Hi folks,
Hope this isn't all old news, but after Bill Gunston's 'Back to Balloons and Gliders?' ('Air International', May 1986, Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. 228-9), here are references to (alleged) early 'stealths' (reduced optical/radar signature):
1) Professor S. G. Kozlov's 'Nyevidimyi Samolyet', ("Invisible aeroplane"), aka the 'PS', ("Prozrachnyi samolyet" – "transparent aircraft"?). A Yakovlev AIR-4 apparently had its opaque parts painted white and/or covered with a mirror-like amalgam or enamel. Structure then covered with transparent "rodoid", (a French substance like tough cellophane or "organic glass"). Rodoid apparently effective but opaque structure hard to conceal. Project cancelled in 1935. See also:
i) Article at: http://www.aviation.ru/okb.php.
ii) 'Krylja Rodiny' (N12 2001) article "AIR-4 - the Transparent Biplane by Sergei Kozlov", http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?KRR-200112
iii) Posting by 'Arthur', Stealth Aircraft thread, at:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-12018.html
iv) More links at: http://www.military.cz/accessories/Invisibility.htm, and:
http://www.prz.edu.pl/~awionika/dyd/Seminar_C2/Grzegorz%20Lenart.pdf.
The only AIR-4 image I know apparently comes from 1930 and shows Alexandr Yakovlev himself standing in front of a (thoroughly opaque) AIR-4:
http://www.forcollector.com/big/item_1980.jpg.
2) 'Air International' (c. 1986) on Imperial German transparent aircraft-coverings. Cf. "In the early 1900’s Germany experimented with a clear cellulose skin called Emaillit. This skin, along with silver painted internal structures, made the aircraft effectively invisible from the ground when it was over an altitude of 900 ft", David Hall, David Andrews & Sangeon Chun, 'Stealth: 15 More Minutes …', http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/StealthS03.pdf.
Hall (et al) cite J. Jones, 'Stealth Technology: The Art of Black Magic', (AERO, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 1989), see thread ('Art of Black Magic') at: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2782.0/highlight,stealth.html.
3) Alleged 'stealth' Horten Ho-229 / Gotha Go-229:
"The world's first stealth fighter flew on February 14, 1945..... The Hortens had a long distinguished history of building advanced flying wings and the Ho-IX/Go-229 had a largely wood fuselage that contained a mix of sawdust, charcoal, and resin to absorb radar. Its own flying wing configuration would help too but to make sure the Germans developed a radar-absorbing paint called "Schornsteinfeger" (Chimneysweep) that was a thick carbon laden mixture that eventually became the basis of the US "Ironball" paint idea for the U-2", http://greyfalcon.us/US%20Saucers.htm.
Cf. "The skin was very thick: 17 mm, all plywood; three times the necessary strength. On the production aircraft, this would be replaced by two 1.5 mm plywood sheets, with a 12 mm layer of sawdust, charcoal and glue mix, sandwiched in between. The charcoal in this much lighter skin would diffuse radar beams, and make the aircraft "invisible" on radar", http://www.greyfalcon.us/The%20Horten%20Ho%20229.htm.
Based on other Greyfalcon stuff, I’m 95% sure this is just more "Projekt Saucer" dreck, but (just to check) could there be anything in these claims? (Reducing aircraft radar cross-section was discussed by Watson Watt c. 1936. See Gunston, p. 228.)
4) I know this project is post-war but see also the "The first stealth aircraft" thread on the reduced radar-cross-section Boulton Paul Balliol:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,882.0/highlight,balliol.html.
Can anybody think of other early optical and/or radar signature reduction measures?
Cheers,
'Wingknut'.
