What makes the stealth bomber undetectable?
The stealth bomber, also known as the B-2, is one of the most amazing airplanes ever flown. Why is the B-2 so undetectable? First, the plane does not have any antennas or protruding objects. The stealth bomber consists of only a wing. Radar signals tend to pass over the aerodynamic flying-wing. Second, the engines are buried deep inside to prevent detection of the heat they generate. To better understand what makes the B-2 invisible to radar we must understand how radar works. Ships, military bases and aircraft use radio waves to see. Each time a beam hits an airborne object, it bounces back to the sender. A computer then calculates its range and heading. The measure of how much an object reflects radar is the radar cross section, or RCS. The smaller the RCS, the more invisible the object is. The B-2’s RCS has been estimated at one millionth of a square meter (a pickup truck’s RCS is about 200 square meters).
