Top Document: rec.aviation.military Frequently Asked Questions (part 3 of 5) Previous Document: E.1. What jet aircraft were the Germans working on during WW2? Next Document: F.1. What good books are there on air combat? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge The suggestion that the Mosquito, being made largely of wood, would have made a good "stealth bomber" is brought up every now and then. It's a myth. It's true that wood absorbs some radio waves, but it also reflects some and transmits some. The Mosquito showed up perfectly well on radar, mainly because the waves that passed through the wood reflected very well off the metal internal structures -- framework, wing spars, bomb racks, cockpit, and (especially) engines. On modern stealth aircraft, the cockpit in particular is still a problem; most canopy materials are almost as transparent to radio waves as they are to visible light, and the complex shape of the interior of the cockpit (not to mention the pilot, especially their helmet) is an excellent radar reflector. The materials used for canopy coatings are among the most secret parts of stealth designs (see C.10). It would, however, have been possible to built a stealth aircraft out of wood, if (unlike the Mosquito) it was designed with stealth in mind from the start. The Germans tried it with the Horten Ho IX flying-wing fighter, which (besides its tailless design, which helped a lot) was constructed with special glues and coatings designed to absorb radar. Presumably the same would have been true of the Ho XVIII bomber. (See E.1 for further details.) User Contributions:Top Document: rec.aviation.military Frequently Asked Questions (part 3 of 5) Previous Document: E.1. What jet aircraft were the Germans working on during WW2? Next Document: F.1. What good books are there on air combat? Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: avfaq@meanmach.actrix.gen.nz
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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