POPULAR SCIENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 1, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN

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Approved For R~I,a~~lT.*flMe~RP9~~0~~33tT0E~UOII9
 Approved For,Release 2000/08/08: CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
What's News
Finally: Stealth!
So we're finally going to get a look at
a real stealth airplane. We're pleased
that it will look pretty much the way
we showed it on our September 1986
- cover. We've dug up a good many new
details on the B-2, as you will find in
the piece starting on the next page.
Video ball and chain
climbed into the pilot's seat. A few
minutes later the 140-foot rotor blade
lay on the floor, smashed beyond repair.
Scott Larwood, student director of
the project, says the problem was that
Ito weighs 15 pounds less than Eulate.
That apparently changed the helicop-
ter's balance, so? it pitched forward
when ground-crew members let go.
Now the team is evaluating whether
to rebuild the single wing or change
the design to a three-bladed rotor.
In March POPULAR SCIENCE'S cover
showed the Mitsubishi VisiTel-a new
low-cost videophone that transmits
pictures on ordinary phone lines. So I
was fascinated recently to spot the
same piece of equipment in a photo-
graph in The New York Times, espe-
cially because the accompanying piece
was about keeping jail crowding down
in Anne Arundel County, Md. It told
of a man who had been convicted of
drunk driving for a third time. He
was sentenced to two months of night-
time house arrest and was also told
not to drink. How do authorities make
sure he is at home-and sober? Twice
nightly, at random times, they call him
on the videophone. He answers with
his VisiTel: Not only can authorities
see that he's home, they can also watch
as he uses a hand-held breath ana-
lyzer, which displays blood-alcohol
levels in bright red numerals that can
be read over the VisiTel. So far seven
people under house arrest in the county
have been issued the units. For the
county it's cheaper than keeping some-
one in jail. And the customers are rea-
sonably happy. One unidentified user
complained that he was sometimes
awakened at night by the call from the
county. "I'm. not happy about it," he
said, "but., it sure beats going to jail,"
Pedal-powered ,plunge
The Da Vinci II finally got off the
ground-maybe. The pedal-powered
helicopter built by students at Califor-
nia Polytechnic State University [May]
Energy roundup
? More news on the coal front: A
decade ago, a way of burning coal called
fluidized-bed combustion received con-
siderable attention, most recently in
this magazine in December 1981
["Multi-fuel Combustor"]. In such a
system coal and crushed limestone are
mixed, then fed to a furnace in which
they burn while suspended in a churn-
improve performance and durability
of car engines, the SAE says. They will
soon be available, and you can tell when
you're buying the new lubricant by
checking the doughnut-shaped symbol
on the can. What's different about SG
oils? Tom McDonnell, chairman of the
SAE fuels and lubricants division, says
SG oils have significantly more disper-
sants, detergents, oxidation inhibitors,
and anti-wear agents.
An Audi 12-banger?
BMW has one [Feb.]; Daimler-Benz is
developing one, as is Cadillac. Now
the (unofficial) word is that Audi will
have a 5.3-liter V12, or maybe a V10,
in a limited edition, four-wheel-drive,
active-suspension, high-priced super
coupe. Audi won't confirm the rumor.
Metric again?
The count is down. Now only Burma
and the United States still use English
measure. Even England has scrapped
this system. You may remember that
ing mass on a column of air. As the
coal burns, the limestone absorbs the
sulfur dioxide it produces, ending or
reducing the need for costly wet scrub-
bers. Now two major fluidized-bed
plants have come on line-a 110-mega-
watt plant at Colorado Ute Electric
Association's Nucla station and a
130-megawatt installation at Northern
State Power's Black Dog plant. The
technology could later be useful
in reducing 'acid rain and other air
pollution.
? The British. have put another $15
million into a long-range project to
develop dry-hot-rock geothermal power.
Engineers are investigating a site in..
Cornwall and hope to start building a
plant in 1991 when preliminary en-
gineering work has been completed.
They calculate that the site contains
enough heat to generate between 750
and 3,000 terawatt-hours , of energy,
enough to supply power to southwest
England for the foreseeable future.
Better oil
The Society of Automotive Engineers
has recommended that car owners start
using a new type of engine oils, labeled
SG. The new oils have been compounded
to reduce engine wear. SG oils should
quivered briefly as pilot Andres Eulate-1
pedaled furiously and may-just may
-have lost contact with Earth briefly;
Nobody is sure. Then bicycle racer Ted
Ito, fresh and burning to make history,
the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 set
up the goal of slow conversion in the
United States, and envisioned a slow
fading away of feet, pounds, and quarts.
What faded- instead was the act.
Now the Defense Department is go-
ing to give metric another nudge. Any-
one bidding on a defense contract must
now use metric specifications. The
reason: simple economics, says the
Department. The move will end
NATO's expensive dual inventory sys-
tem and make it easier for foreign
companies to get involved in joint
development programs. One Pentagon
official recalling the distinct lack of
enthusiasm with which the country--
received the general metrification
attempt in the mid-70s quipped, "We're
not trying to change the way people
live just the way they fight."
Editor-in-chief
JULY 1988 145
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
What the Air Force isn't saying-critical elements not shown
CONDUCTIVE INNER WING STRUCTURE MULTI-LAYER ABSORBENT COVERING
ing edges of the wing (C) are constructed to minimize radar
covareitl muldlavered mat ::
S
d
'
eto
s
rials that absorb radar sigma
, %
exa naI ? ne comb
,,:...: strutted of a series of thumb->fize :h,
INCOMING- .. _..~~.,. -^:+'? ;?.y,r c: ::.!~ ma
SIGNAL' -.;': tubes: Each hexagon is, Slid ywitLirdar- bs~-
from the outermost edge to the m-
it
d
ens
y
sing in
04 increaC RADAR ABSORPTION RADAR-ABSORBENT MATERIAL nermost. An incoming radar signal first strikes and is partly
ultilayered covering. The rest goes into
h
e m
rbed by t
ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER abso a hexagonal cell. AS it penetrates, it continues to be pro-
strikes the
sorbed. The
a zigzag pattern
official painting of the B 2re released by.the Air Forcei ___angled surface at the rear is reflected remaining signal
(above) dshowsabw ing ge atop ` h p e wing, Two.. back through the cell, continuing to be absorbed along tthis
y ; '
toolobvi usl edge:and wised pods o t11 er path. Such a.techn14410960,
gue radar reflectiion from the wing edges. "It's a Roach Motel
bly e obvious weapons. y fo sreengines, the third is for crew and pr
ar
the re of nyveral shown r, Experts gu
don't check said one it is not shown in the onbuatl
that in n the absence of any vertical stabilizer, directional _ the radar
control (A) might be achieved with 7elevons bn tfie wingtips... y
Spoilers raised on o`i'l V emd not the other might intro- Air Force versi some eperts think the win` top pods'
Initiating a turn. ap
duce drag d in the most forward parts of the serrated trail- a radar signal strikes a normal - contour d surface (D). oft
be mounted he,
target is Iran trant seesmitted back in
in
ing?edke; because that would put them closest to the center, kind'found on most aircraft, a lint
of gravity, whore they would have minimum effect on pitch. almost any direction, making the easy on radar.
gh e- l it "`is critical (B). Air probably flows through A faceted surface, on the other hand, tends to reflect sig-Tpp
direction from
from
lightly
directions
not retu n to ethe o ginating
the. takes,hu s the -engine wing through an stS-duct rong pote tial which they came,eso theyddoifferent
in strong p coa
sources. Thus compressor-a
d wit source of radar echoesoes-is hidden idden from incomin radar sig. radar-abormterial to reducer effectlone inteany dh
, might
dais. A> vaned diffuser flatten eY exhaus a `' a t ` heat
rection
applie w bistatic radar,~in which the trans-
One wide s, A thin inlet called a bo ndary-layer gut- against a stew thossiaircrable
tens ran be seen additional
t can rp seen below each main Inlet. These ri ear the top signal trap mitted byoiher ground or satellite transmitter
surface of;the"wing can liebled' off, through this inlet, can ricochet off tAnothertadvantage of thisbayrrangemea
smoothing the flow into the engine. Second,o: additional ground receiver. lane.
Ulping to cool lt, further The listening ground station is passive; because it is radar-si-
air mixed v-?ith llle jet exhaust; e ing and trail- lent, its location cannot be determined by the attacking plane.
CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
48 1 POPULAR SCIENCE
 Approved ForRelease 2000/08/08.: CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0300810001-9
frog the next generation of manned bombers directly into
the world of stealth. The Reagan administration later re-
instated a revised B-1 program, now the B-1B. The B-1B,
now going into operation, is scheduled to serve as a bridge
to the time when the B-2 will be brought into operation-
the 1990s.
Engineering secrets of the plane radar can't see
A daunting task-building an airliner-size flying struc-
ture that even super-sensitive. military radars can't find.
First job: reduce what engineers call the RCS--radar cross
section. The smaller the RCS, the smaller the echo re-
turned from a radar signal of a given, strength. tly
A clue as to how this might be done appeared shortly
after World War II, when radar had changed the rules of
the military game. Engineers noticed that some planes
returned far larger radar images than others of essen-
tially the same size. "The problem is that an aircraft, or
parts of it, can act like an antenna, reradiating radar sig-
nals that strike it," said M. William Frasca, an expert in
radar-absorbent materials.
Some planes were better natural reradiators than oth-
ers. In particular, experts pointed to the Russian TU-95
The TU-95, with
bomber
l
.
can
Bear and the British Vu
huge eight-bladed propellers, a tall vertical stabilizer, and
many sharp angles, returned a massive radar echo. The
Vulcan, by contrast, was a wedge-shape flying wing with
the engines buried inside and small vertical fins. At some
angles it virtually disappeared from radar, and at no angle
h
The 2 and B-lB,. might lte used together in a scenario
74- such as this: he B- B co nes in'at treetop level, becom
ing i islble briefly as it rises above - oh t releases
approach to the target. poring its approach,
an intense barrage of radar jamming. With the ground
radar operators thus distracted, the B-2 sneaks in at high
altitt de, a on from which it can detect mobile tar-
-posit
-
being
e r move dose, and destroy targets tho
observed:. ~~ u .
did it return an intense ec
o. with an ever I
Over the yengineers have come;'up differ- paints to make airplanes German srhad their
clearer idea years why the Bear and Vulca looked so invisible to radar in World War
ent to radar-and how they could design a stealth air- II. At the same time, submarines n ed had their
e to keep British cti
craft to take advantage of these principles. For example, send snorkles pain ed i th h a similar sub stance
radar from the spinning compressor blades of a turbo jet inlet back radar echoes like a beacon. Sharp edges and abrupt surface.
angles tend to act like antennas. So do tall vertical sta- Absorbent coverings first came to public notice in Janu-
equip-
bilizers. , "The more you make something into a smooth ary com an 1982, a when well- the U.S. knownEmbassy in manufacturer of Tokyo e called lectronic the TDK
says the better off you are from a radar point of view," p y, strange were the events
says R. John Hausman, an aeronautical engineer from the ment, with a strange e request. . The Embassy wanted to
all-out of Technology. buy one gallon paint. So August for Japan's
Massachusetts Institute
But ut designers desighan just shape. 1Thematerialare concerned rounding the s used in the Min st y of Trade and Industry to until lve an OK.
with more than just the it turned out, had been developed stop
structure are also selected to help with the job . arhin- T,.
fiber materials, for example, are e8dri Tby e heir aulan m> - containing ompoun s end was PP eri yointerest to
radar absorptive
terial is of rongn in
steel epoxy
bans the export of
molecules tend to absorb mat- coatings researchers for planes. Because J pan design
waves strong as
waves well. Its carbon-based
oven
One p
a energy, as crowave
lane food does n fiber11was the Lear Fan parently wanted for the stealth project, the Ministry took
crowav
plane built largely of carbo company-Nippon.
["Advanced-Design Lear Fan 2100," June '811 which had the matter under advisement.
pwas nearly invisible to Electric Co. (NEC) had also developed a a mils painthat
to carry two radar led, transponders.
rarasponder failed, the plane had been used to coat towers and buildings in sensitive
gle radaar.
Some versions of such including a ti fi have been locations to eliminate TV ghos and rgla s wanted radiowaves. NEC had worked ? outt a ltechniqe carbo -n considered for the B-2, including m
electronic rs ndw ch,
ated composite developed for the Hound g s stealth fighter dielect is-a a insulator.of the Such anaterial
the
muc
absorb
fiber-reinforced graphite skin. Lockheed's could
m is reported t be made Chemical. glasafibere embedded in eresearchers nergy striking found, over a frequency rage of 3.5 to 120 gigs-
plastic - made by Dow Chemicall. ahertz range.
Special coatings also help suppress radar reflections. The hertz. And, most significantly, most military and commer-
, SR-''3 for example, is said to be_ painted with radarcial radars operate in the 10- to 30-gig ret
the f
mean
errite con cts it over the e does not absorb
he structure, coolinghoff airr craft, howe er. For one th ng~ it was too thick and heavy
conducts t over tsurface of
R. Birge
at edges, the strsuch hot spots that may develop thcorners, and other e SR-71 is called toAbwork o t a year ago a researcher named Robert continued.
announced
y in
places. The substance used
ewlclasstof radar absorbing materials a11fQ
e "iron-ball" paint, apparently pparently because it contains micro- ca ery of Syracuse
scopic iron articles to increase conductivity d it r'a retinyl Schiff base salts. The salts were bl ack 80 percent a fl.
sanbRW tt but MOO ss l i@P 8?N ''~?'
Appr da
Luftwaffe experiment
 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
late that a technique called thrust _-vectoring-selectively
in the official release. increasing and decreasing thrust to various engines-could
help in steering the plane. Or it could use reaction' control
-squirting jets of high-pressure air through nozzles to
change the plane's attitude-a technique used in space-
craft. It might even have wings with inner mechanisms
that could actually change shape, with trailing edges bend-
SATELLITE
TRANSMITTER
picture was generally right, a defense-industry aircraft
designer told the paper that "Many times when we put
artist renderings together, we take a great deal of liberty
fo
And that'~t11y have one here." A Los Angeles air the 240,000- to 275,000 pound category with a wingspan
craft executive pointed out that important features such of 130 to 140 feet. Others have predicted that it would be
as control surfaces had been left out, adding, "I wouldn't bigger and heavier. Various reports have guessed that speed
bet my grandmother's diamond ring on the accuracy of would be_ ut.Macfi" $-,-about the swan airlin-
that picture. er's, and range without refueling some 600 mites
But informed guesses as to the actual plane's details An old idea
can be made. Everyone agrees that the.fiy pg-wing shape
is::right., That first became reliable news in 1985 when The concept of undetectable planes goes back to 1912,
Sen. Barry Goldwater, then chairman of the Senate when the U .S. Army built a heavily mufflered plane with
Armed Services Committee, who had seen a full-scale a carefully camouflaged paint job. The magazine Aerial
mock-up of the plane, confirmed that it was a flying wing. Age noted that the new development "opened up a won-
The picture shows that the wings.are, swept -bacl about, derful field in aviation, making it possible for a biplane
30 de.;grees, which, as one expert points out, puts the or monoplane to sail over cities unheralded and unseen"
wingtips far enough behind the center of gravity so that Stealth became compelling for military planners u 1973,
you could put effective control surfaces there-surfaces The Arab-Israeli war broke out, and 40 US.-built planes
that would operate with moment arms similar to those were shot down by Soviet-built SA-6 radar-guided mis-
you get by having a tail at the end of a boom. The pointy siles, despite advanced electronic-warfare equipment that
nose suggests that therec ish-ghaLpe radar an# 1Lnq,, was supposed to protect them. Sweetman guesses that by
If the B-2 has a large radar antenna, it more likely"is a 1975 the Air Force had asked Lockheed's famous skunk.,, .
phased-arrayrada ;in which the antenna is made up not works" run by the legendary Kelly Johnson to produce a
of a single dish, but umeroi s small elements th t p l i, stealth aircraft, and that several flying versions-including
be.-distributed along thewing; the apparently now-operational, but not yet public,. F-19-
There is precedence as well. When the original-B-1 was have since been flown.
modified to its present version-the B-113-its dish-shape A short time later-probably in 1981-Northrop was
antenna was replaced with a phased array, a modified ver- tapped to develop what was called the ATB-for advanced
sion of the APG-66 radar developed' for the F-16 and used technology bomber-which has since come to be called
in that fighter for terrain following and general naviga- the stealth bomber and lately the B-2. Almost immedi-
tion. A yet more advanced version probably appears in the ately a battle broke out in Congress over whether the
B-2, ------- --- ..,. .. country could afford to develop the ATB and also keep
The, in9j t?surprising omission; The s drawing ahQw.s nog developing the B-1-then already underway.
control surfaces at all. Some experts guess that there are With budget pressures building, the Carter administra-
movable wing surfaces, probably placed as shown in the tion canceled the B-1 program, apparently hoping to leap-
drawings that accompany this article. Some also specu- Continued
JULY 1988 (49
ing subtly up or down. This would avoid the radar reflec-
tions that can be generated by gaps formed by regular
hinged control surfaces.
One expert speculated that the strange sawtooth trail-
ing edge could accomplish two purposes. First, if flaps were
mounted in the notches, those flaps would be quite far
forward and near the plane's center of gravity. Thus they
would not greatly affect attitude or pitch. Second, straight
lines tend to reflect radar signals. By breaking the trail-
ing edge up into many lines-no two of them parallel
-radar reflections would be minimized. And finally, all
agree that the plane undoubtedly uses fly-by-wire tech-
niques. Like the famous wrong-way-wing X-29 [April '80]
the flying wing is a fundamentally unstable design. There-
fore a computer constantly monitors its actions, rapidly
and continuously applying small corrections to keep-it
flying straight and level.
"I would bet a nice cold beer that it has four engines,"
said an engineer at a competing aircraft company. The
shape of the inlets supports this: The double-scoop design
indicates that two pairs of side-by-side engines lurk in-
side the wing.
The drawing is vague about size. Some experts say the
cockpit may be deliberately too large to disguise the true
size of the plane. Reasons Bill Sweetman: He has heard
that the plane has f our ' F-10 & gins,r-the
same power plants used on t e -1B bomber. Each gener-
ates 17,000 pounds of thrust, a total of 68,000 pounds.
Assuming a standard 0.25 to 0.28 thrust-to-weight ratio
r a large four-engine plane, the weight would fall into
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9 JULY 1988 J51
 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0300810001-9
760 feet down on the bottom of the
chored 1
A
,
n
Gulf of Mexico, this record-setting tension-leg plat-
lik
U
e
n
form will tan oil from beneath the sea floor.
conventional platforms that sit atop underwater
skyscrapers, this newest engineering marvel is
anchored by gigantic steel mooring lines.
By?NAOMI J. FREUNDLICH
d
h
s
ar
trations by Linda Ric
rom a distance the new platform will look just like the
~__..,.. ,.;{? .,f h?ve underwater skyscrapers
^ : that tap tne.ou-rich it-- ??, ,,. ----- _
,,.If these platforms tap reserves in
depths of water ut aiuwrn
boats haul Conoco Inc.'s platform into the Gulf, its destination
' The platform with its four huge
,
n
l
.
esg
will explain its unusua
th water will move past the urban
hull columns churning
sprawl to new frontiers: the Green Canyon Block 184 oil field,
N Orleans where water depths
about 170 miles southwest of ew ,
st 9 100 feet. When the platform is installed in 1,760
1""' 1
mo
a
rose ,
feet, its will be the world's deepest-ever r dellynnew kind of oil
This, Gulf of Mexico pionee
production'platform designed by Conoco to tap deeper reserves
economically. Connected to the seabed by 12 tubular steel moor-
. natural buoyancy creates an upward
ing lines, theplat orm
force, keeping the legs under tension and al pension leg plat
in place in water up to 6,000 feet deep.
form (TLP) is stable and cost effective: It requires far less steel
'than fixed platforms; and with the help of agile remotely oper-
' to maintain. But perhaps the
ated vehicles (ROVs), its easy
most important aspect of the tension-leg design is its portabil-
ity. Once a TLP's work is done in one oil field, it can be un-oved
s
another
ite. b /08 :CIA-RDP96-OO IN PM mgn will require few ch' es in
.e r MID)
 Approved For Release 2000/08/08: CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9
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is the Best...
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The efficient arm exerciser
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Stealth! [Continued from page 511
Such figures show why there has
been such a drive to produce stealth
airplanes for many years. Some, in
fact, hypothesize that more has been
spent on stealth than on the much
more highly publicized Strategic De-
fense Initiative, or "Star Wars," proj-
ect. But while a stealth bomber would
have many important advantages, it
would have to give up a lot of desir-
able features as well.
"The more stealthy you make an air-
craft, the less efficient will be its per-
formance," says Anibal Tinajero, a
defense analyst with the Congres-
sional Research Service. The experts
agree: Design a plane for maximum
94 I POPULAR SCIENCE
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stealth, and you give up performance,
range, and payload.
First, stealthy shapes have rela-
tively low inherent stability and con-
trollability. Remember Hansman's
remarks about the best stealth shape
being a blob? Unfortunately, blobs
don't have very efficient aerodynamic
shapes. For best directional control
and stability, for example, control sur-
faces are on the tail-well behind the
center of gravity. To gain stealth, the
B-2 gives up its tail entirely.
While the shape of the Lockheed
fighter has never been revealed, it is
generally agreed that several have
crashed during testing, the last of
which was on July 11, 1986, when mil-
itary authorities cordoned off vast
areas of the California mountains in
which a plane-never identified-had
gone down.
Other threats
Most speculation concerning the B-2
has involved hiding it from enemy
radar, because radar is clearly the
prime military sensor used today. Yet
the plane would be worthless if it
could be easily detected and tracked
by other methods. For example, sat-
ellites with infrared sensors have been
highly developed. They're used, among
other things, to track-test missile fir-
ings by both the United States and
the Soviet Union. If stealth put out a
hot exhaust trail, it might be tracked
by satellite infrared sensors. Three
techniques will probably be used by
stealth to mask IR. First, the exhaust
is apparently below the wing, hidden
from direct view by a satellite. Sec-
ond, it will probably use a broad
diffuser that will change the concen-
trated jet exhaust into a wide thin
wedge of gases. And third, a small
auxiliary inlet beneath the main
engine inlet-engineers call it the
boundary-layer gutter-may gather
air to mix with the exhaust, cooling
it and thus reducing the probability
of it being seen by an IR sensor.
Finally, the B-2 will be equipped
with the latest electronic countermea-
sures available. Because it will have
such a small RCS, it will be possible
to use forms of ECM spoofing not gen-
erally available. "Radar cross section
is only one aspect that's going to make
a super penetrator," said one officer
who would not speak for attribution.
"The other half is the avionics. When
you get the radar visibility down very
small, you can start manipulating the
radar signals so the enemy doesn't see
you. 11
Such a combination would be able
to confuse the enemy even if he picked
up a stealth echo. "With a very small
target, it's easy to spoof at a low
power," says Sweetman. "So you can
send back a doctored return. You
broadcast something that imitates the
return on the first pulse, but then you
gradually feed in an error that says
you're where you're not. The second
pulse is a little bit later than the real
pulse would be. The third is still a lit-
tle more separated, and so on. By this
time the radar's logic is locked onto
this wrong pulse train, and before you
know it, the enemy has got the wrong
range."
Although there is no evidence to re-
veal just where it may stand, there is
the possibility of an even more exotic
approach. It is a technique called ac-
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810001-9