilted relative to the plane of the aircraft so as not to create a right angle with the fuselage, which is an ideal reflector. For the Blackbird, multilayer ferromagnetic coatings were specially developed to absorb radar radiation.
In a word, by the time work began on the secret project "Senior Trend" - the creation of an inconspicuous strike aircraft - the engineers already had good developments in the field of reducing the EPR aircraft.
"Night Hawk"
When developing the "invisibility" for the first time, the goal was to reduce all, without exception, the unmasking factors of the aircraft: the ability to reflect radar radiation, to emit electromagnetic waves, make a sound, leave smoke and contrail trails, and be visible in the infrared range.
Of course, there was no radar station on the F-11A7 - in conditions of secrecy, it was impossible to use such a device. During the flight in the "stealth" mode, all on-board radio communication systems, the "friend or foe" transponder and the radio altimeter must be turned off, and the sighting and navigation system must operate in the passive mode. The only exception is the laser illumination of the target, it turns on after the release of the corrected aerial bomb. The lack of modern avionics, combined with problematic aerodynamics, as well as longitudinal static and directional instability, meant a great risk when piloting the "stealth".
To reduce design time and eliminate many technical problems, designers used a number of proven elements of existing aircraft on the F-117A. So, the stealth engines were taken from the F / A-18 carrier-based fighter-bomber, some elements of the control system were taken from the F-16. The aircraft also used a number of components from the epic SR-71 and the T-33 training aircraft. As a result, such an innovative machine was designed faster and cheaper than a conventional strike aircraft. Lockheed is proud of this fact, alluding to the use of cutting-edge CAD (computer-aided design systems) at the time. Although there is a different opinion here - just because of secrecy, the program for creating "invisibility" avoided the stage of a long and often meaningless discussion in Congress and other bastions of American democracy.
Now it’s worth making a few remarks about the Stealth technology itself, implemented specifically on the Nighthawk aircraft (it’s no secret that reducing the radar visibility of an aircraft can be achieved different ways; the same PAK FA implements completely different principles - the parallelism of the edges and the "flattened" shape of the fuselage). In the case of the F-117A, it was the apotheosis of stealth technology - everything was subordinated exclusively to stealth, regardless of the aerobatic qualities of the machine. 30 years after the creation of the aircraft, many interesting details have become known.
In theory, stealth technology works as follows: the numerous facets implemented in the aircraft architecture scatter radar radiation in the direction opposite to the radar antenna. From which side not to try to establish radar contact with the aircraft - this “distorted mirror” will reflect the radio beams in the other direction. In addition, the outer surfaces of the F-117 are inclined at an angle of more than 30° from the vertical, as Usually, the exposure of an aircraft to ground-based radars occurs at gentle angles.
If you irradiate the F-117 from different angles and then look at the reflection pattern, it turns out that the sharp edges of the F-117 hull and the places where the skin is discontinuous give the strongest “flare”. Designers have ensured that their reflections are concentrated in several narrow sectors, and not distributed relatively evenly, as in the case of conventional aircraft. As a result, when irradiated by the F-117 radar, the reflected radiation is difficult to distinguish from background noise, and the “dangerous sectors” are so narrow that the radar cannot extract sufficient information from them.
All contours of the articulation of the canopy and the fuselage, the doors of the landing gear niches and the armament compartment have sawtooth edges, with the sides of the teeth oriented in the direction of the desired sector.
An electrically conductive coating is applied to the glazing of the cockpit canopy, designed to prevent irradiation of the in-cabin equipment and pilot's equipment - a microphone, a helmet, night vision goggles. For example, the reflection from the pilot's helmet can be much larger than from the entire aircraft.
The air intakes of the F-117 are covered with special gratings with cell sizes close to half the wavelength of radars operating in the centimeter range. The electrical resistivity of the gratings is optimized to absorb radio waves, and it increases with the depth of the grating to prevent a jump in resistance (which increases reflection) at the interface with air.
All external surfaces and internal metal elements of the aircraft are painted with ferromagnetic paint. Its black color not only camouflages the F-117 in the night sky, but also aids in heat dissipation. As a result, the RCS of "stealth" when irradiated from frontal and tail angles is reduced to 0.1-0.01 m2, which is about 100-200 times less than that of a conventional aircraft of similar dimensions.
Considering that the most massive air defense systems of the Warsaw Pact countries (S-75, S-125, S-200, "Circle", "Cube"), which were in service at that time, could fire at targets with an EPR of at least 1 m2, then Nighthawk's chances of penetrating enemy airspace with impunity looked very impressive. Hence the first production plans: release in addition to 5 pre-production aircraft another 100 production aircraft.
Lockheed designers have taken a number of measures to reduce the thermal radiation of their offspring. The area of the air intakes was made larger than required for the normal operation of the engines, and the excess cold air was directed to mix with hot exhaust gases in order to reduce their temperature. Very narrow nozzles form an almost flat shape of the exhaust jet, which contributes to its rapid cooling.
Wobblin' Goblin
"The lame dwarf" and not otherwise. This is what the pilots themselves call the F-117A as a joke. Optimizing the shape of the glider according to the criterion of reducing visibility worsened the aerodynamics of the car so much that there was no question of any “aerobatics” or supersonic.
When the company's lead aerodynamicist, Dick Cantrell, was first shown the desired configuration for the future F-117A, he had a nervous breakdown. Having come to his senses and realizing that he was dealing with an unusual aircraft, in the creation of which the first violin was played not by specialists of his profile, but by some electricians, he set the only possible task for his subordinates - to make sure that this "piano" was in able to fly somehow.
An angular fuselage, sharp leading edges of surfaces, a wing profile formed by straight segments - all this is poorly suited for subsonic flight. Despite the rather high thrust-to-weight ratio, the Nighthawk is a limitedly maneuverable vehicle with low speed, relatively short range, and poor takeoff and landing characteristics. Its aerodynamic quality during landing approach was only about 4, which corresponds to the level spaceship"Space Shuttle". On the other hand, at high speed, the F-117A is able to confidently maneuver with six times the overload. Aerodynamicist Dick Kentrell still got his way.
On October 26, 1983, the first "invisible" unit, the tactical group 4450 (4450th TG) at the Tonopah airbase, reached operational readiness. According to the recollections of the pilots, this meant the following - at night, the attack aircraft somehow reached a given area, detected a point target and had to “put” a precision laser-guided bomb into it. No other combat use was foreseen for the F-117A.
Due to the increase in the number of F-117А on October 5, 1989, the group was reorganized into the 37th tactical fighter wing (37th TFW), consisting of two combat and one training squadron + reserve vehicles. According to the schedule, each squadron included 18 Nighthawks, but only 5-6 of them could start a combat mission at any time, the rest were in heavy forms of maintenance.
Almost all this time around the "stealth" did not weaken the strict regime of secrecy. Although Tonopah was one of the Air Force's most heavily guarded bases, additional, truly draconian measures were taken there to cover up the truth about the F-117A. At the same time, American regime officials often practiced very ingenious solutions. So, in order to scare away the idle "aviation enthusiasts" from among the base personnel, on the F-117A and service equipment applied special stencils such as "radiation", "carefully! high voltage" and other "horror stories". On a plane with that appearance, they didn't look mindless at all.
It was not until 1988 that the Pentagon decided to issue an official press release about the "stealth aircraft" by providing the public with a retouched photograph of the F-117A. In April 1990, the first public demonstration of the aircraft took place. Of course, the sight of the F-117A amazed the global aviation community. It became perhaps the most daring challenge to traditional concepts of aerodynamics in the entire history of human flight. The Americans assigned the "one hundred and seventeenth" the responsible role of a convincing example of the technological superiority of the United States over the rest of the world, and they did not spare money to prove this assertion. "Nighthawk" got a permanent residence on the covers of magazines, became a cool hero of Hollywood and a star of world air shows.
Combat use
As for the first real combat use of the F-117A, it happened during the overthrow of the regime of General Noriega in Panama. There is still a dispute whether or not the F-117A hit the Panamanian territory with a guided bomb. military base. The Panamanian guards, awakened by a nearby explosion, fled through the jungle in their underpants. Naturally, there was no resistance to the "stealth" and the plane returned without loss.
Much more serious was the massive use of "stealth" in the war in the Persian Gulf in the winter of 1991. The Gulf War was the largest military clash since World War II, involving 35 states (Iraq and 34 countries of the anti-Iraq coalition - multinational force, MNF) to varying degrees. More than 1.5 million people took part in the conflict on both sides, there were more than 10.5 thousand tanks, 12.5 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand combat aircraft and about 200 warships.
The following types of air defense systems were in service with Iraqi air defense:
S-75 "Dvina" (SA-2 Guideline) 20-30 batteries (100-130 launchers);
S-125 "Neva" (SA-3 Goa) - 140 launchers;
"Square" (SA-6 Gainful) - 25 batteries (100 launchers);
"Wasp" (SA-8 Gecko) - about 50 complexes;
"Strela-1" (SA-9 Gaskin) - about 400 complexes;
"Strela-10" (SA-13 Gopher) - about 200 complexes;
"Roland-2" - 13 self-propelled and 100 stationary systems;
HAWK - several complexes were captured in Kuwait, but were not used.
Early warning radars were able to detect targets at an altitude of 150 meters in most cases outside the airspace of Iraq (and Kuwait), and targets at altitudes of more than 6 km are detected far inland Saudi Arabia(on average - 150-300 km).
A developed network of observation posts connected by permanent communication lines with information collection centers made it possible to detect low-altitude targets, such as cruise missiles, quite effectively.
The midnight of 16/17 January 1991 was the high point of the F-117A when the first formation of 10 415 Squadron Nighthawks, each carrying two 907kg GBU-27 guided bombs, took off to launch the first strikes. in a new war. At 03:00 local time, stealths, not detected by the air defense system, attacked two command posts of the air defense sectors, the Air Force headquarters in Baghdad, the joint control and tracking center in Al Taji, the government residence and the 112-meter Baghdad radio tower.
F-117A always worked autonomously, without the involvement of electronic warfare aircraft, since jamming could attract the attention of the enemy. In general, stealth operations were planned so that the nearest Allied aircraft was at least 100 miles away from them.
A serious threat to the "stealth" was posed by anti-aircraft artillery and short-range air defense systems with optical detection and aiming systems, of which Iraq had quite a few (MANPADS Strela-2 (SA-7 Grail), "Strela-3" (SA-14 Gremlin), "Igla-1" (SA-16 Gimlet), as well as anti-aircraft guns (ZU-23-2, ZSU-23-4 "Shilka", S-60, ZSU-57-2). Pilots were forbidden to descend below 6300 m, to avoid entering the affected areas of these weapons.
In general, during the war, the F-117A completed 1,271 sorties lasting 7,000 hours and dropped 2,087 GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser-guided bombs with a total mass of about 2,000 tons. Stealth strike aircraft hit 40% of priority ground targets, while, according to the Pentagon, none of the 42 "stealth" was lost. This is especially strange, given that we are dealing with a subsonic low-maneuverability machine without any constructive protection.
In particular, the commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant General C. Horner, cites two raids against heavily defended Iraqi nuclear installations in al-Tuwait, south of Baghdad. The first raid was carried out on the afternoon of January 18, involving 32 F-16Cs armed with conventional unguided bombs, escorted by 16 F-15C fighters, four EF-111 jammers, eight F-4G anti-radar and 15 KS-135 tankers. This large aviation group failed to complete the task. The second raid was made at night by eight F-117As escorted by two tankers. This time, the Americans destroyed three of Iraq's four nuclear reactors.
In the future, the F-117A occasionally appeared in the airspace of Iraq, during Operation Desert Fox (1998) and the invasion of Iraq (2003).
Hunting for "stealth"
"Sorry, we didn't know the plane was invisible"
I remember well that day, March 27, 1999. Channel ORT, evening program "Time". Live report from Yugoslavia, people dancing on the wreckage of an American plane. The old woman recalls that it was in this place that the Messerschmitt once crashed. The next frame, the NATO representative is mumbling something, then the frames with the wreckage of the black plane went again ...
Yugoslav air defense did the impossible - in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Budanovtsy (a suburb of Belgrade) a "stealth" was shot down. The stealth aircraft was destroyed by the S-125 air defense system of the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade, commanded by the Hungarian Zoltan Dani. There is also a version that the F-117A was shot down from a cannon by a MiG-29 fighter, which established direct visual contact with it. According to the American version, the "one hundred and seventeenth" changed the flight mode, at that moment a pressure surge formed in front of the air intake grilles, unmasking the aircraft. The invulnerable plane was shot down in front of the whole world. Battery commander Zoltan Dani, on the contrary, claims that he guided the missile using a French thermal imager.
As for the stealth pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko managed to eject and hid on the outskirts of Belgrade all night until his radio beacon spotted the EC-130. HH-53 Pave Low search and rescue helicopters arrived a few hours later and evacuated the pilot.
In total, during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, "stealth" made 850 sorties.
The wreckage of the downed F-117A "Night hawk" (serial number 82-0806) is carefully preserved at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade, along with the wreckage of the F-16 aircraft. These losses were officially recognized by the United States.
Also on display is the engine from the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, which was torn off by a MANPADS shot, the plane itself made an emergency landing at Skopje Airport (the incident was officially recognized by the NATO command). Local residents found a strange detail and gave it to the military.
Of the other interesting things - the wreckage of the Tomahawk missile and the light drone RQ-1 "Predator" (the Serbs claim that they shot down, the Americans that it landed due to engine failure).
Wreckage of a downed F-16C
Wreckage of an RQ-1 Predator at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade
Actually, all the wreckage that is in the museum was officially recognized by the United States, including the loss of two combat aircraft - the F-117A stealth aircraft and the F-16 fighter. The NATO command denies other numerous air victories declared by Serbia.
As for the "invisibles", the Serbs say they shot down at least three F-117As, but two were able to make it to NATO airbases, where they were decommissioned upon arrival. Therefore, they have no debris. The statement raises some doubts - the damaged F-117A could not fly far. Even the serviceable "one hundred and seventeenth" flew very badly - the pilot was unable to control this "flying iron" without help electronic systems increase stability. The plane does not even have a backup mechanical control system - anyway, if the electronics fail, a person is unable to cope with the F-117A. Therefore, any malfunction for "stealth" is fatal, the plane cannot fly on one engine or with damaged planes.
By the way, in addition to the downed F-117A, according to official data, over 30 years of operation, six stealth aircraft were lost over the territory of the United States during training flights. Most often, "stealth" fought because of the loss of orientation of the pilots. For example, on the night of June 11, 1986, an F-117A (tail number 792) crashed into a mountain, killing the pilot. Another tragicomic incident occurred on September 14, 1997, when an F-117A broke apart in the air during an air show in Maryland.
April 22, 2008 F-117A "Nighthawk" took to the air for the last time. As time has shown, the very idea of a highly specialized aircraft in the design of which any one quality “stands out” (in this case, a small EPR) to the detriment of others, turned out to be unpromising. After the disappearance of the USSR, in the new conditions, the requirements of economy, ease of operation and multifunctionality began to come out on top. aviation complexes. And in all these parameters, the F-117A Nighthawk was significantly inferior to the F-15E Strike Eagle strike aircraft. Now it is on the basis of the F-15E that the inconspicuous F-15SE Silent Eagle aircraft is being created.
Russia has long been vying with the United States for priority in building a twenty-first century fighter that combines the characteristics of a supersonic super-agile combat vehicle with stealth technology. An aircraft with such qualities should not be detected by radars and infrared surveillance equipment. The construction of such a fighter of the future is not only able to dramatically increase the efficiency of the national air force, but also provide a weighty argument in the competitive struggle on the world arms market.
Until quite recently, the leading design bureaus and aircraft manufacturers could not combine such technologically contradictory characteristics in one combat aircraft. Moreover, Russia was predominantly in the role of catching up. Combining all these qualities, the aircraft built using the Stealth technology should become a major trump card in solving various geopolitical problems.
For example, the MiG-29 was developed as an adequate response to the creation of the American F-18 fighter, and the Su-27 was a kind of counterbalance to the F-15. And although all these models at one time became a real breakthrough and a major achievement in the field of aircraft construction, modern doctrines require the development of a fundamentally new fighter that combines magnificent flight characteristics with stealth technology. The aircraft, the construction of which is based on such a concept, should not only be inaccessible to radar, but also have the qualities of a multi-purpose supersonic and super-maneuverable combat vehicle.
The American stealth aircraft F-117 could not bring its designers closer to the desired goal. This machine had very modest flight characteristics and could not take part in serious air battles. The United States Air Force spent huge budgetary funds on the development of a truly effective and invisible winged predator. However, they were able to get closer to the implementation of this task only in the fall of 1997, when tests of the F-22 Raptor fighter began.
But this time, American aircraft manufacturers could not count on unconditional superiority. Since the Sukhoi Design Bureau began flight tests of the S-37 Berkut machine only two weeks later than its competitors. According to authoritative estimates by military experts, the Russian fighter is significantly superior to the Raptor, mainly due to the unique reverse-swept wing. All this brought competition engineering and technology to a new round of confrontation.
After the ambitiously named "Desert Storm" operation to take over the Iraqis, US military officials tirelessly praised their Lockheed F-117A aircraft. These "black ghosts", who carried out several devastating raids on Baghdad, could not even be seen by the Iraqi air defenses on their monitors. radar stations. This Stealth aircraft, whose photo shows the ideal geometry of the machine, was the embodiment of thirty years of efforts by American engineers to develop this technology.
Back in 1962, Lockheed made attempts to create an A-12 stealth aircraft. At first, these attempts did not bring the desired result. You can also recall the Stealth aircraft, the famous SR-71 aerial reconnaissance aircraft of that time, which received its nickname "Black Bird" due to the corresponding color of a special coating that absorbed radio waves. In the early 1970s, with the rapid development computer science and programming, it became possible to simulate a flight on a computer. So the car was designed, which had minimal radio visibility. Already in 1975, Lockheed designers created the first prototype of a stealth aircraft. In the winter of 1977, the new generation F-117A combat vehicle took off for the first time, and six years later it was adopted by the US Air Force.
Encouraged by this success, the Pentagon instructed the Northrop company to develop a new strategic bomber using the same technology, invulnerable to enemy air defenses. The work, which lasted nine years, ended with the construction of the machine, which received the code designation B-2. When creating all their “invisibles”, the Americans did not use the technologies of aliens, which was a lot of fables, but the theoretical developments of our compatriots.
To absorb radio radiation, they used a special ferromagnetic coating on the case. In addition, the Americans resorted to many additional tricks. For example, in the car itself, almost all elements were made of non-reflective composite materials, such as All engines were equipped with noise-reducing shrouds and forced cooling systems that reduce the intensity of infrared emissions. And a lot of other things were used in the American "invisibles".
But here a reasonable question arises about the effectiveness of all these tricks. And then it turns out that huge funds (many billions of dollars!) Wasted in vain. First of all, these machines turned out to be so capricious in operation that it was possible to prepare them for flight only at base airfields. In addition, it turned out along the way that as soon as the Stealth gets wet, it begins to clearly appear on the radar screens, like the invisible man from the famous novel by HG Wells. Perhaps for this reason, during the hostilities in Yugoslavia, the F-117А was shot down in one of the very first sorties.
But finally finished off the research of American scientists and aircraft manufacturers in this area, an invention made in Russia, where it was developed in principle new technology creating radio invisibility. Near the aircraft, special plasma clouds are generated that absorb electromagnetic waves so intensely that the visibility of the machine on the screens of radar stations is reduced by more than a hundred times.
Stealth technology can be compared to the surprise effect, because in war, if you can achieve the surprise effect, then you will have a huge advantage. So, an example would be Baghdad, which was subjected to night bombing by planes called "Black Ghosts". These stealth aircraft were created by Lockheed. Everything would be fine, but only Baghdad, at that time, had the most solid protected airspace.
So what is stealth technology?
Thanks to this technology, which was not invented by chance, tremendous progress has been made. For example, in naval forces this technology has been used for more than 30 years to camouflage submarines. The Army also uses this technology to reduce infrared radiation from military equipment such as tanks.
The whole point of Stealth technology is to reduce the visibility of any technique in any of its manifestations. Both infrared and radar.
It is known that any technique reflects the radio waves that fall on it, and that pick up the radar. This is radar visibility. It, that is, the radar, is characterized by a large scattering area (the ability of an object to scatter an electromagnetic wave).
As an example: the effective scattering area of a bomber and a heavy bomber is 100 and 13-20, respectively; conventional fighter - 3-12. But the scattering area of the stealth aircraft is only 0.3-0.4 square meters. m. Stealth technology is based on two characteristics:
- maximum absorption of radio emission by the aircraft body;
- reflection of radio waves in a completely different direction than where they were sent from the radar. For this characteristic, a special coating and a specific shape of the aircraft are used.
Aviation has long been developing something similar to stealth aircraft. So, back in 1962, Lockheed was seriously working on the creation of an aircraft, a little-known A-12 aircraft. Even then, the aircraft of that time, the SR-71 Blackbird, had already implemented the Stealth technology in the form of a special coating and material design.
As you know, at the dawn of the 70s there was a serious upsurge in the field of programming and IT technologies, which, in turn, gave impetus to the development of the aircraft industry. Then came the software called "ECHO", which helped Lockheed to model various aircraft models, hull designs and display them on a computer screen, get their final appearance on the radar without building a real device.
The result of these programming and studies was the production of a new aircraft, the prototype of the F-117A stealth aircraft - "Have Blue". At the same time, the Northrop team presented its development, but after a lot of research and testing with the help of a radar, the Northrop version disappeared.
The experimental flight of the Have Blue stealth aircraft took place in the winter of 1977. After him command air force The United States ordered 24 fighters, the first of which was built only in 1983, and after 2 years it was put into service.
After everyone was convinced of the example of the F-117A fighter and its technical validity in the stealth aircraft concept, the US Air Force command instructed Northrop to develop new fighter, where the Stealth system will be applied on a large scale. The designers worked hard on its design and engineering work in 1979, which paid off when the new aircraft was officially presented to the public in 1988. And the name of the aircraft was B-2 "Spirit".
Invisible plane - features
Having considered short story creating stealth aircraft, we move on to the basic principles of the Stealth technology that were used in their creation.
- In order for radar radiation to be absorbed, aircraft use a special ferromagnetic coating on the body. When electric radiation hits the coating, the microparticles of the material included in its composition change their orientation with a very high frequency, in fact, radiation energy is spent on this. In addition, in the aircraft itself, everything that is present in it and what it is made of, absorbing composites such as carbon fiber are used.
- In the shape of the case, rounded parts are almost never used. Instead, the shape consists of many planes that reflect the radar returns not in the opposite direction, but in completely different directions. That is why the sweep of the aircraft wings can increase.
- Conventional turbojet engines are known to be of a design that can be easily detected by radar. In order to prevent this from happening, a special diffuser is installed in front of the compressor, which has a sharp top and thus reflects the cure inside the aircraft body and, accordingly, extinguishes it.
- The engines, which have a flat shape, create a jet torch, which has a wide angle of divergence of hot gases, which in turn dissipates the flow of heat and reduces the level of visibility in the infrared range.
- Also, both engines that are in stealth aircraft are equipped with noise-suppressing shrouds and a forced cooling system in order to reduce infrared emissions. And it happens like this: part of the air that passes through the air intakes goes to the exhaust zone, where it mixes with hot reactive gases and cools them.
- Those parts that would seem to be roughly vertical, such as the pilot's seat, are corrugated in order to dissipate the radiated radar energy.
- The tail of the aircraft, which has a V-shape (or butterfly), serves as a replacement for two horizontal and one vertical plane of a conventional tail, which also tends to reduce visibility.
The history of aviation knows many examples of outlandish aircraft that at one time or another took to the air. As a rule, these were experimental models, the fruits of the creative searches of engineers who could not leave the walls of the design bureaus and did not go into series. But there are a few exceptions to this rule.
The American combat aircraft Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk has such an unusual shape and appearance that would easily win the competition for the most outlandish aircraft, if such was ever held. The Nighthawk is very reminiscent of an exhibit stolen from a Cubist museum.
This machine is in many ways remarkable, the F-117 Nighthawk is the first production aircraft created using "stealth technologies". In other words, the Nighthawk has such low visibility to enemy radar that it is often referred to as a "stealth aircraft". But this name is more for the press. American pilots (especially those who flew it) gave the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk a completely different name: Wobblin' Goblin, which literally translates as "lame goblin." This unflattering nickname clearly shows the attitude of pilots to the flight characteristics of the F-117 Nighthawk.
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a single-seat strike aircraft designed to penetrate behind enemy lines and deliver missile and bomb strikes at any time of the day and in any weather. As conceived by the developers, the stealth technology was supposed to deceive the enemy air defense system. "Night hawk" was intended for attacks on important enemy targets: headquarters, airfields, communication centers and air defense facilities.
F-117 Nighthawk managed to fight, he participated in several conflicts. In total, 64 aircraft were produced, the cost of one unit is more than $100 million.
It can be said that the stealth technology was tested on this aircraft, especially with regard to the development of this technology during serial production. Maybe that's why the car turned out so ambiguous.
History of creation
Before describing the history of the creation of the F-117 Nighthawk, a few words should be said about the designation of this aircraft. In American military aviation, the letter "F" is used to designate fighters or their prototypes. How she got into the abbreviation "Nighthawk", which, according to its aerodynamic characteristics, is not at all suitable for fighters, is unknown.
The F-117 is an attack aircraft that was designed to serve as a tactical bomber or attack aircraft. Those authors who write about the F-117 "stealth fighter" are very far from the topic or do not know this car well.
Interest in reducing the visibility of aircraft for enemy radars (stealth technology) arose among the US military after American pilots visited the Vietnamese "rocket jungle". Reducing the visibility of aircraft for radar was considered one of the promising areas for increasing their survivability; work on the Stealth program began in 1965. Although, the interest in reducing the visibility of aircraft appeared among the military even at the time of the appearance of the first radar stations.
The F-117 can be called the second generation "stealth aircraft", the first should include the SR-71 - the famous strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the Cold War. This machine was operated at the highest speeds, which heated the hull several hundred degrees, so that high level stealth did not work, but the results of the designers were pretty good.
In 1977, the Xcom Committee was created in the US military department, whose tasks included practical use invisibility technologies. The start of three programs in this direction was authorized: Senior Prom (development of a stealth cruise missile), ATB (in the future it will lead to the creation of the B-2 strategic bomber) and Senior Trend, thanks to which the F-117 will appear.
The development of the new aircraft was entrusted to Lockheed Martin. The three-digit number was usually assigned to top-secret aircraft, so that all work was carried out in deep secrecy. The contract with the manufacturer was signed on November 16, 1978. The Pentagon has set the company's engineers the task of reducing all the characteristics of the aircraft that unmask it. The customer was interested not only in visibility for the radar, but also in reducing the thermal radiation of the aircraft, reducing its noise level, eliminating any own radiation of the machine and contrails.
Lockheed Martin coped with the task in an extremely short time: already eight months later, the construction of the first machine began, which was transferred for testing in 1981.
Naturally, the desire to reduce the visibility of the aircraft for radar led to a serious change in the shape of the F-117, which, in turn, significantly reduced the aircraft's flight characteristics.
Legend has it that when Lockheed Martin's lead aerodynamicist, Dick Cantrell, was shown the desired shape of the future aircraft, he had a stroke. Moving away from the shock a little, the designer realized that his department would not play the main violin when creating a new car. Therefore, he gave his employees the only task: to make sure that the “lame goblin” at least somehow rose into the air.
The first tests showed the extreme instability of the F-117 in many flight modes at once. There were other unpleasant surprises that the plane presented to its creators. They had to seriously modify the air intakes, change the design of the fuel tanks and improve the control system of the machine.
The use of stealth technologies hit the vehicle's maneuverability the hardest. The F-117 had a pretty good thrust-to-weight ratio, but its maneuverability and speed left much to be desired. Restrictions were introduced into the aircraft control system, which simply blocked the execution of some maneuvers. In addition, the Nighthawk has a very limited range and poor takeoff and landing performance. In general, he had little in common with that "stealth fighter" who easily defeats opponents in Hollywood blockbusters.
The F-117 began to operate in 1983, at first this aircraft was top secret, for the first time the US military recognized the very fact of its existence only in 1988. The first public display took place in 1990, and a year later the F-117 was shown at an aviation exhibition in Paris.
Only experienced pilots with a flight time of at least 1,000 hours were selected to pilot the new aircraft, but this did not save them from disasters. There is little information about them, since the program was highly classified. There is information that the first "Night Falcon" crashed in 1982, before the car was put into operation. Then there were several more accidents.
Immediately after the appearance of the F-117 was a truly formidable weapon. It could not be detected by the radar stations of the USSR and China. Did not see "stealth" and fighters. However, the situation changed very quickly: radar detection tools improved very quickly, and other technologies for detecting aircraft also appeared. So very soon the F-117 has become only a relatively invisible aircraft, and the design flaws inherent in it, of course, have not gone away.
Design Description
The F-117 attack aircraft is built according to the "flying wing" scheme. It has a V-shaped tail. The design of the machine is made using stealth technologies, this applies to both the shape of the aircraft and the materials used in its construction.
The wing has a large sweep (67.5 °), the fuselage is made in the form of flat smooth panels, the angle of which is calculated so as to reflect the radar signal in different directions. This shape of the fuselage is called faceted, and it is this form that reduces the visibility of the aircraft by 90%. The cockpit canopy is made according to the same principle. It is covered with a special material containing gold. Such a coating eliminates the risk of irradiation of the in-cabin equipment and the pilot's equipment (his helmet can emit more background on the radar screen than the entire aircraft).
Chassis - tricycle. The front rack has one steerable wheel, and the main racks are also single-wheeled. The aircraft is equipped with a landing hook and a drag parachute.
Above the wings on both sides of the fuselage are air intakes. All contours of slots and joints have sawtooth edges, which also scatters electromagnetic waves. There is no external suspension, all weapons are placed in the internal compartments. Flat nozzles are shielded with special heat-absorbing plates, which significantly reduce the visibility of the aircraft in the infrared range.
All antennas and other transmitting devices located on the surface of the aircraft can be retracted inside the hull. In the design of the F-117, composite radio-absorbing materials and coatings were actively used. The whole body is covered with several types of similar materials, which were pasted on it like wallpaper on a wall. The aircraft is painted with black ferromagnetic paint, which not only absorbs radio waves, but also dissipates heat very well.
Due to the above design features, the F-117 has a much smaller effective dispersion area (ESR), which is 0.1-0.01 m2. This is several hundred times less than the RCS of a conventional aircraft of a similar size. Thus, it is very difficult to detect an aircraft using ground-based radar or fighter radar.
Although, if an enemy fighter still detects the F-117, then the latter will have practically no chance.
The Nighthawk does not have its own radar, to reduce the risk of detection, all navigation and aiming systems of the aircraft are passive. Also no active systems electronic warfare(EW). For navigation, a satellite and inertial system is used. Sights are represented by infrared cameras and laser target illumination, which turns on for an extremely short time.
The power plant consists of two General Electric F-404-GE-F1D2 bypass turbojet engines, each of which develops 4,900 kg of thrust.
F-117 carries missile and bomb weapons, can also use nuclear weapons. Typical weapons for the aircraft are GBU-10 or GBU-27 bombs, it can take AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 "Maverick" missiles on board.
The Nighthawk is a very highly specialized aircraft, it is designed to strike at night against important enemy targets. All weapons that he can take on board are guided. It is very different high precision(±0.1 m).
The F-117 strike aircraft is very unstable in yaw and pitch, so a special program has been introduced into its control system that does not allow the pilot to perform dangerous maneuvers.
Combat use
The aircraft was operated from 1983 to 2008, he managed to take part in several regional conflicts. During the operation, seven aircraft were lost, only one of which was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire. The rest crashed in accidents that happened due to the fault of the pilots or due to technical malfunctions.
The F-117's baptism of fire was the American invasion of Panama in 1989.
For the first time, these aircraft were used massively during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. F-117 during this conflict showed very high efficiency: in one night they destroyed almost all Iraqi Tu-22s.
The next conflict in which the Americans massively used this aircraft was the war in Yugoslavia in 1999. It was then that the "invisible plane" was shot down. It was destroyed by a Serbian anti-aircraft battery armed with an obsolete Soviet anti-aircraft complex C-125. The Serbs claimed the destruction of one or two more vehicles, but this data is rather controversial.
The last significant conflict in which the F-117 was involved was the second US Iraq campaign (2003).
Initially, this aircraft was planned to be used until 2019, but the high costs of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 programs forced the US military to abandon it almost a decade earlier.
Already in the middle of the last decade, the Nighthawk was an obsolete machine. Due to the rapid development of aircraft detection tools, he lost his main advantage - the title of "stealth aircraft", and the design flaws inherent in it initially turned the F-117 into a very expensive and extremely vulnerable machine. And the cost of maintaining the Nighthawk was quite high, so this decision looks quite natural.
The F-117 became a real stand where the Americans practiced all the nuances of using stealth technology. This aircraft can be called a unique machine without exaggeration, the F-117 was the first in its class, so many flaws can be forgiven for it. Largely thanks to the Nighthawk, fifth-generation stealth aircraft took to the skies: the F-22 Raptor and F-35.
Flight performance
Below are the performance characteristics of the F-117A strike aircraft.
| Modification | F-117A |
| Wingspan, m | 13.30 |
| Aircraft length, m | 20.30 |
| Aircraft height, m | 3.78 |
| Wing area, m | 105.90 |
| Sweep angle, hail | 67.30 |
| Weight, kg | |
| empty plane | 13381 |
| takeoff weight | 23625 |
| fuel | 8255 |
| engine's type | 2 General Electric F404-GE-F1D2 turbofan engines |
| Thrust, kn | 2 x 46.70 |
| Maximum speed, km/h | 970 |
| Cruise speed, km/h | 306 |
| Landing speed | 227 |
| Ferry range, km | 2012 |
| Combat range, km | 917 |
| Practical ceiling, m | 13716 |
| Max. operating overload | 6 |
| Crew, people | 1 |
Airplane video
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To make an aircraft invisible to the enemy is an old dream of the army officials of any country. Work in this direction has been going on for many years, and its results are always classified and are a state secret. But some projects still become public. IT.TUT.BY chose six of the most famous stealth aircraft.
"Lame Goblin" Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk
In terms of popularity in games and cinema, the Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk can compete with Hollywood stars of the first magnitude. But on the battlefield, he did not give the desired advantage to his creators. When designing it, the designers violated all possible laws of aircraft construction and aerodynamics, spending 6.56 billion dollars on the creation and production of the stealth. Therefore, when the documentation was shown to aerodynamic specialist Dick Cantrell, he could not pick up censorship words to express his opinion, but only issued: "I don" t care what in hell it looks like, I "ll get that ugly son-of -a-bitch to fly!".
Dick looked into the water, the Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk flew so badly, and it was so difficult to control it, that the pilot was constantly helped in control artificial intelligence. Only very trained pilots who had flown at least 1000 hours were allowed to fly the Nighthawk, which is about three to five years at the controls for a fighter pilot. But even despite such measures, seven aircraft were lost due to pilot or computer errors.
The pilots themselves aptly nicknamed the Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk the “lame goblin” (Wobblin’ Goblin) for its “outstanding” flight characteristics.
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The plane was not invisible in the literal sense of the word, the air defense system radar could detect it, but only from a very close distance. The effective scattering surface (ESR) of an aircraft when it was irradiated with a locator, according to some sources, ranged from 0.01 to 0.0025 m², depending on the angle. This was achieved thanks to the specific angular shape of the aircraft, built according to the concept of "reflector planes", the use of composite and radio-absorbing materials, as well as a special coating.
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The first combat use of the "lame goblin" was an attempt to eliminate the president of "Panama" Manuel Noriega. The first part of the plan - to pass unnoticed through the territory of Panama - two F-117s performed flawlessly, but the second failed. Stuffed with ultra-modern equipment and carrying "smart" ammunition, two "lame goblins" never hit the target.
The F-117s managed to correct the shattered reputation during the Persian Gulf War, when they went unnoticed through the Iraqi air defense orders and destroyed the 100-meter command tower and the control center for tactical missiles and interceptors located in Baghdad. Although there is an opinion that this happened due to the fact that the air defense systems supplied to Iraq by France were disabled using special tabs.
However, when all systems worked, the "lame goblin" had a hard time. An illustrative case in Yugoslavia, when the F-117 was shot down with the help of an outdated Soviet anti-aircraft missile system(SAM) S-125 "Neva". The complex was equipped with a system of television-optical sighting and target tracking "Karat", thanks to which it was possible to shoot without using a radar.
After all, Night Hawk is invisible to radar, not to the human eye. The downing of a superplane, as the Americans imagined the F-117, was a shock to the public, so they buried the legend of an invulnerable stealth aircraft. At first, the Americans denied the very fact of the destruction of the "lame goblin", and then demanded that the wreckage of the aircraft be returned and that the incident not be made public. The Serbs disagreed and placed the pieces of stealth in a museum.
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F-22A Raptor, a fighter that is dangerous for its own pilots
This is the first and so far the only mass-produced aircraft of the fifth generation. The price of one copy in 2008 prices was $350 million, which was equivalent to the cost of 20 tons of gold. Then the price for one plane went up to $411.7 million. Even the American budget could not stand this, and purchases had to be halved. |
Nevertheless, the F-22A Raptor has something to brag about: this is the ability to fly at supersonic without turning on the afterburner, perfect avionics and low visibility. This is where the advantages end, in terms of maneuverability the F-22A Raptor is inferior to many Russian 4th generation fighters. The fact is that the thrust vector of the F-22A Raptor changes only in one plane (up and down), that is, it provides a bonus only when pitching. While all modern Russian engines the thrust vector can be changed in all planes, and separately from each other.
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The anti-radar coating of the fighter was easily washed off by rain, over time this drawback was leveled, but the costs spent on solving this problem increased the price of the aircraft even more.
Since 2011, all US F-22A Raptors have been banned from flying above 7,600 meters due to problems with the oxygen supply. It is believed that at such a height, the pilot, when the first signs of suffocation occur, will be able to descend to 5.4 thousand meters in order to remove the mask and breathe air in the cockpit. Due to suffocation, pilot Jeffrey Haney lost control of the fighter and crashed in 2010.
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So unresolved problems in the operation of the onboard oxygen generation system (OBOGS) led to a new ban since 2012: Raptors are prohibited from flying over long distances, fighters must always be near the runways so that pilots can always make an emergency landing.
F-22A Raptor pilots joke that the US Army's switch to drones is because drones don't need to breathe oxygen. In a real battle with enemy aircraft, the Raptor was not seen, but it took part in a training one with the French Rafales. The result is 4:1 in favor of the French.
This is probably why the Americans decided to use the latest and super-expensive F-22A Raptor against the Islamists in Syria, who had neither their own air defense system nor fighters, so the American aircraft had nothing to fear.
F-35 Lightning II: "Lightning", which is afraid of ... lightning
The development of this fifth-generation fighter-bomber (actually 4+) spent a lot of money ($ 56 billion), but it was not possible to bring the design to perfection. Lightning II ("Lightning") was conceived as a versatile aircraft capable of replacing the F-16 fighter, the A-10 attack aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II vertical take-off and landing attack aircraft and the McDonnell Douglas F / A-18 Hornet carrier-based fighter-bomber. As a result, the Americans got three aircraft at once: F-35A (standard takeoff and landing), F-35B (short takeoff and vertical landing) and F-35C (takeoff from the deck of an aircraft carrier using a catapult, and landing on the deck using an arrester ).
The design of the F-35B largely repeats the Yak-141, the drawings of which were handed over to the Americans on the orders of Boris Yeltsin. Soviet experience was taken into account, new technologies were added to it, but a good aircraft still did not work out.
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For example, a report by the Pentagon's Office of Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E) indicates that lightning strikes the F-35 can lead to the explosion of fuel tanks, at high altitudes and speeds due to a sharp change in temperature, the empennage is destroyed, cracks appear during flights. jet turbine blades of the engine and a host of other malfunctions. And what, in fact, do you want from an aircraft assembled according to Soviet drawings using Chinese parts? Yes, yes, in order to save money (this is at a cost of $ 56 billion), the head of the Office of Defense Acquisition of the US Department of Defense, Frank Kendall, allowed Northrop Grumman Corp and Honeywell International Inc to use Chinese-made magnets for the manufacture of airborne radar components, landing gear and other aircraft structural components .
The result of multibillion-dollar spending is not yet impressive, although the declared RCS of the aircraft, depending on the angle, can be up to 0.005 m², in fact, everything is much worse. According to Air Force Magazine, the F-35 Lightning II does not meet the requirements for fifth-generation aircraft in many ways. "Lightning" is distinguished by low thrust-to-weight ratio, survivability and maneuverability, cannot fly at supersonic speed without afterburner, and its EPR during tests turned out to be even lower than stated in the specifications.
Northrop B-2 Spirit real UFO
The Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is very similar to an alien ship. At one time, this gave rise to many rumors that the aircraft was built using technologies obtained from the study of UFO wreckage in Area 51. Although, most likely, the Americans borrowed the idea from the Germans, who back in 1945 wanted to launch the Ho.229 fighter-bomber into a series , built according to the "flying wing" scheme. |
Today, the Northrop B-2 Spirit is the most expensive aircraft in the history of aviation, costing two billion and one million dollars in 1997 prices. Not surprisingly, only 21 units were built, each with its own name.
The B-2 Spirit is an excellent tool for "establishing democracy" where the US needs it. The aircraft is capable of taking on board 16 B-61 atomic bombs, or 8 guided 907 kg GBU-27 Paveway II laser-guided bombs, or 80 227 kg bombs and deliver them from Whiteman Air Force Base (Missouri) to almost anywhere in the world - range flight "ghost" 11 thousand km.
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The B-2 Spirit is as automated as possible, so the crew has only two pilots. And, despite its unusual and fragile appearance, the stealth bomber has a solid margin of safety and is able to make a safe landing in a side wind blowing at a speed of 40 m/s. The aircraft is invisible to obsolete radars, but modern systems air defense Russian production able to detect it. The EPR area is estimated in the range from 0.0014 to 0.1 m².
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The main disadvantage of the B-2 Spirit is the cost of its maintenance. For example, placing an aircraft is possible only in a special hangar with an artificial microclimate - otherwise, ultraviolet radiation will damage the radio-absorbing coating of the aircraft. In addition, a special hangar protects against terrorist attacks and other unforeseen situations.
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It is reported that in the event of a fire, the fire extinguishing system is capable of flooding the aircraft with flame-extinguishing foam in 20 seconds.
PAK FA, as always, "unparalleled in the world"
It is customary for the Russian media to assign the prefix "having no analogues in the world" to almost each of their weapons. PAK FA is no exception, little is known about the aircraft yet, and most of the characteristics of the fighter are still kept secret. EPR PAK FA is estimated as 0.3-0.4 m². The Russians did not rely on the invisibility of their aircraft on radar, but on the possibility of disrupting the attack of a missile with radar homing. Therefore, the fighter has high maneuverability, which, coupled with low visibility, allows you to successfully avoid missile attacks. |
The PAK FA engines are separated from the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, this solution made it possible to increase the “shoulder” of thrust during maneuvering and make a spacious weapon compartment capable of accommodating heavy weapons that are inaccessible due to the size of the F-35 Lightning II.
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PAK FA is distinguished by excellent maneuverability and controllability in vertical and horizontal planes, both in supersonic and low speeds. The location of the engines relative to the axis of symmetry of the aircraft in the form of the letter V, due to which the thrust vector passes near the center of gravity of the aircraft, allows you to fly even with one idle power unit.
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And if the pilot was wounded or injured in battle, then the PAK FA is able to return to the airfield and land. The Russian fighter also knows how to fly supersonic without afterburner, and the F-35 Lightning II and F-22A Raptor will envy its thrust-to-weight ratio.
Po-2
And yet, it was best to create a real invisible man by Soviet designers back in 1928, who built the U-2 biplane. The plane was extremely cheap and easy to manufacture - it could be assembled at any furniture factory. He completely refused to go into a tailspin, was invisible to enemy radars, and at night we still don’t see or hear. |
German soldiers hated this plane, they said, there was no life from it: "... neither the stove can be lit, nor the fire, the pilots see the light and drop bombs on it, you have to sit in trenches all night to avoid group losses." Against the background of the night sky, Po-2 was indistinguishable, and in order to achieve even greater invisibility, the pilots approached the target towards the front line, after turning off the engine. As a result, the biplane almost soundlessly planned for an unsuspecting enemy, dropped "gifts" and immediately flew home without turning around.
And it was also the first stealth aircraft, to which you can add the prefix "stealth": Po-2 was plywood-percale, which made it invisible to radar-equipped Bf 110 G-4 night fighters.
It is not surprising that the Germans equated "Russ plywood" with combat fighters and for each downed car they gave a monetary reward, or even an iron cross. By the way, it was not easy to bring down the celestial slug. High-speed German cars simply slipped past the slow U-2, in addition, the pilots of the "maize" could cut tight circles around a tree or a tall building, and in this case it was very difficult, almost impossible, for the "Messer" to shoot down a Soviet aircraft.
