The Su-27 is a highly maneuverable air superiority aircraft. About 600 machines of all modifications were built.
The F-16 "Fighting Falcon" is a light multirole fighter. 4500 cars built.
The F-117A "Nighthawk" is a subsonic tactical strike aircraft made using stealth technology. 59 combat vehicles and 5 YF-117 prototypes built.

Question: how did an aircraft built in such an insignificant amount become one of the most striking symbols of aviation at the end of the 20th century? "Stealth" sounds like a sentence. 59 tactical bombers turned into a terrible scarecrow, the most terrible threat, eclipsing all other military means of NATO countries.

What's this? The result of the unusual appearance of the aircraft, coupled with aggressive PR? Or, indeed, the revolutionary technical solutions used in the Lockheed F-117 made it possible to create an aircraft with unique combat qualities?

Stealth Technology

This is the name of a set of methods for reducing the visibility of combat vehicles in the radar, infrared and other areas of the detection spectrum by means of specially designed geometric shapes, radar-absorbing materials and coatings, which significantly reduces the detection range and thereby increases the survivability of the combat vehicle.

Everything new is well-forgotten old. Even 70 years ago, the Germans were very upset by the British high-speed bomber DeHavilland Mosquito. High speed was only half the problem. During interception attempts, it suddenly turned out that the all-wood Mosquito was practically invisible on radar - the tree was transparent to radio waves.

A similar property was even more possessed by the German "wunderwaffe" Go.229, a jet fighter-bomber created under the 1000/1000/1000 program. A solid wood miracle without vertical keels, similar to a stingray fish, logically was generally invisible to the British radars of those years. The appearance of the Go.229 is very reminiscent of the modern American "stealth" bomber B-2 "Spirit", which gives some reason to believe that the American designers kindly took advantage of the ideas of their colleagues from the Third Reich.

On the other hand, the Horten brothers, when creating their Go.229, hardly attached any sacred meaning to the design, they only seemed to have a promising “flying wing” scheme. Under the terms of the military order, Go.229 was supposed to deliver one ton of bombs to a range of 1000 km at a speed of 1000 km/h. And stealth was the tenth thing. In addition, attention was paid to reducing radar visibility when creating the Avro Vulkan strategic bomber (UK, 1952) and the SR-71 Black Bird supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft (USA, 1964).

The first studies in this area showed that flat shapes with tapering sides have a lower RCS (“effective scattering area” is a key parameter of aircraft visibility). In order to reduce radar visibility, the vertical tail was tilted relative to the plane of the aircraft so as not to create a right angle with the fuselage, which is an ideal reflector. For the Blackbird, multilayer ferromagnetic coatings were specially developed to absorb radar radiation.

In a word, by the time work began on the secret Senior Trend project - the creation of an inconspicuous strike aircraft - the engineers already had good developments in the field of reducing the EPR of aircraft.

"Night Hawk"

When developing the "invisible" for the first time in history, the goal was to reduce all, without exception, the unmasking factors of the aircraft:
- the ability to reflect radar exposure;
- emit electromagnetic waves yourself;
- make a sound;
- leave smoky and contrail traces;
— to be imperceptible in the infrared range.

Of course, there was no radar station on the F-11A7 - in conditions of secrecy, it was impossible to use such a device. During the flight in Stealth mode, all onboard radio communication systems, the "friend or foe" transponder and radio altimeter must be turned off, and the sighting and navigation system must operate in passive mode. The only exception is the laser illumination of the target, it turns on after the release of an adjustable bomb.

The lack of modern avionics, combined with problematic aerodynamics, as well as longitudinal static and directional instability, meant a great risk when piloting the "stealth".

To reduce design time and eliminate many technical problems, designers used a number of proven elements of existing aircraft on the F-117A. So, the stealth engines were taken from the F / A-18 carrier-based fighter-bomber, some elements of the control system were taken from the F-16. The aircraft also used a number of components from the epic SR-71 and the T-33 training aircraft.

As a result, such an innovative machine was designed faster and cheaper than a conventional strike aircraft. Lockheed is proud of this fact, alluding to the use of cutting-edge CAD (computer-aided design systems) at the time. Although there is a different opinion here - just because of secrecy, the program for creating "invisibility" avoided the stage of a long and often meaningless discussion in Congress and other bastions of American democracy.

Now it’s worth making a few remarks about the Stealth technology itself, implemented specifically on the Nighthawk aircraft (it’s no secret that there are different ways to reduce the radar visibility of an aircraft; the same PAK FA implements completely different principles - the parallelism of the edges and the “flattened” shape of the fuselage ). In the case of the F-117A, it was the apotheosis of stealth technology - everything was subordinated exclusively to stealth, regardless of the aerobatic qualities of the machine. 30 years after the creation of the aircraft, many interesting details have become known.

In theory, stealth technology works as follows: Numerous facets implemented in the aircraft architecture scatter radar radiation in the opposite direction from the radar antenna. From which side not to try to establish radar contact with the aircraft - this “distorted mirror” will reflect the radio beams in the other direction. In addition, the outer surfaces of the F-117 are inclined at an angle of more than 30° from the vertical, as Usually, the exposure of an aircraft to ground-based radars occurs at gentle angles.

If you irradiate the F-117 from different angles and then look at the reflection pattern, it turns out that the strongest "flare" is given by the sharp edges of the F-117 hull and places of discontinuity in the skin. Designers have ensured that their reflections are concentrated in several narrow sectors, and not distributed relatively evenly, as in the case of conventional aircraft. As a result, when irradiated by the F-117 radar, the reflected radiation is difficult to distinguish from background noise, and the “dangerous sectors” are so narrow that the radar cannot extract sufficient information from them.

All contours of the articulation of the canopy and the fuselage, the doors of the landing gear niches and the armament compartment have sawtooth edges, with the sides of the teeth oriented in the direction of the desired sector. The glazing of the pilot's cockpit canopy is coated with an electrically conductive coating designed to prevent irradiation of the in-cabin equipment and pilot's equipment - a microphone, a helmet, night vision goggles. For example, the reflection from the pilot's helmet can be much larger than from the entire aircraft.

The air intakes of the F-117 are covered with special gratings with cell sizes close to half the wavelength of radars operating in the centimeter range. The electrical resistivity of the gratings is optimized to absorb radio waves, and it increases with the depth of the grating to prevent a jump in resistance (which increases reflection) at the interface with air.

All external surfaces and internal metal elements of the aircraft are painted with ferromagnetic paint. Its black color not only camouflages the F-117 in the night sky, but also aids in heat dissipation. As a result, the RCS of "stealth" when irradiated from frontal and tail angles is reduced to 0.1-0.01 m 2, which is about 100-200 times less than that of a conventional aircraft of similar dimensions.

Considering that the most massive air defense systems of the Warsaw Pact countries (S-75, S-125, S-200, "Circle", "Cube"), which were in service at that time, could fire at targets with an EPR of at least 1 m 2, then the chances of Nighthawk to penetrate enemy airspace with impunity looked very impressive. Hence the first production plans: to produce in addition to 5 pre-production aircraft another 100 production aircraft.

Lockheed designers have taken a number of measures to reduce the thermal radiation of their offspring. The area of ​​the air intakes was made larger than required for the normal operation of the engines, and the excess cold air was directed to mix with hot exhaust gases in order to reduce their temperature. Very narrow nozzles form an almost flat shape of the exhaust jet, which contributes to its rapid cooling.

Wobblin' Goblin

"The lame dwarf" and not otherwise. This is what the pilots themselves call the F-117A as a joke. Optimizing the shape of the glider according to the criterion of reducing visibility worsened the aerodynamics of the car so much that there was no question of any “aerobatics” or supersonic.

When the company's lead aerodynamicist, Dick Cantrell, was first shown the desired configuration for the future F-117A, he had a nervous breakdown. Having come to his senses and realizing that he was dealing with an unusual aircraft, in the creation of which the first violin was played not by specialists of his profile, but by some electricians, he set the only possible task for his subordinates - to make sure that this "piano" was in able to fly somehow.

An angular fuselage, sharp leading edges of surfaces, a wing profile formed by straight segments - all this is poorly suited for subsonic flight. Despite the rather high thrust-to-weight ratio, the Nighthawk is a limitedly maneuverable vehicle with low speed, relatively short range and poor takeoff and landing characteristics.

Its aerodynamic quality during landing approach was only about 4, which corresponds to the level of the Space Shuttle. On the other hand, at high speed, the F-117A is able to confidently maneuver with six times the overload. Aerodynamicist Dick Kentrell still got his way.

On October 26, 1983, the first “invisible” unit, the tactical group 4450 (4450th TG) at Tonopah airbase, reached operational readiness. According to the recollections of the pilots, this meant the following - at night, the attack aircraft somehow reached a given area, detected a point target and had to “put” a precision laser-guided bomb into it. No other combat use was foreseen for the F-117A.

Due to the increase in the number of F-117А on October 5, 1989, the group was reorganized into the 37th tactical fighter wing (37th TFW), consisting of two combat and one training squadron + reserve vehicles. According to the schedule, each squadron included 18 Nighthawks, but only 5-6 of them could start a combat mission at any given time, the rest were in heavy forms of maintenance.

Almost all this time around the "stealth" did not weaken the strict regime of secrecy. Although Tonopah was one of the Air Force's most heavily guarded bases, additional, truly draconian measures were taken there to cover up the truth about the F-117A. At the same time, American regime officials often practiced very ingenious solutions. So, in order to scare away the idle “aviation enthusiasts” from among the base personnel, special stencils such as “radiation”, “careful! high voltage" and other "horror stories". On a plane with that appearance, they didn't look mindless at all.

It was not until 1988 that the Pentagon decided to issue an official press release about the "stealth aircraft" by providing the public with a retouched photograph of the F-117A. In April 1990, the first public demonstration of the aircraft took place.. Of course, the sight of the F-117A amazed the global aviation community. It became perhaps the most daring challenge to traditional concepts of aerodynamics in the entire history of human flight.

The Americans assigned the responsible role of a convincing example of the technological superiority of the United States over the rest of the world to the “one hundred and seventeenth”, and they did not spare money to prove this statement. "Nighthawk" got a permanent residence on the covers of magazines, became a cool Hollywood hero and a star of world air shows.

Combat use

As for the first real combat use of the F-117A, it happened during the overthrow of the regime of General Noriega in Panama. There is still a dispute whether or not the F-117A hit the territory of the Panamanian military base with a guided bomb. The Panamanian guards, awakened by a nearby explosion, fled through the jungle in their underpants. Naturally, there was no resistance to the "stealth" and the plane returned without loss.

Much more serious was the massive use of "stealth" in the war in the Persian Gulf in the winter of 1991.. The Gulf War was the largest military clash since World War II, involving 35 states (Iraq and 34 countries of the anti-Iraq coalition - multinational force, MNF) to varying degrees. More than 1.5 million people took part in the conflict on both sides, there were more than 10.5 thousand tanks, 12.5 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand combat aircraft and about 200 warships.

The following types of air defense systems were in service with Iraqi air defense:
S-75 "Dvina" (SA-2 Guideline) 20-30 batteries (100-130 launchers);
S-125 "Neva" (SA-3 Goa) - 140 launchers;
"Square" (SA-6 Gainful) - 25 batteries (100 launchers);
"Wasp" (SA-8 Gecko) - about 50 complexes;
"Strela-1" (SA-9 Gaskin) - about 400 complexes;
"Strela-10" (SA-13 Gopher) - about 200 complexes;
"Roland-2" - 13 self-propelled and 100 stationary systems;
HAWK - several complexes were captured in Kuwait, but were not used.

Early warning radars made it possible to detect targets at an altitude of 150 meters in most cases outside the airspace of Iraq (and Kuwait), and targets at altitudes of more than 6 km are detected far inside the territory of Saudi Arabia (on average - 150-300 km).

A developed network of observation posts connected by permanent communication lines with information collection centers made it possible to detect low-altitude targets, such as cruise missiles, quite effectively.

Midnight from January 16 to January 17, 1991 became the finest hour of the F-117A, when the first group of 10 Nighthawks of 415 Squadron, each carrying two 907-kg GBU-27 guided bombs, took off to strike the first blows of a new war. At 03:00 local time, the stealths, not detected by the air defense system, attacked two command posts of the air defense sectors, the air force headquarters in Baghdad, the joint command and control center in Al Taji, the government residence and the 112-meter Baghdad radio tower.

F-117A always worked autonomously, without the involvement of electronic warfare aircraft, since jamming could attract the attention of the enemy. In general, stealth operations were planned so that the nearest Allied aircraft was at least 100 miles away from them.
A serious threat to the "stealth" was posed by anti-aircraft artillery and short-range air defense systems with optical detection and aiming systems, which Iraq had quite a few (MANPADS Strela-2 (SA-7 Grail), Strela-3 (SA-14 Gremlin), "Igla-1" (SA-16 Gimlet), as well as anti-aircraft guns (ZU-23-2, ZSU-23-4 "Shilka", S-60, ZSU-57-2). Pilots were forbidden to descend below 6300 m, to avoid entering the affected areas of these weapons.

In general, during the war, the F-117A completed 1271 sorties lasting 7000 hours and dropped 2087 GBU-10 and GBU-27 laser-guided bombs with a total mass of about 2000 tons. Stealth strike aircraft hit 40% of priority ground targets, while, according to the Pentagon, none of the 42 "stealth" was lost. This is especially strange, given that we are dealing with a subsonic low-maneuverability machine without any constructive protection.

In particular, the commander of the Air Force of the multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant General C. Horner, cites as an example two raids against heavily defended Iraqi nuclear installations in Al-Tuwait, south of Baghdad. The first raid was carried out on the afternoon of January 18, involving 32 F-16Cs armed with conventional unguided bombs, escorted by 16 F-15Cs, four EF-111 jammers, eight anti-radar F-4Gs, and 15 KS-135 tankers.

This large aviation group failed to complete the task. The second raid was made at night by eight F-117As escorted by two tankers. This time, the Americans destroyed three of Iraq's four nuclear reactors. Subsequently, the F-117A occasionally appeared in Iraqi airspace during Operation Desert Fox (1998) and the invasion of Iraq (2003).

Hunting for "stealth"

I remember well that day, March 27, 1999. Channel ORT, evening program "Time". Live report from Yugoslavia, people dancing on the wreckage of an American plane. The old woman recalls that it was in this place that the Messerschmitt once crashed. The next frame, the NATO representative is mumbling something, then the frames with the wreckage of the black plane went again ...

Yugoslav air defense did the impossible - in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Budanovtsy (a suburb of Belgrade) a "stealth" was shot down. The stealth aircraft was destroyed by the S-125 air defense system of the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade, commanded by the Hungarian Zoltan Dani. There is also a version that the F-117A was shot down from a cannon by a MiG-29 fighter, which established direct visual contact with it.

According to the American version, the "one hundred and seventeenth" changed the flight mode, at that moment a pressure surge formed in front of the air intake grilles, unmasking the aircraft. The invulnerable plane was shot down in front of the whole world. Battery commander Zoltan Dani, on the contrary, claims that he guided the missile using a French thermal imager.

As for the stealth pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko managed to eject and hid on the outskirts of Belgrade all night until his radio beacon spotted the EC-130. HH-53 Pave Low search and rescue helicopters arrived a few hours later and evacuated the pilot. In total, during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, "stealth" made 850 sorties.

The wreckage of the downed F-117A "Night hawk" (serial number 82-0806) is carefully preserved at the Aviation Museum in Belgrade, along with the wreckage of the F-16 aircraft. These losses were officially recognized by the United States. As for the "invisibles", the Serbs say they shot down at least three F-117As, but two were able to make it to NATO air bases, where they were decommissioned upon arrival. Therefore, they have no debris.

The statement raises some doubts - the damaged F-117A could not fly far. Even the serviceable "one hundred and seventeenth" flew very badly - the pilot was unable to control this "flying iron" without the help of electronic stability systems. The plane does not even have a backup mechanical control system - anyway, if the electronics fail, a person is unable to cope with the F-117A. Therefore, any malfunction for "stealth" is fatal, the plane cannot fly on one engine or with damaged planes.

By the way, in addition to the downed F-117A, according to official data, over 30 years of operation, six “invisible” aircraft were lost over the territory of the United States during training flights. Most often, "stealth" fought because of the loss of orientation of the pilots. For example, on the night of June 11, 1986, an F-117A (tail number 792) crashed into a mountain, killing the pilot. Another tragicomic incident occurred on September 14, 1997, when an F-117A broke apart in the air during an air show in Maryland.

April 22, 2008 F-117A "Nighthawk" took to the air for the last time. As time has shown, the very idea of ​​a highly specialized aircraft in the design of which any one quality “stands out” (in this case, a small EPR) to the detriment of others, turned out to be unpromising.

After the disappearance of the USSR, in the new conditions, the requirements of efficiency, ease of operation and multifunctionality of aviation systems began to come out on top. And in all these parameters, the F-117A Nighthawk was significantly inferior to the F-15E Strike Eagle strike aircraft. Now it is on the basis of the F-15E that the inconspicuous F-15SE Silent Eagle aircraft is being created.

As the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, an organization banned in Russia) loses its foothold in Iraq and Syria, the US Air Force is increasingly concerned about the behavior of Russian fighters in the skies over the conflict zone. This was reported by the American publication Aviation Week.

According to one US Air Force squadron commander (pilot of an F-22 Raptor fighter), Russian planes regularly hover next to coalition forces for as much as 20-30 minutes. He explains to the publication that American pilots are increasingly observing sudden and potentially dangerous maneuvers of Russian Su-35 and Su-30 fighters. At the same time, the F-22 is deprived of the ability to exchange data through the tactical system.

Russian Aerospace Forces fighter jets constantly fly in the firing range of coalition ground forces and close to American aircraft, whose pilots can observe them with the naked eye from the cockpit. But due to congestion in the airspace, the process of identifying them is difficult. Another problem with the American is the lack of a helmet-mounted target designation system.

The F-22 Raptor is the world's first and only fifth-generation multirole stealth fighter in service with the US Air Force and created using stealth technology.

The essence of "invisibility"

Today, the United States, Russia, China and Japan can boast of having combat aircraft systems created using visibility reduction technologies. The presence of "stealth" technologies is one of the mandatory parameters of the fifth generation aircraft.

The essence of stealth technology is to reduce visibility in the radar and infrared ranges. The effect is achieved due to a special coating, a specific shape of the aircraft body, as well as the materials from which its construction is made.

Radar waves emitted, for example, by the transmitter of an anti-aircraft missile system, are reflected from the outer surface of the aircraft and received by the radar station - this is radar visibility.

"YouTube/TASS"

It is characterized effective scattering area (EPR). This is a formal parameter, which is measured in units of area and is a quantitative measure of the property of an object to reflect an electromagnetic wave. The smaller this area, the more difficult it is to detect an aircraft and hit it with a missile (at least its detection range decreases).

For old bombers, the RCS can reach 100 square meters, for an ordinary modern fighter it is from 3 to 12 square meters. m, and for "invisible" aircraft - about 0.3-0.4 square meters. m.

The RCS of complex objects cannot be accurately calculated using formulas; it is measured experimentally with special devices at test sites or in anechoic chambers. Its value strongly depends on the direction from which the aircraft is irradiated, and for the same flying machine it is represented by a range: as a rule, the best values ​​in terms of the scattering area are recorded when the aircraft is irradiated in the forward hemisphere. Thus, there can be no exact EPR indicators, and the experimental values ​​​​for existing fifth-generation aircraft are classified.

Western analytical resources, as a rule, underestimate EPR data for their "stealth" aircraft.

B-2: American "spirit"

Heavy stealth strategic bomber B-2A Spirit is the most expensive aircraft in the US Air Force fleet. As of 1998, the cost of one B-2 was $1.16 billion. The cost of the entire program was estimated at almost $45 billion.

The first public flight of the B-2 took place in 1989. A total of 21 aircraft were built: almost all of them are named after American states.

The B-2 has an unusual appearance and is sometimes compared to an alien ship. At one time, this gave rise to many rumors that the aircraft was built using technologies obtained from the study of UFO wreckage in the so-called Area 51.

The aircraft is capable of taking on board 16 atomic bombs or eight laser-guided 907 kg guided bombs, or 80 227 kg caliber bombs and deliver them from Whiteman Air Force Base (Missouri) to almost anywhere in the world. The flight range of the "ghost" is 11 thousand km.

Spirit is maximally automated, the crew consists of two pilots. The bomber has a solid margin of safety and is able to make a safe landing with a side wind of 40 m/s. According to foreign publications, the RCS of a bomber is estimated in the range from 0.0014 to 0.1 sq. m. According to other sources, the bomber has more modest performance - from 0.05 to 0.5 sq. m in frontal projection.

The main disadvantage of the B-2 Spirit is the cost of its maintenance. The placement of the aircraft is possible only in a special hangar with an artificial microclimate - otherwise, ultraviolet radiation will damage the radio-absorbing coating of the aircraft.

The B-2 is invisible to outdated radars, but modern Russian-made anti-aircraft missile systems are able to detect it and effectively hit it. According to unconfirmed reports, one B-2 was shot down or received serious combat damage from the use of an anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) during the NATO military operation in Yugoslavia.

F-117: American "lame goblin"

Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk- American single-seat subsonic tactical stealth strike aircraft from Lockheed Martin. It was designed for covert penetration through the enemy's air defense system and attacks on strategically important ground targets.

The first flight was made on June 18, 1981. 64 units produced, the last serial copy was delivered to the US Air Force in 1990. More than $6 billion was spent on the creation and production of the F-117. In 2008, aircraft of this type were completely withdrawn from service, both for financial reasons and due to the adoption of the F-22 Raptor.

The RCS of the aircraft, according to foreign publications, ranged from 0.01 to 0.0025 sq. m depending on the angle.

The reduction in visibility for the F-117 was mainly achieved due to the specific angular shape of the hull, built according to the concept of "reflector planes", composite and radar-absorbing materials and a special coating were also used. As a result, the bomber looked extremely futuristic, and because of this, the popularity in games and cinema of the F-117 can compete with Hollywood stars of the first magnitude.

However, having achieved a significant reduction in visibility, the designers had to violate all possible laws of aerodynamics, and the aircraft received disgusting flight characteristics. American pilots nicknamed him the "lame goblin" (Wobblin' Goblin) for this.

As a result, out of 64 F-117A "stealth" aircraft built, six aircraft were lost from flight accidents - almost 10% of the total. Only the most experienced pilots were put on the F-117, but they still crashed regularly.

The aircraft participated in five wars: the US invasion of Panama (1989), the Persian Gulf War (1991), Operation Desert Fox (1998), the NATO war against Yugoslavia (1999), the Iraq war (2003).

At least one aircraft was lost in combat sorties in Yugoslavia - an invisible aircraft was shot down by the Yugoslav air defense forces with the help of an outdated Soviet S-125 Neva air defense system.

F-22: American "Raptor"

The first and so far the only fifth-generation aircraft put into service is the American F-22A Raptor.

Aircraft production began in 2001. At the moment, several F-22s are taking part in the operation of the coalition forces in Iraq to strike at militants of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia.

Today it is considered the most expensive fighter in the world. According to open sources, taking into account development costs and other factors, the cost of each of the aircraft ordered by the US Air Force exceeds $300 million.

Nevertheless, the F-22A has something to brag about: this is the ability to fly at supersonic without turning on the afterburner, powerful on-board radio-electronic equipment (avionics) and, again, low visibility. However, in terms of maneuverability, the aircraft is inferior to many Russian fighters, even the fourth generation.

The thrust vector of the F-22 changes only in one plane (up and down), while on the most modern Russian combat aircraft the thrust vector can change in all planes, independently of each other on the right and left engines.

There is no exact data on the EPR of a fighter: the spread of figures given by different sources is from 0.3 to 0.0001 sq. m. According to domestic experts, the EPR of the F-22A ranges from 0.5 to 0.1 sq. m. At the same time, the Irbis radar station of the Su-35S fighter is capable of detecting the Raptor at a distance of at least 95 km.

With its exorbitant cost, the Raptor has a number of operational problems. In particular, the anti-radar coating of the fighter was easily washed off by rain, and although over time this drawback was leveled, the price of the aircraft increased even more.

Another serious drawback of the F-22 is the oxygen supply system for the pilot. In 2010, due to suffocation, pilot Jeffrey Haney lost control of the fighter and crashed.

Since 2011, all F-22As were forbidden to rise above 7.6 thousand meters. It was believed that at such an altitude, the pilot, if the first signs of suffocation occur, would be able to descend to 5.4 thousand meters in order to remove the mask and breathe air in the cockpit. The reason turned out to be a design flaw - carbon dioxide from the engines got into the respiratory system of the pilots. They tried to solve the problem with the help of additional carbon filters. But the disadvantage has not been completely eliminated so far.

F-35: American "lightning"

F-35 Lightning II("Lightning") was conceived as a universal aircraft for the US armed forces, as well as NATO allies, capable of replacing the F-16 fighter, the A-10 attack aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II vertical take-off and landing aircraft and the McDonnell carrier-based fighter-bomber Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.

Enormous money was spent on the development of this fifth-generation fighter-bomber (costs exceeded $56 billion, and the cost of one aircraft was $108 million), but it was not possible to bring the design to perfection.

Su-57(Perspective Aviation Complex of Frontal Aviation, PAK FA) is the Russian response to the American F-22 fifth-generation fighter. The aircraft is the quintessence of all the most modern that is in domestic aviation. Little is known about its characteristics, and most of it is still kept secret. Due to its modernization potential, it can become a sixth generation fighter.

It is known that for the first time in PAK FA a whole range of the latest polymeric carbon plastics was used. They are two times lighter than aluminum of comparable strength and titanium, four to five times lighter than steel. New materials make up 70% of the material fighter's coverage, as a result, it was possible to drastically reduce the structural weight of the aircraft - it weighs four times less than an aircraft assembled from conventional materials.

The Sukhoi design bureau claims an "unprecedented low level of radar, optical and infrared visibility" of the aircraft, although the RCS of the fighter is estimated by domestic experts rather restrainedly - in the area 0.3–0.4 sq. m. At the same time, some Western analysts are more optimistic about our aircraft: for the T-50 they call the EPR three times less - 0.1 sq. m. The true data of the effective scattering area are classified.

The Su-57 has a high intellectualization of the board. Radar fighter with a new active phased antenna array (AFAR) Research Institute. Tikhomirova can detect targets at a distance of more than 400 kilometers, simultaneously track up to 60 targets and fire up to 16. The minimum RCS of tracked targets is 0.01 square meters. m.

The PAK FA engines are separated from the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, this solution made it possible to increase the “shoulder” of thrust during maneuvering and make a spacious weapon compartment capable of accommodating heavy weapons that are inaccessible due to the size of the F-35 Lightning II.

The PAK FA is distinguished by excellent maneuverability and controllability in vertical and horizontal planes both at supersonic and low speeds. At present, the first stage engines are installed on the aircraft, with which it is able to maintain supersonic speed in non-afterburner mode. After receiving a regular engine of the second stage, the performance characteristics of the fighter will increase significantly.

According to a number of media reports, the J-20 is equipped with Russian AL-31FN engines, and the Chinese military has massively purchased decommissioned engines of these brands.

"TASS/Ruptly"

Most of the tactical and technical characteristics of the development remain secret. The J-20 has a large number of similar and completely copied elements from the Russian MiG 1.44 technology demonstrator aircraft and the American F-22 and F-35 fifth generation fighters.

The aircraft is made according to the "duck" scheme: a pair of ventral fins and closely spaced engines (similar to the MiG 1.44), a canopy and a nose are identical to the same elements on the F-22. The location of the air intakes has a design similar to the F-35. The vertical tail is all-moving and has a geometry similar to the tail of the F-35 fighter.

The cockpit canopy is made according to a common non-binding scheme, which improves visibility for the pilot and reduces the RCS of the machine.

X-2: Japanese "soul"

Mitsubishi ATD-X Shinshin- a prototype of the fifth generation Japanese fighter with "stealth" technology. The aircraft was designed at the Technical Design Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Japan, and built by the corporation that produced the famous Zero fighters during World War II. The fighter received the poetic name Shinshin - "Soul".

The ATD-X is close in size to the Swedish Saab Gripen multi-role fighter, and in shape to the American F-22 Raptor. The dimensions and angle of inclination of the vertical tail, the shape of the influx and air intakes are identical to those of the fifth-generation American fighter. The cost of the aircraft can reach about $324 million.

The first public demonstration of the new Japanese fighter took place at the end of January 2016. Flight tests of the aircraft were supposed to be carried out in 2015, but the development company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was unable to meet the delivery dates set by the Ministry of Defense.

In addition, Japanese specialists need to refine the engine of a fighter with a controlled thrust vector, in particular, to test the possibility of restarting it in the event of a possible stop during the flight.

The Ministry of Defense of Japan notes that the aircraft was built solely for testing technologies, including ATD-X - "stealth". However, it may become the base on which a replacement for the Japanese F-2 fighter-bomber, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Lockheed Martin for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, will be created.

In this case, the ATD-X will have to install three times more powerful engines, and in the body of the aircraft to allocate enough space for ammunition. According to preliminary plans, the first prototype of the F-3 fighter will take to the air in 2024-2025.

Roman Azanov

The history of aviation knows many examples of outlandish aircraft that at one time or another took to the air. As a rule, these were experimental models, the fruits of the creative searches of engineers who could not leave the walls of the design bureaus and did not go into series. But there are a few exceptions to this rule.

The American Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk combat aircraft has such an unusual shape and appearance that it would easily win the competition for the most outlandish aircraft, if such was ever held. The Nighthawk is very reminiscent of an exhibit stolen from a Cubist museum.

This machine is in many ways remarkable, the F-117 Nighthawk is the first production aircraft created using "stealth technologies". In other words, the Nighthawk has such low visibility to enemy radar that it is often referred to as a "stealth aircraft". But this name is more for the press. American pilots (especially those who flew it) gave the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk a completely different name: Wobblin' Goblin, which literally translates as "lame goblin." This unflattering nickname clearly shows the attitude of pilots to the flight characteristics of the F-117 Nighthawk.

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a single-seat strike aircraft designed to penetrate behind enemy lines and deliver missile and bomb strikes at any time of the day and in any weather. As conceived by the developers, the stealth technology was supposed to deceive the enemy air defense system. "Night hawk" was intended for attacks on important enemy targets: headquarters, airfields, communication centers and air defense facilities.

F-117 Nighthawk managed to fight, he participated in several conflicts. In total, 64 aircraft were produced, the cost of one unit is more than $100 million.

We can say that the stealth technology was tested on this aircraft, especially with regard to the development of this technology in mass production. Maybe that's why the car turned out so ambiguous.

History of creation

Before describing the history of the creation of the F-117 Nighthawk, a few words should be said about the designation of this aircraft. In American military aviation, the letter "F" is used to designate fighters or their prototypes. How she got into the abbreviation "Nighthawk", which, according to its aerodynamic characteristics, is not at all suitable for fighters, is unknown.

The F-117 is an attack aircraft that was designed to serve as a tactical bomber or attack aircraft. Those authors who write about the F-117 "stealth fighter" are very far from the topic or do not know this car well.

Interest in reducing the visibility of aircraft for enemy radars (stealth technology) arose among the US military after American pilots visited the Vietnamese "rocket jungle". Reducing the visibility of aircraft for radar was considered one of the promising areas for increasing their survivability; work on the Stealth program began in 1965. Although, the interest in reducing the visibility of aircraft appeared among the military even at the time of the appearance of the first radar stations.

The F-117 can be called the second generation "stealth aircraft", the first should include the SR-71 - the famous strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the Cold War. This machine was operated at the highest speeds, which heated the hull by several hundred degrees, so it was not possible to achieve a high level of invisibility, but the results of the designers were pretty good.

In 1977, the Xcom Committee was created in the US military department, whose tasks included the practical application of stealth technologies. The start of three programs in this direction was authorized: Senior Prom (development of a stealth cruise missile), ATB (in the future it will lead to the creation of the B-2 strategic bomber) and Senior Trend, thanks to which the F-117 will appear.

The development of the new aircraft was entrusted to Lockheed Martin. The three-digit number was usually assigned to top-secret aircraft, so that all work was carried out in deep secrecy. The contract with the manufacturer was signed on November 16, 1978. The Pentagon has set the company's engineers the task of reducing all the characteristics of the aircraft that unmask it. The customer was interested not only in visibility for the radar, but also in reducing the thermal radiation of the aircraft, reducing its noise level, eliminating any own radiation of the machine and contrails.

Lockheed Martin coped with the task in an extremely short time: already eight months later, the construction of the first machine began, which was transferred for testing in 1981.

Naturally, the desire to reduce the visibility of the aircraft for radar led to a serious change in the shape of the F-117, which, in turn, significantly reduced the aircraft's flight characteristics.

Legend has it that when Lockheed Martin's lead aerodynamicist, Dick Cantrell, was shown the desired shape of the future aircraft, he had a stroke. Moving away from the shock a little, the designer realized that his department would not play the main violin when creating a new car. Therefore, he gave his employees the only task: to make sure that the “lame goblin” at least somehow rose into the air.

The first tests showed the extreme instability of the F-117 in many flight modes at once. There were other unpleasant surprises that the plane presented to its creators. They had to seriously modify the air intakes, change the design of the fuel tanks and improve the control system of the machine.

The use of stealth technologies hit the vehicle's maneuverability the hardest. The F-117 had a pretty good thrust-to-weight ratio, but its maneuverability and speed left much to be desired. Restrictions were introduced into the aircraft control system, which simply blocked the execution of some maneuvers. In addition, the Nighthawk has a very limited range and poor takeoff and landing performance. In general, he had little in common with that "stealth fighter" who easily defeats opponents in Hollywood blockbusters.

The F-117 began to operate in 1983, at first this aircraft was top secret, for the first time the US military recognized the very fact of its existence only in 1988. The first public display took place in 1990, and a year later the F-117 was shown at an aviation exhibition in Paris.

Only experienced pilots with a flight time of at least 1,000 hours were selected to pilot the new aircraft, but this did not save them from disasters. There is little information about them, since the program was highly classified. There is information that the first "Night Falcon" crashed in 1982, before the car was put into operation. Then there were several more accidents.

Immediately after the appearance of the F-117 was a truly formidable weapon. It could not be detected by the radar stations of the USSR and China. Did not see "stealth" and fighters. However, the situation changed very quickly: radar detection tools improved very quickly, and other technologies for detecting aircraft also appeared. So very soon the F-117 has become only a relatively invisible aircraft, and the design flaws inherent in it, of course, have not gone away.

Design Description

The F-117 attack aircraft is built according to the "flying wing" scheme. It has a V-shaped tail. The design of the machine is made using stealth technologies, this applies to both the shape of the aircraft and the materials used in its construction.

The wing has a large sweep (67.5 °), the fuselage is made in the form of flat smooth panels, the angle of which is calculated so as to reflect the radar signal in different directions. This shape of the fuselage is called faceted, and it is this form that reduces the visibility of the aircraft by 90%. The cockpit canopy is made according to the same principle. It is covered with a special material containing gold. Such a coating eliminates the risk of irradiation of the in-cabin equipment and the pilot's equipment (his helmet can emit more background on the radar screen than the entire aircraft).

Chassis - tricycle. The front rack has one steerable wheel, and the main racks are also single-wheeled. The aircraft is equipped with a landing hook and a drag parachute.

Above the wings on both sides of the fuselage are air intakes. All contours of slots and joints have sawtooth edges, which also scatters electromagnetic waves. There is no external suspension, all weapons are placed in the internal compartments. Flat nozzles are shielded with special heat-absorbing plates, which significantly reduce the visibility of the aircraft in the infrared range.

All antennas and other transmitting devices located on the surface of the aircraft can be retracted inside the hull. In the design of the F-117, composite radio-absorbing materials and coatings were actively used. The whole body is covered with several types of similar materials, which were pasted on it like wallpaper on a wall. The aircraft is painted with black ferromagnetic paint, which not only absorbs radio waves, but also dissipates heat very well.

Due to the above design features, the F-117 has a much smaller effective dispersion area (ESR), which is 0.1-0.01 m2. This is several hundred times less than the RCS of a conventional aircraft of a similar size. Thus, it is very difficult to detect an aircraft using ground-based radar or fighter radar.

Although, if an enemy fighter still detects the F-117, then the latter will have practically no chance.

The Nighthawk does not have its own radar, to reduce the risk of detection, all navigation and aiming systems of the aircraft are passive. There are also no active electronic warfare (EW) systems. For navigation, a satellite and inertial system is used. Sights are represented by infrared cameras and laser target illumination, which turns on for an extremely short time.

The power plant consists of two General Electric F-404-GE-F1D2 bypass turbojet engines, each of which develops 4,900 kg of thrust.

The F-117 carries missile and bomb weapons, and can also use nuclear weapons. Typical weapons for the aircraft are GBU-10 or GBU-27 bombs, it can take AGM-88 HARM, AGM-65 "Maverick" missiles on board.

The Nighthawk is a very highly specialized aircraft, it is designed to strike at night against important enemy targets. All weapons that he can take on board are guided. It has a very high accuracy (±0.1 m).

The F-117 strike aircraft is very unstable in yaw and pitch, so a special program has been introduced into its control system that does not allow the pilot to perform dangerous maneuvers.

Combat use

The aircraft was operated from 1983 to 2008, he managed to take part in several regional conflicts. During the operation, seven aircraft were lost, only one of which was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire. The rest crashed in accidents that happened due to the fault of the pilots or due to technical malfunctions.

The F-117's baptism of fire was the American invasion of Panama in 1989.

For the first time, these aircraft were used massively during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. F-117s during this conflict showed very high efficiency: in one night they destroyed almost all Iraqi Tu-22s.

The next conflict in which the Americans massively used this aircraft was the war in Yugoslavia in 1999. It was then that the "invisible plane" was shot down. It was destroyed by a Serbian anti-aircraft battery armed with an obsolete Soviet S-125 anti-aircraft system. The Serbs claimed the destruction of one or two more vehicles, but this data is rather controversial.

The last significant conflict in which the F-117 was involved was the second US Iraq campaign (2003).

Initially, this aircraft was planned to be used until 2019, but the high costs of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 programs forced the US military to abandon it almost a decade earlier.

Already in the middle of the last decade, the Nighthawk was an obsolete machine. Due to the rapid development of means of detecting aircraft, he lost his main advantage - the title of "stealth aircraft", and the design flaws inherent in it initially turned the F-117 into a very expensive and extremely vulnerable machine. And the cost of maintaining the Nighthawk was quite high, so this decision seems quite natural.

The F-117 became a real stand where the Americans practiced all the nuances of using stealth technology. This plane can be called a unique machine without exaggeration, the F-117 was the first in its class, so many flaws can be forgiven for it. Largely thanks to the Nighthawk, fifth-generation stealth aircraft took to the skies: the F-22 Raptor and F-35.

Flight performance

Below are the performance characteristics of the F-117A strike aircraft.

Airplane video

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

Another opportunity to excel for the F-117A was the war against Yugoslavia in March-June 1999. In it, Nighthawks were widely used from the first day, being involved in night attacks on air defense facilities, as well as on other important stationary targets well covered by air defense systems. . At the same time, laser-guided KAB remained the main weapon. According to some reports, a feature of the use of "stealth" in this operation was their constant cover by electronic warfare aircraft. If this is so, then there is no need to look for better evidence of the exaggeration of their invisibility for modern advanced air defense. In general, the participation of the F-117A in this war in the American press is much less written than about the Gulf War, from which we can conclude that their use in the European theater was less successful. And besides, the conflict in the Balkans finally put an end to the myth of the invulnerability of "stealth".

A real shock for America was the destruction on the third day of hostilities (March 27 at 20.55) of the first F-117A (pilot K. Dvili), which was shot down 32 km from Belgrade near the village of Budanovtsy. There are various versions of the destruction of this aircraft: by the Kub air defense missile system, by the MiG-29 fighter and by anti-aircraft artillery fire. It is possible that various means of the Serbs participated in the "finishing off" of this F-117A, so it is difficult to decide who the main merit belongs to. According to the American pilot, the attack on his plane was completely unexpected, without triggering the warning system. At the same time, K. Dvili "does not remember how he pulled the catapult ring." Seven hours later, a search party found the pilot in a hiding place where he was hiding from the Yugoslav police, and took him to the Aviano air base in northern Italy. During the operation to search for him, helicopters of the HH-60 Pave Hawk search and rescue service were involved, one of which with 12 crew members and landing troops on board was shot down near the city of Uglevik, while only two crew members, taken in captivity. On April 1, at the Pleso airfield (Zagreb, Macedonia), another F-117A made an emergency landing, which received combat damage. Another aircraft of this type, according to the Serbs, was lost on April 5 during the attack on the Crveni Kot TV tower. The pilot ejected and landed near the village of Remete. On May 20, the Serbs reported that over Kosovo a MiG-29 had shot down another enemy aircraft, probably the last of the campaign, which was also classified as an F-117A. In total, according to the Ministry of Defense of Yugoslavia, in this war the United States lost three F-117А.

The consequences of these losses for America were much greater than one might have hoped. More recently, rumors that have been circulating for two years that the remains of one of the "stealth" shot down in Yugoslavia were taken to Russia and subjected to comprehensive research have been confirmed. In its October 5, 2001 issue, Aviation Week featured a report from Zhukovsky in which an unnamed Russian aviation industry official "admitted that the remnants of the F-117A were being used to improve Russian air defense capabilities to detect and destroy stealth aircraft and cruise missiles." Of course, it is unlikely that studying the technological achievements of twenty years ago will greatly advance Russian science, but it is always useful to hold other people's secrets in your hands.

Hunt for the invisible (Serbian experience)

Until now, a clear and precise story about the circumstances of the destruction of one of the most advanced aircraft in the world has not been published. There are many versions of what happened, but they all relate to technical details. This is indeed quite an intriguing topic - how could the Serbs, armed with old Soviet anti-aircraft missiles, shoot down the latest stealth aircraft? According to retired colonel Dani Zoltan, it's not just about technology, but also about the preparation of the operation.

Zoltan commanded the 3rd battery of the 250th air defense brigade, which defended Belgrade. He had radars, four C-125 anti-aircraft missile launchers (according to Western classification - Sa-3, each with four missiles), and all this did not pose any threat to enemy bombers. At least, this was the opinion of the NATO members, who sent their planes to bomb Serbian targets, hoping for modern means of suppressing air defense. At first, the Serbs were not very active in countering the air raids, but three days after the start of the campaign, on March 27, they unexpectedly shot down an F-117, an aircraft that seemed invulnerable.

According to Zoltan, he had no illusions about the technical superiority of the enemy, and therefore preferred not to openly attack the bombers, revealing the location of his radars and missiles, but to "lie in an ambush", waiting for the opportunity to shoot down an enemy aircraft for sure.

As Strategy Page notes, this operation demonstrates that in modern warfare, a competent commander can organize successful resistance even with outdated weapons. At the same time, it is not superfluous to mention

that the destruction of the F-117 is just the most famous case of Zoltan's career. In fact, his unit distinguished itself more than once during that war, disrupting many air raids and shooting down another aircraft - the F-16. The NATO forces were unable to destroy a single radar or launcher that was part of Zoltan's battery.

Zoltan Method

Long before the NATO bombing began, Zoltan tried to get as much information as possible about the F-117. He studied everything that could be found - publications in newspapers and magazines, rumors about the characteristics of this aircraft. This information helped him to position

radars so they can track the "stealth". How exactly - the colonel did not tell. It is known that he did not keep the radars on all the time, but launched at the right time for a short time so that NATO AWACS aircraft could not detect and point fighters at them.

Finally, Zoltan, according to him, made some changes to the design of the rocket, which allowed it to be better aimed at the stealth aircraft. Which ones - the Serb did not say, noting that they still continue to remain a state secret.

In fact, another factor that predetermined the success of the operation was the tactics of NATO commanders. They sent F-117s without cover and did not change flight routes. The downed plane flew along this route for the fourth time in a row, and this allowed the Serbian anti-aircraft gunners to be well prepared for the “hunt”.

As for the technical side, the undoubted advantage of the Serbian battery was the radars and missiles of the old system. As you know, the radar tracks the aircraft, registering the radio signal reflected from it. Modern radars use a high signal frequency. However, in the case of "stealth" short waves are scattered by the chopped body of the aircraft so that it cannot be seen - it is the bizarre shape that is the basis of this technology.

However, for long-wave (low-frequency) radars, this shape of the aircraft is not an obstacle. Such locators are not very accurate, but they "see" any large object in the air. In addition, as already mentioned, the F-117 is characterized by low maneuverability and low speed, which makes it an ideal target for older anti-aircraft missile systems with low-frequency radars.

Zoltan was no longer able to shoot down a single "stealth". Immediately after the alliance lost this aircraft, the command took measures to prevent such situations. F-117s no longer flew alone - they were escorted by fighters armed with HARM missiles (guided by a radar signal). The planes began to change flight routes, and the Serbs could no longer "ambush" them ... However, this did not diminish the fame of the retired colonel. He has already gone down in history as the man who was able to shoot down a stealth plane.