On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen U.S. aircraft appeared
in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes
seemed to come from nowhere. Their angular shape, making them look
like flying origami, rendered them virtually undetectable. Each
aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40
feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here
was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology.
And it was devastating. Peter Westwick's new book illuminates the
story behind these aircraft, the F-117A, also known as the Stealth
Fighter, and their close cousin the B-2, also known as the Stealth
Bomber. The development of Stealth unfolded over decades. Radar has
been in use since the 1930s and was essential to the Allies in
World War Two, when American investment in radar exceeded that in
the Manhattan Project. The atom bomb ended the war, conventional
wisdom has it, but radar won it. That experience also raised a
question: could a plane be developed that was invisible to radar?
That question, and the seemingly impossible feat of physics and
engineering behind it, took on increasing urgency during the Cold
War, when the United States searched for a way both to defend its
airspace and send a plane through Soviet skies undetected. Thus
started the race for Stealth. At heart, Stealth is a tale of not
just two aircraft but the two aerospace companies that made them,
Lockheed and Northrop, guided by contrasting philosophies and
outsized personalities. Beginning in the 1970s, the two firms
entered into a fierce competition, one with high financial stakes
and conducted at the highest levels of secrecy in the Cold War.
They approached the problem of Stealth from different perspectives,
one that pitted aeronautical designers against electrical
engineers, those who relied on intuition against those who pursued
computer algorithms. The two different approaches manifested in two
very different solutions to Stealth, clearly evident in the
aircraft themselves: the F-117 composed of flat facets, the B-2 of
curves. For all their differences, Lockheed and Northrop were
located twenty miles apart in the aerospace suburbs of Los Angeles,
not far from Disneyland. This was no coincidence. The creative
culture of postwar Southern California-unorthodox, ambitious, and
future-oriented-played a key role in Stealth. Combining nail-biting
narrative, incisive explanation of the science and technology
involved, and indelible portraits of unforgettable characters,
Stealth immerses readers in the story of an innovation with
revolutionary implications for modern warfare.
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