Russian stealth. Who developed the invisible aircraft technology

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In modern warfare, not only the technical capabilities and armament of military vehicles are of paramount importance, but also the decrease in their visibility for detection tools. A technology that can significantly reduce visibility in radar and other detection spectra is called stealth. And our compatriot Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev invented it.





"Invisibility" of American aviation


On 18 on June 1981, the F-117 flew up into the sky - a single-seat subsonic tactical stealth strike aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation. The tests of the new aircraft were kept secret - after all, it was not in vain that it bore the name Nighthawk - “Night Hawk”. The plane, which for some reason is ranked among fighters, although it is more correctly referred to as attack aircraft, has earned such a name due to its extreme stealth.

Only on 10 of November 1988 of the year, more than seven years after the first flight, did the Pentagon officially recognize the existence of the "Night Hawk." The U.S. War Department issued a press release with history the creation of the F-117, in which there was also the only photograph of a combat vehicle. As for the public display of the Night Hawk, it happened only on 21 on April 1990, and in 1991, after the Persian Gulf War, where the American army seriously defeated the Iraqi armed forces, the aircraft was presented at the air show in Paris.



The "night hawk" was created using stealth technology and was built according to the "flying wing" scheme with a V-shaped plumage. The large sweep wing, straight profile, faceted fuselage were located so that they prevented recognition of the aircraft, reflecting electromagnetic waves away from the enemy radar systems. In the aircraft industry, such a scheme is called "facet" (from the French. Facette - face).

However, the first aircraft built using the technology of "flying wing" was Have Blue, which made flights from 1977 of the year. But this machine is still the same Lockheed Martin was not launched into mass production. But on its basis, they subsequently began to develop the "Night Hawk", which became the first truly successful aircraft, less vulnerable to enemy radar.

Simple american translator


Denis Overholzer worked in the office of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the early 1970's. The young man did not hold high posts, but, thanks to his knowledge of the Russian language, his duties included familiarizing himself with technical publications published in the Soviet Union. Denis translated them into English.

Once, for translation, Denis (pictured) received another Russian-language work - “The method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction”, which was written by the young Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev. The work was published almost ten years ago, in the 1962 year. Of course, an ordinary translator with a liberal philological education would perceive the need to translate this work as another boring duty and, somehow coping with the task, would breathe a sigh of relief. But Denis Overholzer had a higher engineering education and therefore he delved into the scientific work of Peter Ufimtsev with interest.

The work was devoted to a physical and mathematical algorithm by which it was possible to calculate the scattering area for an aircraft of any shape. That is, Ufimtsev’s work described how to make an airplane virtually invisible to air defense radars. The translator Overholzer, being a technically competent person and a great patriot of the United States, immediately realized what unprecedented opportunities Ufimtsev’s work opens up for the American air force. Moreover, in the Soviet Union this work was not secret, so the Americans received the technology completely legally.

Overholzer appealed to his superiors with his thoughts, but at first the leaders considered that the translator was going into his own business - there were enough aircraft designers in the corporation. None of the senior management was going to not only analyze the work of Ufimtsev, but even listen to the young translator.

Then Denis gave the work of the Soviet author directly to the engineering staff of the corporation. Those, being true experts in their field, penetrated into the work of Ufimtsev and almost immediately understood what was happening. A few years later, the corporation was already in full swing developing new “invisible” aircraft based on the use of stealth technology, borrowed from the monograph of a Soviet physicist.

Inventor Peter Ufimtsev


Pyotr Yakovlevich Ufimtsev belonged to the generation of “children of war”. He was born in 1931 in the distant village of Ust-Charyshskaya Marina in Altai. At one time, his father, a peasant, moved there. In 1934, when Petya was three years old, his father was dispossessed and repressed, he disappeared somewhere in the camps. Childhood without a father was poor and hungry: due to a lack of vitamins, myopia progressed in Peter. The boy was very embarrassed to wear glasses, so at school he could not read from the blackboard and asked his classmate to let him rewrite the assignment.

Nevertheless, despite his vision problems, a boy from a remote Altai village went to enter a university — the physics and mathematics department of Alma-Ata State University. But due to the progressive myopia, the Ufimtsev moved to Odessa, where there was an ophthalmological clinic of the famous professor Filatov. I had to transfer to Odessa University, which Ufimtsev graduated in 1954 with a degree in theoretical physics.

Russian stealth. Who developed the invisible aircraft technology


A promising young man was assigned to the Central Scientific Research Radio Engineering Institute (CRIRTI) of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He was engaged, as the name implies, in radio engineering. However, the institute also had a narrower specialization.

The main objective of this institute at that time was the development of new electronic warfare systems, on-board electronic defense systems, and a complex for combating radar guidance systems. Until 1962, the TsNIIIRTI itself was a branch of the Telecommunications Research Institute, and then it was separated into a separate structure. He was led by him for almost 10 years (from 1959 to 1968 years) Nikolai Pavlovich Emokhonov.

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Emokhonov was also a man "from the people" - the son of a shoemaker, he was drafted into the Red Army and assigned to radio courses. Thus began his journey into electronics. Emokhonov served as the head of a radio station, commanded a close-range reconnaissance group by means of radio communications, ended the war as a senior lieutenant, and continued to serve in the communications troops, having been educated at the Military Communications Academy. CM. Budyonny.

After graduating from the academy, Emokhonov came to the Research Institute of Communications, where he went from a junior researcher to a chief engineer, and then to the director of the branch and, finally, the director of the Central Research Institute of Radio Engineering. It was Emokhonov who invited Ufimtsev to the institute, where Pyotr Yakovlevich worked until 1973 of the year. At the same time, the direction in which the young researcher was engaged was not considered promising.

But Emokhonov made a very good career: in 1968, Major General Emokhonov was transferred to the post of head of the 8th Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR (responsible for encryption and communication protection), and in 1971 at the same time he became deputy chairman of the KGB of the USSR and chairman of the Scientific Technical Council of the KGB of the USSR. Emokhonov held this position until the 1990 year, having received the rank of army general in the 1985 year.

Pyotr Ufimtsev did not reach career heights, although in 1970 he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. However, his contribution to science was very significant. He laid the foundation for the physical theory of diffraction. Back in 1962, the monograph “The method of boundary waves in the physical theory of diffraction” was published, printed in a limited edition of 6500 copies by Soviet standards. It was she who got to the table to the young and enterprising translator of Lockheed Martin corporation Denis Overholzer.

Air defense radars determined the distance to the aircraft from the time required to return the radiation reflected from the aircraft body. The aircraft’s ability to reflect radio waves directly affected its visibility. Therefore, the basis of the technology, which was called stealth, was the task of reducing the ability of an aircraft to reflect radio waves.

Ufimtsev came to the conclusion that if electromagnetic waves are scattered, their degree of reflection can be reduced. Accordingly, radar radiation did not return, and thus the aircraft would remain virtually invisible to the enemy’s air defense. For military aviation such a technology would be indispensable - if the Soviet leadership would pay attention to it in time, our country would receive “invisible” planes much faster than a probable enemy.

The scientist was more needed by the Americans


For some reason, in the Soviet Union, Ufimtsev’s technology was not interested. Like the translator Denis Overholzer, Pyotr Ufimtsev faced a misunderstanding on the part of Soviet bureaucrats from science who did not want to delve into the essence of his theory. It was only at the end of the 1980's, when the United States was already using the Night Hawk aircraft to the full, that the Soviet Union also realized the advantages of stealth technology. But it was already too late - tragic, dark days came for the Soviet state. Moreover, relations with a likely adversary, as Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev believed, were improving.

1990 year was the last year of the existence of the Soviet Union. In the same year, Army General Nikolai Emokhonov was relieved of the post of chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of the KGB of the USSR and sent to the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense. For Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev, the 1990 year was also a turning point. He, who had worked at this time at the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, received an unexpected invitation to come to the United States of America - to the University of California, as a visiting professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering.


Denis Overholzer


Without thinking twice, Peter Ufimtsev agreed. When he arrived in the USA, Denis Overholzer came to meet him - the same translator who had come across a monograph of a Soviet scientist twenty years earlier. But soon with a Ufimtsev contract was signed competitors Lockheed - Northrop Grumman. And the former Soviet scientist began to work on improving the combat capabilities of the American B-2 bomber.

The life and fate of Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev, as well as the entire history of stealth technology, is a typical example of the serious consequences that the state’s inattention to scientific personnel leads to. In the 1990s, the “brain drain” became a serious problem in post-Soviet Russia. Tens of thousands of promising scientists, engineers, technicians left our country in search of not only money, but also a more attentive and respectful attitude.

Unfortunately, this problem has not been resolved so far. Financing of domestic science leaves much to be desired, which is why young scientists are leaving for the West, and now also for the East. In the United States and even in China, their knowledge is more in demand.
85 comments
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  1. +7
    26 September 2019 05: 23
    You are writing Ilya Polonsky
    Unfortunately, this problem has not been resolved so far.

    —- Not just scientists. Here Oleg Smolenkov through Montenegro left for America ... the employee "insignificant !!!" Presidential Administration.
    —- And one cannot help but think of deliberate sabotage, as with Dr. Ph.D. Ufimtsev.
    -The reason is not important, but the comparative impunity of those responsible for failure is important. It even seems that the punishments are purely “Potemkin”.
    1. 0
      26 September 2019 06: 17
      Simple american translator

      Denis Overholzer
      it seems to me that the translator was still a Jew ....
      1. +4
        26 September 2019 06: 39
        Quote: Dead Day
        it seems to me that the translator was still a Jew ....

        it seems that Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev was not a Nanae.
        1. +10
          26 September 2019 07: 44
          Of course. Who else could the peasantry watts in a remote village in Altai?
        2. +3
          26 September 2019 12: 04
          Quote: Maki Avellevich
          Quote: Dead Day
          it seems to me that the translator was still a Jew ....

          it seems that Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev was not a Nanae.


          And where does Nazism? This is directly important Nanai or chatlanin.
  2. +19
    26 September 2019 05: 55
    With the F-104, the Americans showed that if the engine is powerful, then the wing, in principle, is not needed.
    With F-117 they proved that if the computers are good, then aerodynamics can not bother.
    With the F-35 it turned out that the laws of nature were waiting in the wings ...
    1. +8
      26 September 2019 06: 20
      Quote: dzvero
      With F-117 they proved that if the computers are good, then aerodynamics can not bother.

      I do not agree here, the plane is subsonic, so it makes no sense to bother with "aerodynamics", the trick is "stealth" on the radar screens.
    2. +5
      26 September 2019 06: 41
      Quote: dzvero
      With F-117 they proved that if the computers are good, then aerodynamics can not bother.

      among other things, aerodynamics is also the consumption of kerosene.
      with this, too, do not bother?
    3. +1
      27 September 2019 09: 57
      When the director of Lockheed Martin saw this pepelats, he scooped up the blueprints and slammed the door loudly, because he himself did not know how to make this iron fly according to the laws of aerodynamics laughing As a result, years of torment and a top-secret wunderwaffe bring down Yugoslavs anti-aircraft guns laughing
  3. +10
    26 September 2019 06: 38
    Moreover, in the Soviet Union this work was not secret, so the Americans received the technology completely legally.
    Author, thanks! How many such developments have flowed abroad, scary to think? The Japanese subscribed and bought up all the small-scale informative magazines on science and technology. UT, Model Designer, TM and other publications. This is where there was a flow of information for the future. Model radio-controlled models have led to the creation of a new class of weapon-drones. But all this was described in magazines for children.
    1. +4
      26 September 2019 09: 56
      On the Internet, I read material that said that Ufimtsev’s work was planted by partners in order to lead them along the path of creating a stealth. Practice shows that this version is very believable.
      1. -1
        26 September 2019 14: 09
        Quote: Souchastnik
        On the Internet, I read material that said that Ufimtsev’s work was planted by partners in order to lead them along the path of creating a stealth. Practice shows that this version is very believable.

        so that su57 and pack also came out the same? The United States threw it in reverse, avenged! wassat
        1. 0
          29 September 2019 22: 21
          The Su-57 is neither like the F-117 nor the B-2. And the F-22 and F-35 too. And invisibility technology is not just an angular shape. The Su-57 can reach supersonic speed and is highly maneuverable. And there are a number of other technologies that provide low visibility. Plus, most likely, the future lies not in the re-reflection and scattering of waves, but in the absorption or formation of a signal that returns to the radars of potential "partners".
  4. +19
    26 September 2019 06: 55
    The work was devoted to a physical and mathematical algorithm by which it was possible to calculate the scattering area for an aircraft of any shape. That is, Ufimtsev’s work described how to make an airplane virtually invisible to air defense radars.

    A book that everyone mentions, but no one has read. And she is on the Internet.
    And when you watch it, you understand why no one forbade it to be released, if there it was described with formulas how to make the plane invisible, and where the censor looked when the secretaries disclosed it.
    Just because there is not what is usually attributed to her about the invisibility of aircraft and other things that the author did too.
    This book is a purely theoretical publication on radio optics, written by a young graduate student then based on the materials of other works of other authors, in fact this is the first section of the candidate, if anyone understands what it is about, the first stage of work on the dissertation is mandatory for the graduate student.
    The book is interesting in that it conveniently, compactly and structured contains a complete set of formulas for radio optics, which the Americans used, such a cheat sheet for the developer.
    But this book is purely theoretical, it does not consider the applied problems that are attributed to it.
    The fact that Ufimtsev worked in the field of radar and reduce the visibility of aircraft and achieved significant success in this is obvious.
    But ironically, thanks to the memoirs of the F-117 developers, in which they wrote that they used Ufimtsev's book, and the efforts of journalists of the 90s, his first book, in fact a brochure, which is a purely theoretical works of other authors "for specialists and a wide range of readers", as they liked to write in some technical literature then, and not by his own work, and which the young graduate student published for a little money, but much more solid and serious editions of his own works in this areas have been overshadowed by this brochure
    1. +4
      26 September 2019 07: 36
      Ufimtsev’s work has no relation to airplanes. The author of the article has planted a garden.
      1. +7
        26 September 2019 12: 09
        Quote: Designer 68
        Ufimtsev’s work has no relation to airplanes.
        It can also be said that Newton's work "Mathematical Foundations of Natural Philosophy" had nothing to do with artillery, ballistics, rocketry. There was not a word about it! And yet, it was from this work that ballistics and rocketry grew.
        1. +2
          26 September 2019 12: 49
          It can also be said that Newton's work "Mathematical Foundations of Natural Philosophy" had nothing to do with artillery, ballistics, rocketry. There was not a word about it!

          Do not write nonsense. No one pointed out that Newton invented artillery, ballistics and rocket. Unlike the author who writes
          A technology that can significantly reduce visibility in radar and other detection spectra is called stealth. And our compatriot Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev invented it.
          1. +2
            26 September 2019 17: 41
            Quote: Designer 68
            Do not write nonsense.

            Perhaps, I partially agree, since technology is a set of methods of work that allow you to implement a technical problem. But current technologies are based on a serious scientific background. Therefore, it can be argued: Ufimtsev prepared a theoretical basis, which was used to create the Stealth technology. Will this wording suit you?
            1. 0
              28 September 2019 07: 37
              Quote: astepanov
              Quote: Designer 68
              Do not write nonsense.

              Perhaps, I partially agree, since technology is a set of methods of work that allow you to implement a technical problem. But current technologies are based on a serious scientific background. Therefore, it can be argued: Ufimtsev prepared a theoretical basis, which was used to create the Stealth technology. Will this wording suit you?

              Well, even in this case, he is still a maximum co-author, because he did not write an algorithm for calculating the model of an airplane ...
              BUT in this side you can fasten the Wright brothers to the creation of SU57 ...
  5. +10
    26 September 2019 07: 22
    However, the first aircraft built using the “flying wing” technology was Have Blue, which has operated since 1977.
    What kind of nonsense? The same K-12 1936. THE USSR. Or Horten Ho 229. 1943. Germany.
    1. +5
      26 September 2019 07: 57
      Quote: Monar
      The same K-12 1936. THE USSR.
      hi Very interesting. Firebird. I was completely unaware of the existence of this machine.
      Grand Merci.)
      1. +2
        26 September 2019 08: 39
        You are welcome. By the way, K-12 was recommended for mass production. But ... There is already a story not about aviation.
        1. +1
          26 September 2019 09: 03
          I read a little about Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin. Sad hi
    2. +2
      26 September 2019 11: 13
      There are a lot of mistakes in the article, the US stealth aircraft began to be developed long before the books of Ufimtsev appeared, but without his theory they moved very slowly due to the fact that they had to test thousands of forms of aircraft in front of a real radar. Theory removed the need to use such methods
      1. +1
        26 September 2019 16: 09
        Because these are not mistakes, this is another stuffing that would create seething. Like a bunch of other articles nearby, revealing secrets as everything is wrong and as it should be.
  6. +4
    26 September 2019 07: 35
    bore the name Nighthawk - "Night Hawk." This is the name of the aircraft, which for some reason is considered a fighter, although it is more correctly attributed to attack aircraft

    How interesting .. F-117-attack aircraft .. The plane of the battlefield, ironed trenches, chasing tanks) ..
    1. +1
      26 September 2019 08: 32
      In Russian, the term strike aircraft somehow does not take root
      1. +3
        26 September 2019 08: 38
        F-117 clean bomber jacket
        1. +1
          26 September 2019 08: 42
          Small only.
        2. 0
          26 September 2019 08: 49
          The confusion occurred due to the fact that he was assigned (to confuse enemy intelligence) the letter "F" and not "B".
          1. 0
            26 September 2019 16: 10
            The confusion occurred because the author claims that it is an attack aircraft.
          2. +1
            26 September 2019 22: 08
            Quote: voyaka uh
            The confusion occurred due to the fact that he was assigned (to confuse enemy intelligence) the letter "F" and not "B".

            And in the name of the Amer bombers etr from the word Bomber or from Boeing?
            1. -2
              26 September 2019 23: 52
              A - attacker, B - bomber, F - fighter
              ---
              PP - pregnant penguin (this is F-35) laughing
              1. +1
                26 September 2019 23: 55
                Just all the bombers they have, from Boeing)
  7. +12
    26 September 2019 08: 14
    There is no prophet in his own country. Try to publish a scientific book, without "co-authors" in any way. For 20 years my father-in-law tried to publish a textbook (!) On geodesy in Uzbek (there were none), they refused. I didn't want to take on co-authors, he even agreed to publish at his own expense, they refused. At the end of his life he gave up, the book was published. Three authors, he is the last. I bought dozens of copies with copyright and handed them out for free to educational institutions. Soon he was gone.
  8. 0
    26 September 2019 08: 15
    V.V. Rozanov:
    “An unprecedented beauty has been given to us.
    And wealth is unheard of. It's Russia.
    But stupid children were wasting everything. This is RUSSIAN. ”
    1. +3
      26 September 2019 09: 26
      Quote: Alexander Ra
      But stupid children were wasting everything

      That's right, stupid. Therefore, we position ourselves this way. Then we wonder why they don't take us seriously? But because stupid and stupid we advertise ourselves. I think that not everything said by the "greats" should be repeated after them. It is necessary to comprehend what has been said and draw conclusions. And to socialize someone's individual shortcomings for the whole nation, whatever, in general, is utter nonsense with an admixture of everyday racism.
      1. -3
        26 September 2019 11: 56
        Thanks to the "great" - the brain is adjusted. Already 30 years of general anesthesia, insensibility and irresponsibility to any sabotage-reforms - are these “separate shortcomings”? General irresponsibility to oneself, to one's people, to ancestors and descendants. This is our infamous positioning. We agree to slowly lose, but we are afraid to stop the great defeat, cowardly shifting this work onto children. Give examples of general "meaningfulness" and "conclusions" with the result.
        1. -3
          26 September 2019 16: 13
          More whining and propaganda of anti-Russian nonsense. The fact that you have been credited with gullibility, naivety and stupidity with this in your head does not mean that it is. This means that someone knows how to use propaganda. Congratulations, the experiment was successful.
      2. +1
        26 September 2019 14: 07
        Come on you. To honor our classics, it’s the same thing from century to century: ordinary people in the ass, officials are taken not by rank, they aren’t given a move, and so on.
        "The mind cannot understand Russia ..." Tyutchev, 1866. Three state systems have changed, and the phrase is relevant to this day.
        1. 0
          26 September 2019 16: 14
          And no one ever reads where the people of millions did not make money, and all their lives worked for their conscience. In different places, in different posts. They lived differently, but were people. about such is not interesting ...
  9. sen
    0
    26 September 2019 08: 22
    There are enough such unrecognized people in Russia. Official science, at best, does not pay attention to them, and the West carefully studies and gives grants to some with the condition of exclusive transfer of all data to them.
    1. +1
      26 September 2019 17: 08
      My grandmother was the chief economist of a plant for the production of sparkless mine electrical equipment, and her husband was the chief economist of a mine support plant (the plant worked for the defense industry and made launching shafts). They have never been to the resorts either for a ticket or for their own. Although the grandmother monthly wound up in one of the "books" on Kutuzovsky Prospect to the Ministry of the Coal Industry.
      I think 3/4 of the people in the USSR were so hard on me.
  10. +7
    26 September 2019 08: 33
    Yuri Kuzhelev in Varspot had a mini-cycle of articles on the creation of American stealth aircraft. Let's just say it all started much earlier than the notorious article ...
    https://warspot.ru/12731-stels-pervye-pyat-let
    https://warspot.ru/2992-eschyo-ne-triumf-no-uspeh
    He writes this:
    The main source of the version with Ufimtsev’s priority is the memoirs of Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich, the second head of Skunk Works, who took this post after Johnson. They were published in 1994, and although they are an extremely valuable source of information, they have the same problems as any other eyewitness accounts. If at the time of publication there were no questions to the memoirs, then after 20 years there has been more declassified information, and now we can say that Rich accurately sets out the general outline of events, but little things often fail him.

    We will not discuss the reasons for such errors, as well as the reason that he considers the discovery of Ufimtsev materials the start of all subsequent work on stealth. Fortunately, some other materials on this subject are already available to us. There is a set of reports of the mid and late 90s at conferences of the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA), devoted to the history of the ECHO 1 program, which mentions that Ufimtsev’s work allowed “to cut corners and quickly reach a satisfactory result”. This is also confirmed by the memoirs of other Lockheed employees of that time, indicating that with the help of Ufimtsev's work, already existing developments in the program and theory were brought to mind.

    Nevertheless, Ufimtsev’s research really served as the basis for work on stealth, but not with Lockheed, but with their competitors. The main work of Northrop engineers on the topic of Incremental Length Diffraction Coefficients really used Ufimtsev's work as a basis, which they did not deny, since they had only limited access to work on stealth, conducted earlier under the auspices of the CIA. It was she who was used to create their GENSCAT program, an analogue of ECHO 1. But in the end it turned out that the Lockheed mathematical apparatus, known as the Method of Equivalent Currents, shows itself better than its competitors, taking into account the influence of Ufimtsev’s work. A variant of the XST Northrop program lost to the Lockheed variant, including due to an insufficient level of invisibility. In the future, both methods were finalized through borrowing from each other and became the main basis of the stealth theory.

    In general, the conclusions are simple. Ufimtsev did not invent stealth - work on it went actively both before and after its publication. Ufimtsev's theory is not something truly breakthrough; if it had not been published, work on stealth would slow down for months, it is unlikely - for a year or two, but in no case would fail. On the other hand, Ufimtsev deserves fame as one of the authors of the stealth theory, which is proved by his recognition in the West, where he works to this day. In addition, it can be argued that his work could become the basis for the Soviet version of stealth if they had been given due attention in due time.
  11. +5
    26 September 2019 08: 43
    World turned upside down!
    For the first time, someone in an article recognized the F-117 as a successful aircraft laughing
    And the consensus is broken that "stealth" technology is cutting the US budget.
    1. +2
      26 September 2019 09: 11
      Quote: voyaka uh
      And the consensus is broken that "stealth" technology is cutting the US budget.

      Practice has shown that yes - cut the budget. In the late 90s there was an interview with Ufimtsev, where he popularly explained that there was no absolute invisibility. I don’t remember exactly, the thing is the separation in space of the emitter and receiver, another wavelength. Improved radars and 117 scrapped. Geometry is a dead end way to reduce visibility, but it decreases somewhere, but Americans rely on coatings, we used to have infa, on plasma (as it is now, no one writes).
      1. +5
        26 September 2019 09: 18
        "where he popularly explained that there is no absolute invisibility" ////
        ----
        No one is trying to achieve absolute invisibility.
        It is enough that the radar of the air defense complex is not capable of steadily capturing the target and leading to it missiles.
        And this is quite achieved.
        And further: at least how to carry the receiver and emitter, at least how to increase the wavelength.
        If the radar leading the rocket does not steadily capture the target, everything else is dead to the poultice.
        1. 0
          26 September 2019 14: 16
          Quote: voyaka uh
          If the radar leading the rocket does not steadily capture the target, everything else is dead to the poultice.

          The paramount task is to detect the target at all, after the detection, the radiation pattern is narrowed, while the signal is being amplified, the target is confidently followed. And the maneuvers of this very target, even without stealth technology, lead to a short-term loss of a target, though this is already a fuel consumption and a loss of surprise. As proof, all the same, they wrote off the F117, you can make the iron fly, but it will not become a good plane, at least with modern engines. And then went quite a classic F22 and F35 aircraft.
          1. -1
            26 September 2019 14: 39
            "classic aircraft F22 and F35." ////
            ----
            Both F-22 and F-35 are 100% stealth. Like the B-2 and the future B-21.
            And others are not expected.
            Thanks to the genius of Ufimtsev. drinks
            1. 0
              26 September 2019 15: 40
              Quote: voyaka uh
              Both F-22 and F-35 are 100% stealth. Like the B-2 and the future B-21.

              I agree, but in F-22 and F-35, coverage is the main one in their stealth. B-2 was designed under the influence of F-117. For DB, maneuverability is not so important, so you can shamanize with geometry.
              1. -1
                26 September 2019 16: 22
                Quote: qqqq
                but in F-22 and F-35 the main in their stealth is coverage.

                Something is somehow debatable.
                Quote: qqqq
                B-2 was designed under the influence of F-117.

                yah.
  12. -2
    26 September 2019 08: 57
    In FEFU, they are reducing the recruitment for engineering specialties due to the fact that it is required to show a higher score for applicants for the exam. And the fact that 80 points in IT in history and 40 in physics is like a priest and a finger does not bother anyone. And you are stealth, stealth ...
  13. 0
    26 September 2019 09: 16
    I heard a lot about Peter Yakovlevich ..
    And about the book about the contribution, and even about the fact that he was specially abandoned in the USA in order to ruin the enemy’s miracle weapon .. winked Therefore, no one in the USSR became interested in theory.
    I was interested in something else. He lived, was treated, and studied in the same city with me.
    Even a graduate of the same university. True, he studied physics and mathematics. His faculty is in the center (at Peter the Great). Perhaps that is why I did not know for a long time that such a person came out of the faculty.

    Soviet / American scientist is still working. Lectures. (Read in the Russian Federation in 2007)
    geniuses of a great country ... (even two things happened)
    1. +1
      26 September 2019 22: 13
      the geniuses of a great country ... (


      Well, well ... More modest. There were at least five such geniuses (without quotation marks) in decent technical universities (and in the military too) during the Soviet era. And there is not a single technical problem or topic where one single person “pointed and illuminated the way” to everyone. In fundamental science - maybe, and that's the question.
      Aircraft with low ESR have been known since the late 40s. Just before the advent of air-to-air missiles with radar seeker with decent characteristics, everyone did not care about troubles with decreasing ranges. In the mid-70s, STRs and SPPs on airplanes were enough to withstand racquets from 30 km range (on average), and the radiation warning station detected a leading radar search long before it could see anything.
  14. +3
    26 September 2019 09: 48
    "The father is not the one who gave birth, but the one who raised" - the feminists squeal.
    Responsibly declare - well done not the one who invented, but the one who introduced!
    1. 0
      26 September 2019 11: 50
      In Russia (and the USSR), it was traditionally taught to consider the inventor of the one who invented, and not the one who understood how to use and implemented. Mozhaisky airplane example. Which did not fly and could hardly fly. Unlike the Wright brothers' aircraft. Or the radio of Popov and Marconi.

      Moreover, we have always had a strong lag in electronics and computers. And without it, no stealth would have flown. And it is the progress of computing power that drives stealth generation changes so much, which is why the F117 have long been decommissioned, and now the B-2 is waiting for a replacement.

      In a book by Ben Rich it is written that the success of the F117 consisted of several components, without each of which, the plane would not have flown or would have been unnecessary.
      - computer control, allowing the pilot to control the aircraft. Manually failed
      - high-precision weapons (laser-guided bombs) without which the F117 would be meaningless. What is the use of flying unnoticed to the target, if you fly, you cannot inflict damage and not be shot down?
      - the development of effective tactics for the use of stealth - that is, night raids to previously detected targets, suppression of air defense
      1. The comment was deleted.
      2. 0
        26 September 2019 17: 01
        This is how "bright minds" fight against bureaucratic short-sightedness, and then about venality, when "unnecessary / unpromising" innovations "drain" into the camp of an adversary and find understanding and application there. Alas.
  15. +1
    26 September 2019 10: 45
    Another myth called "Russian stealth" has been launched on the Internet.
    Let's start with Peter Yakovlevich Ufimtsev and his book. Ufimtsev, as a scientist, in the USSR received full recognition, becoming a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences and professor, laureate of the State Prize.
    But he didn't invent stealth. In 1962, he collected his articles previously published in the process of preparing his Ph.D. thesis and published them in a small book "The method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction."
    The book was intended for senior students, graduate students and radio engineers specializing in antennas and radio wave propagation.

    This book is on the net and anyone can read it and make sure that it is devoted to the development of the mathematical apparatus of the physical theory of diffraction based on the development of earlier ideas of the Scottish physicist Maxwell and the German physicist Sommerfeld, as well as familiarize himself with the conclusions of the author. They are purely theoretical in nature and there is not a word about their practical application.
    1. +3
      26 September 2019 11: 27
      Denis Overholzer worked in the office of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the early 1970's. The young man did not hold high posts, but, thanks to his knowledge of the Russian language, his duties included familiarizing himself with technical publications published in the Soviet Union. Denis translated them into English.
      Now about Oversoul. He never translated the books of Ufimtsev. And did not know the Russian language.
      The book was translated in 1971 in the foreign technology department of the National Center for Aerospace Intelligence, which tracked relevant technical literature around the world.
      And four years later, she caught the eye of one of the leading developers of the Lockheed Have Blue project Overhead. Lockheed Martin's secret division, Skunk Works, worked on this project.
      The problem was in a computer program for calculating the EPR of aircraft of various shapes Echo 1, or rather, not in the program, but in creating an algorithm for calculating wave diffraction on a body of a polygonal cross section, the prototype of the future stealth. The book was very useful, as it contained the desired formulas! This is exactly what Overholser emphasizes in his memoirs.
      Incidentally, he is one of three patent holders on the F-117.
  16. +7
    26 September 2019 10: 47
    The F-117 stealth technology was built not on one Ufimtsev effect, but on four:
    - dispersion of radio waves of the centimeter, decimeter and meter ranges using the faceted form of a glider and V-shaped plumage (Ufimtsev effect);
    - absorption of radio waves of the centimeter range by coating the airframe with a polymer-ferrite coating (German technology);
    - absorption of decimeter-wave radio waves using a honeycomb filler glider (American technology);
    - blocking the direct visibility of the compressor and engine turbine due to curved air and gas channels (American technology).

    The Ufimtsev effect was triggered only by radar exposure of the aircraft from the front hemisphere. And in Yugoslavia, the F-117 was caught by a Serbian air defense system when it flew at an altitude of 4 km (covered by cloud cover) and in this connection was detected by a surveillance radar at a distance of ~ 30 km and taken for tracking by a target radar at a distance of ~ 15 km.

    At the same time, Americans forbade F-117 pilots to fly at low altitudes due to information about equipping an air defense system with an infrared guidance channel, as well as because of the terrain and the limited maneuverability of the stealth plane (the second F-117 crashed, crashing into the top of the hill during trying to fly at low altitude).

    After that, the F-117 was recalled to the American mainland base, mothballed and ultimately withdrawn from service.
    1. 0
      26 September 2019 11: 25
      This is in a parallel reality "After which the F-117 was recalled to the American mainland base, mothballed and ultimately removed from service."
      In fact, before F 117, until 2008 he flew in the Air Force, and still flies. The last military use dates back to 2003, Iraq.
      As for Serbia, it was very effective, in Belgrade at one time I had to see with my own eyes 2 buildings on the same street with the American embassy (the Serbs called them "military police" and "army headquarters", for some reason they simply fenced off and did not repair at that time, even the curtains were hanging on the windows) - the bombs were definitely laid down, it was clear from the reinforcement and broken concrete how the bomb flew before the explosion. And I also had to look at the building of the television center. It was embarrassing to take pictures when people say "we sat at night and waited on whom the bomb would fall" to take a camera in hand ...
      A good question, by the way, how F117 was shot down, the version about s125 is similar to the truth. In the photographs of the wreckage, holes not clearly provided for by the construction are visible, there are more holes from the airguns, but here the specialist should say that for the striking elements ... Bongo, probably, could ...
      1. +1
        26 September 2019 11: 42
        In Belgrade, until recently, many buildings have not been repaired after the bombing.
      2. -2
        26 September 2019 13: 21
        as far as I heard, 2 f-117s were shot down there. both are victims of template tactics
        along unchanging routes.
        the first was ambushed by the S-125 in hilly or mountainous terrain
        the second was caught on a fighter MIG-17 or 19 (I don’t remember) and shot from cannons.
        1. +1
          27 September 2019 14: 24
          About 2 F117 as it is not very hard to believe ... feel
          Unfortunately, nothing good was found about the air war in Yugoslavia. For a long time in the history of aviation there was a series of articles, the data of course now does not look very much:
          http://e-libra.su/read/362127-istoriya-aviacii-1999-01.html
          http://e-libra.su/read/362128-istoriya-aviacii-2000-01.html
          It seems that Bulakh was going to reissue the corrected, but something was quiet ...
          1. 0
            27 September 2019 15: 33
            the trick is that in the case of the s-125 it is said that the downed 117 was pulled somewhere with smoke and a drop and a wreckage cannot be presented. Also, after the operation in Yugoslavia, 4 f-117 did not return to the base. Where did it go - no comments, but neither the pilots nor the cars returned to their base.
  17. 0
    26 September 2019 11: 13
    In the 1990s, the “brain drain” became a serious problem in post-Soviet Russia.

    This problem is still relevant today. Not only "brains", "hands" are leaking. Heads and hands that can do a lot of useful things, but no longer for us ...
    1. +1
      26 September 2019 16: 26
      Quote: Brylevsky
      to this day.

      Quote: Brylevsky
      Not only "brains", "hands" are leaking.

      I can not disagree.
  18. -1
    26 September 2019 11: 35
    Quote: Wildcat
    F 117 ... flies so far

    In your alternate reality laughing
  19. +2
    26 September 2019 11: 43
    The article is good.
    It should be borne in mind that one theoretical base does not give a finished product as a result - long-term applied research is needed.
    In relation to a glider, this is designing taking into account the direction of reflective surfaces for maximum dispersion of radar radiation. With regard to coating, a huge experimental base is required for special scattering coatings having the necessary strength properties that are resistant to operating conditions on aircraft.
    That is, the article by Ufimtsev itself, this is not even the tip of the iceberg - this is only the beginning of the stage of applied research.
  20. -3
    26 September 2019 11: 54
    Pyotr Ufimtsev did not reach career heights, although in 1970 he defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. However, his contribution to science was very significant. He laid the foundation for the physical theory of diffraction

    Did not pass the courses:
  21. +1
    26 September 2019 13: 18
    Quote: Dead Day
    I do not agree here, the plane is subsonic, so it makes no sense to bother with "aerodynamics"

    f-117 and a number of other stealth really did not want to fly at all. The Americans spent a lot of effort to make it fly somehow. Even the f-22 had problems.
  22. 0
    26 September 2019 15: 34
    Stealth technology can collapse at one point. To destroy it, it is enough to use a new type of electronic device that provides a higher energy density, namely an electronic magnetic pulse, which greatly expands the scale of both the transmitted and perceived electronic magnetic flux. Only there is reason that it will also float away from Russia.
    1. -1
      26 September 2019 16: 29
      Quote: gridasov
      Only there is reason that it will also float away from Russia.

      It didn’t occur to you that in the modern world there is almost no such thing as “only they can do that”. For any breakthrough research or evolutionary development in the world, analogs appear here and there. And as it is not very important to become where the track was originally laid.
      Quote: gridasov
      providing a higher energy density, namely, an electric magnetic pulse, which significantly expands the scale of both the transmitted and perceived electronic magnetic flux.

      Yeah, and even a little denser and they can also shoot down.
      1. +1
        26 September 2019 18: 10
        Everything is true! Only in fundamental discoveries in the field of mathematics can the advance in the development and application of new technologies be longer than in cases where the theoretical foundations, like the initial ones, are the same for everyone. And of course you are right that the line between defensive tasks and the damaging effect in the application is very ghostly
      2. +2
        26 September 2019 22: 32
        It never occurred to you .....,

        request The bot under the nickname "Gridasov" has no head. Alas, only a school-level program with which they are trying to fool us for a year.
  23. 0
    26 September 2019 17: 06
    Quote: lexus
    This is how "bright minds" fight against bureaucratic short-sightedness, and then about venality, when "unnecessary / unpromising" innovations "drain" into the camp of an adversary and find understanding and application there. Alas.

    Just today at a chess club at the faculty asked. ..Our subject was suspended in Weizmann’s makhon. Here the guys are not the last. Just asked about the role of Ufimtsev. Some did not know him at all.
    PS. Yes, I have an old habit with the guys here to play chess, at the physics department.
  24. 0
    26 September 2019 22: 50
    What is the author’s "systemic" mistake: the words about "the state did not notice," "the state needs to pay more attention to scientists." And he himself writes that "officials from science did not attach importance."
    And in the US, "officials attached"? Or employees of a company interested in success in a competitive environment?
    1. +1
      27 September 2019 07: 53
      The fool is not the one who makes mistakes, but who repeats them. The ability to see the prospects for the development of processes in the future is not the lot of ordinary officials.
  25. 0
    27 September 2019 14: 54
    Quote: Dead Day
    it seems to me that the translator was still a Jew ....

    I agree.
    This thesis confirms the typical behavior of the person involved: he received a free education, got a non-dusty job (well, not to slaughter or go to the collective farm), then fleeing the hill and intoxicating service for the benefit of a potential adversary.
  26. 0
    29 September 2019 20: 22
    Was Overholser a "simple translator" doing translations at Lockheed? And he translated Ufimtsev himself?
    Lol, it’s necessary not to know the story.
  27. 0
    30 September 2019 16: 28
    Quote: Arturov
    BUT in this side you can fasten the Wright brothers to the creation of SU57 ...

    Wright brothers did the Chinese - this is their scheme)))
  28. 2ez
    0
    2 October 2019 00: 24
    But to complete the list, we decided to show you what else the Russians invented and what achievements they had:

    P.N. Yablochkov and A.N. Lodygin: the world's first light bulb

    A.S. Popov: radio

    A.F. Mozhaysky: the world's first aircraft

    A.M. Ponyatov: the world's first VCR

    S.P. Korolev: the world's first ballistic missile, spacecraft, first Earth satellite

    A.M. Prokhorov and N.G. Basov: the world's first quantum generator - maser

    S.V. Kovalevskaya: the first woman professor in the world

    CM. Prokudin-Gorsky: the world's first color photo

    A.A. Alekseev: needle screen maker

    F. Pirotsky: the world's first electric tram

    F. Blinov: the world's first caterpillar tractor

    V.A. Starevich: three-dimensionally animated movie

    EAT. Artamonov: the world's first bike with pedals, a steering wheel and a turning wheel

    O.V. Losev: the world's first amplifying and generating semiconductor device

    V.P. Mutilin: the world's first construction combine

    A. R. Vlasenko: the world's first grain harvesting machine

    V.P. Demikhov: the first in the world to have a lung transplant and the first to create an artificial heart model

    HELL. Sakharov: the world's first hydrogen bomb

    I.I. Crawler: the world's first heat engine

    I.V. Kurchatov: the world's first nuclear power plant

    M.O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky: invented a three-phase current system, built a three-phase transformer

    S.O. Kostovich: created in 1879 the world's first gasoline engine

    V.P. Glushko: the world's first electrothermal rocket engine

    V.V. Petrov: discovered the phenomenon of an arc discharge

    I.F. Aleksandrovsky: invented a stereo camera

    D.P. Grigorovich: created a seaplane

    V.G. Fedorov: the first automatic machine in the world

    A.K. Nartov: built the world's first lathe with a movable support

    M.V. Lomonosov: for the first time in science, he formulated the principle of conservation of matter and motion, for the first time in the world he began to take a course in physical chemistry, for the first time discovered the existence of the atmosphere on Venus

    I.P. Kulibin: developed the design of the world's first wooden arched single-span bridge

    YES. Zagryazhsky: invented the caterpillar move

    N.I. Pirogov: invented anesthesia, gypsum, and also compiled an atlas “Topographic Anatomy”

    THEM. Sechenov: creator of evolutionary and other schools of physiology

    DI. Mendeleev: discovered the periodic law of chemical elements, created a periodic system of chemical elements

    K.S. Dzhevetsky: the first submarine with an electric motor

    IN AND. Sreznevsky: the world's first aerial camera

    CM. Apostolov-Berdichevsky and M.F. Freudenberg: the first automatic telephone exchange

    K.E. Tsiolkovsky: founder of astronautics

    I.P. Pavlov: creator of the science of higher nervous activity

    IN AND. Vernadsky: natural scientist, creator of many scientific schools

    A.N. Scriabin: composer, introduced the concept of “color music”, was the first to use light in his productions

    S.V. Lebedev: first received artificial rubber

    G.A. Tikhov: an astronomer who established in 1909 that the Earth when observing it from blue space


    Source: https://travelask.ru/blog/posts/9459-vosem-velikih-russkih-izobreteniy-kotorye-izmenili-nash-mir
    there are still Russians who conquered the world ... Sikorsky, Kupriyanovich (prototype of a cell phone) and other Zvorykins ... And what is the result?
  29. 0
    2 October 2019 17: 15
    Actually, this whole stealth scam was created to siphon money out of taxpayers. If you look sensibly, then any weapon should be effective, that is, powerful, fast and simple, like a Kalashnikov assault rifle or like a felt boot that was thrown onto the button of a nuclear missile from a joke. And invisibility is bullshit, for a high-tech enemy it is not an obstacle to shoot him down, but for a low-tech enemy it is unnecessary.
    All these conversations initiated and supported by the Americans about radar invisibility are simply primitive profanity, amateurism and an advertising scam. True invisibility will be possible when the object, changing the fabric of the universe, can move in the space-time continuum, that is, it simply will not be in that place at that time, it will always be in front or behind the temporal and spatial stream.
  30. 0
    27 October 2019 16: 36
    The gentlemen are good. Has anyone read Ufimtsev's book? He also proves in it that when the wavelength of the radar changes, "invisibility" disappears. The Americans built the F-117 taking into account the decimeter range of their radars. Yugoslavia used the C-125 operating in the metronome range, so the F-117 and the small one are invisible to them. The result is known to everyone, and Ufimtsev's theory was studied by military scientists of the USSR and was not recognized promisingly, and then "gift" to the Americans. That's it.
  31. 0
    30 November 2019 20: 05
    if you look at the topic more broadly, then I perceive this whole story as a super-operation of the Soviet special services. It all started when in the USA, through Denis Overholzer, they slipped into Lockheed a book by our Soviet physicist Pyotr Yakovlevich Ufimtsev "The method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction." In it, he substantiated the idea of ​​ensuring radar "invisibility" ..

    And work in the United States began to boil. The result was the F-117, then the B-2 appeared .. and the crown of this whole story after the Americans were "sold" the Yak-141 blueprints, was the "best aircraft of all times and peoples of the 5th generation" F-35.

    But there were other results: in the United States, the school of building combat aircraft was lost, a bet was made on "invisible" aircraft, trillions of money, millions of man-hours and decades were spent. And as a result, the most expensive aircraft were obtained, but not at all as efficient as the United States would like.

    The American school of military aircraft construction is at an impasse and no one knows how to get out of it - for trillions have been spent.

    Of course, these are my personal speculations .. but it hurts everything fits well into the outline of events. And if this is actually so, then those heroes of the invisible front who skillfully led the United States into such a dead end are worthy of the highest assessment of our society. Even if society never learns about them.