This is the second in a two-part series on radioactive stealth from exotic weapons guru David Hambling. Check out part one here.
Back in the 60’s, there was considerable work done on developing radioactive coatings which would have the double benefit of absorbing radar and reducing drag. We know that from the patents we looked at in part one. What aircraft would have had such coatings?
In the late 1950s there had been several attempts to reduce the radar cross-section of the U2 spy plane under the name Project Rainbow, detailed here. These included the trapeze, an arrangement of poles and wires, and wallpaper, material printed with with radar-aborbent circuitry. The results were not satisfactory Kelly Johnson called the modified U2s dirty birds because of the effect on their aerodynamics which lost them several thousand feet. Even worse, the wallpaper caused overheating with the loss of one aircraft and the death of test pilot Robert Sieker.
A coating that reduced radar returns and improved aerodynamics would have been the answer but at the price of a visible glow at night. So, were there any sightings of mysterious glowing U2s? A CIA report on the CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 states:
According to later estimates from CIA officials who worked on the U-2 project and the OXCART (SR-71, or Blackbird) project, over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States. (45) This led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project.
Why would anyone report a U2 as a UFO?
The early U-2s were silver (they were later painted black) and reflected the rays from the sun, especially at sunrise and sunset. They often appeared as fiery objects to observers below.
I leave it to those who compile statistics on flying saucers to say how many glowing UFOs were sighted under these conditions and how many appeared to be luminous on their own account. Note also the wording in Patent 3,713,157 which says that the plasma cloud produces a combination of absorbtion, reflection, refraction and diffraction across frequencies including visible spectrum, which would certainly alter the appearance of an aircraft, perhaps to the point of making it an unrecognisable blob.
A radioactive coating would be unlikely to be applied to the entire aircraft as Martin Streetly of Janes pointed out to me, this would immediately block the aircraft’s own radar, communications and navigation aids. However, a coating on the locations contributing most to radar returns inlets and wing-body junction would have a significant effect, and a coating along the leading edge would give the desired reduction in drag. It might even be possible to have coated surfaces which could be covered or uncovered as needed.
Radioactive coatings would cause a major disposal problems. It is alleged that workers at Groom lake — ‘Area 51′ — were harmed by carcinogens dumped there. The suit was dismissed in 1996 because for reasons of security the materials involved could not be disclosed; but the suggestion is that the material was chemical waste rather than radioactive.
Given that the radioactive plasma coating was known to improve aerodynamics and stealthiness in the 1960s, we would expect the next step to be a way of achieving the same benefits without radioactivity.
This brings us to the B-2, an aircraft with has long been the subject of speculation. Even respected aviation writer Bill Gunston has commented on suggestions that the B-2 employs a system which charges the leading wing edge to millions of volts. (Interestingly, most such speculation is tied up with ideas of electrogravitics, anti-gravity and alien technology, which belong firmly in the disinformation category).
This would chime with a comment in Ben Richs book about the Skunk Works . He could not believe that Northrops stealth bomber design was 10% more aerodynamically efficient than Lockheeds competing design, which was externally similar (page 338 in the Warner edition). Perhaps Northrop were exagerating, as Rich suggests; but perhaps their plane had a secret advantage.
Many have commented on a photograph of a B-2 from Edwards AFB (published in Air Forces Monthly in October 2000) in which the wing seems to be enveloped in a faint glowing cloud. This was explained by the Air Force as water vapor, but some commentators have argued that such a cloud would not form simultaneously above and below the wing.
See also the discussion and perhaps anomalous picture here.
The USAF appears to have been using plasma aerodynamics for decades. The Russians certainly know all about it , as does anyone who has bought the technology off them. According to the patents it has additional benefits too it can muffle the noise produced by engines as well as preventing contrails from forming.
The only people not enjoying its benefits are the civilian taxpayers who funded it in the first place.
(If youre interested in more, theres a chapter on secret aircraft and UFOs in my book Weapons Grade, out this week in paperback, and chapters on new military developments in other fields from nanotechnology to artificial intelligence).
– David Hambling
Surprised why nobody’s commented here of all places, and I’m somewhat glad to see Rich’s Skunk Works book plugged. Rich’s book discusses the fact that they received difference advice: Ben’s general told him to go for small and Northrop’s general told them to go bigger. Theirs was big enough to not need a tail, and they got more payload and more range, with Lockheed’s design becoming more stealthy, shorter range, less payload, smaller and cheaper.
It’s entirely possible that the stealth systems we use may use a combination of stealth mechanisms, not just special shapes.
Charles:
Those of us peripherally connected to this *can’t* comment on it, other than to be personally glad that Mr Hambling either didn’t get details on current tech and mission deployment or chose not to publish them.
I am surprised (but happy) there’s not more interest so far.
(Jedi wave) This is not the project you’re looking for. You can go now. Except the guys from Boeing in the back there, it’s polygraph time for the lot o’ yas.
de-ice.
“Your mind powers will not work on me boy.” (in best Jabba voice)
Jeez, get a grip. This is classical secret super technology cra^H^H^H nonsense. Zero Point Energy™ engines would complete the picture.
Absolutely, TexLex. Totally barmy.
If Lockheed had previously tested the technology on the U-2, why would it have been available to Northrop for the B-2 and not to the Lockheed team?
Doesn’t add up.
“If Lockheed had previously tested the technology on the U-2, why would it have been available to Northrop for the B-2 and not to the Lockheed team?“
Because the radioactive version has obvious problems and was clearly not continued.
However, a non-radioactive version would be another matter…
Agree entirely about ZPE, as I mentioned earlier this and the whole ‘electrogravitics’ thing invariably get wheeled out to try and discredit the whole area.
You have to look carefully to distinguish noise from signal — but look at the experimental results described in the patents and I think you’ll find it worthwhile.
The effects of plasma on radar etc have been known for decades — this was certainly spotted when re-entry became an issue, as anything coming back into the atmosphere gets coated in plasma from the friction heating. This is why the Space Shuttle loses radio contact during this phase.
Using radioisotopes to create plasma is fine, but the million-dollar question — or maybe billion-dollar question — is how you do it without them??
The article seems to be a bit short on this one. Or is that the big secret?
Conflating the patents with a picture of the B-2 is clearly just intended to “sex up” the story.
I don’t believe the USAF is in the habit of providing pictures of it’s secret technology to the world.
Plus, when you see the chase plane video, the vapor cloud comes and goes as the aircraft. You just can’t read too much into a single picture.
Also, the “faint cloud” is actually quite pronounced in some photos; the one you link to was carefully selected to match your speculations.
I was a test engineer for the B-2 (Checkout and Acceptance system engineer). The vehicle does have secrets, but this isn’t one of them.
It sounds like the AF Tech, to a point, that G. Harry Stine (writting as Lee Correy, his aka for most of his fiction writtings) talked about in passing in his SF book “Manna” (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=Lee+Correy&y=14&tn=Manna&x=71).
It was, IIRC, a system that used everyday elertromagnetis to pop the reentery/hypersonic plasma sheath off of the vehicle and guide it around the vehicle in an eliminated *lots* of mass and most of the heating problems that such vehicles would encounter while at high/distructive speeds.
Basicly a flying adaptation of what is used every day in cylotron et al labs around the world. You just flip the system around to the INSIDE rather then the OUTSIDE.
*grumbls*
”…and guide it around the vehicle in an eliminated *lots* of mass…“
Should read:
”…and guides it around the vehicle in a controlable areodynamic fashion while it eliminated *lots* of mass…“
Also, if you’re interested, Abe Books has it listed here:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=Lee+Correy&y=14&tn=Manna&x=71
Man made UFOs! http://members.tripod.com/~lyne4lyne/ Not U2s, SR71s, Aurora, Blimps, Upgraded XB70s, Planets, Weather, or Natural phenomenon, military Aircraft but manmade Nicola Tesla invented Nazi perfected and Illuminatti used Flying Electro Dynamic Force Disks! Sincerely, Jaye
if anyone wants to see these things, come on by, here at ridgecrest/china lake NAWS, between 11 pm and 4 am most any night. lovely orange glowing things, either speeding high over head, south to north, or hovering, slow moving across the city, also from south to north. all you see is the glow, sometimes pulsing, but most of the time a solid, dull orange.
first time we saw one, it was directly overhead, looking like a small moon out of place outside the planetary plane. too big to be mars, but quite the same dull orange color. after about an hour after we noticed it, it began to move over to the base, to the north. so far, all attempts at photographing or videotaping one of these have failed, but it is probably because i am not that good with cameras.
perhaps you will have better luck.
regards, and thanks for the site,
roger born
writer, teacher, general troublemaker
piss on all this cattle serf disinfo,lets have the real deal,electro-propulsion discs and cylinders. what is it,lets see ac on bottom, dc on top? BTW,THEY GENERALLY ALL GLOW. SEE YA ON MARS TOMORROW!check it out ya minions, you tube– “electromagnetic flight and you“
pentagon aliens,occult ether physics,occult science dictatorship,by william r. lyne
antirelativity.com
THERE ARE NO ALIENS
Excuse me. Even the best of friends need time apart.
. Noam.
I am from Peru and know bad English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Flights, not selected flights, hotels, selected.“
Thank you so much for your future answers