The advent of Stealth aircraft

Discussions on alternate history, including events up to 20 years before today. Hosted by Terry Duncan.
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phylo_roadking
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#31

Post by phylo_roadking » 13 Jul 2007, 14:41

The Lichtenstein airborne sets are usually regarded as a "wonderweapon"...but most people forget they had TWO really bad inherent faults - the first was its range - it was ONLY effective within two and a half miles of a target!!! Second, it was tied to just one wavelength, and the advent of "window" effectively blocked this immediately Lichtenstein only had a very small window of usefulness.

maltesefalcon
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#32

Post by maltesefalcon » 13 Jul 2007, 23:44

phylo_roadking wrote:The Lichtenstein airborne sets are usually regarded as a "wonderweapon"...but most people forget they had TWO really bad inherent faults - the first was its range - it was ONLY effective within two and a half miles of a target!!! Second, it was tied to just one wavelength, and the advent of "window" effectively blocked this immediately Lichtenstein only had a very small window of usefulness.
It had another fault-because it was still based on a fairly long wavelength by today's standards, it needed a fairly large and cumbersome antenna apparatus. This array was so heavy and caused so much drag, that it significantly reduced the aircraft's performance.


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phylo_roadking
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#33

Post by phylo_roadking » 14 Jul 2007, 00:02

Only part of the fault that reduced an Me110G's speed by 35 knots - most of the loss was actually due to the flame suppressors over the exhaust nozzles for night flying - it de-tuned the exhaust stubs.

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#34

Post by maltesefalcon » 17 Jul 2007, 02:39

Visionist wrote:
maltesefalcon wrote:Stealth aircraft were only useful once precision gudied weapon systems were available; complete with night vision targeting.

This would enable fairly small raids to accomplish what took thousands of sorties previously.
Indeed, and the Germans had developed both precision weapons and low light tv to a proficient degree by war's end.

Imagine a Horten stealth bomber dropping a guided nuke on Fort Knox?!

Stretching things, certainly, but imagine it?...
Both the US and German flying wing designs were designed as such to promote long range (perhaps intercontinental) bombing. They simply had less drag, hence better fuel efficiency.

The reduced radar profile was just a happy accident.

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