'Visual Stealth' and Museum Displays - Re: Bird of Prey


Message posted by Beltway_Bandit on June 17, 2004 at 13:36:53 PST:

The Air Force and the Navy have been experimenting with the use of lights to create active camouflage/'visual stealth' since the 1940s - with varying degrees of success. Project 'Yehudi' is the best-known example, but there have been countless others, and the work continues to this day.

The USAF leadership has never placed much emphasis on reducing the visual signature of it's aircraft, as is evidenced by the decision to paint the F-117A black for the first 20 years of operational use (the best color for aircraft flying exclusively at night is a mauve-ish hue, but the Air Force declared that none of its aircraft would be any shade resembling pink.)

And that segues to another point -- although the F-117A on display in the Air Force museum looks completely original and operational, it's not -- the aircraft was delivered without much of the original RAM panels and missing it's original leading edges. The leading edges on the wings of the 'Nighthawk' in Dayton are not made from the same materials as the operational jets and their design are inconsistent with the production aircraft. This was done purposefully once it was decided to display DT&E a/c 2.


In Reply to: Re: Bird of Prey posted by lone wolf on June 16, 2004 at 7:25:46 PST:

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