Originally posted by BUG_EAF322
The americans flew a wing at that time too i believe.
Anyway the mosquito was pretty hard to fin by radar,
because off its all wooden construction.
Actually, the Mossie wasn't particularly stealthy. In some repects and at some aspect angles it was actually
less stealthy than some metal-skinned aircraft. The reason for this is the engines, control cables, fuel lines, screws/nuts/bolts, radios, fuel tanks, hydrualics (if any), the pilot's ego (a possibly enormous reflector), and a myriad of other internal scattering sources are normally hidden by the metal skin of an aircraft. That metal skin is a large "specular" reflector (meaning it's direct and initial reflection, which leaves the surface at an angle equal but opposite of the direction the radar waves impinge on the surface). However, at any other angle besides the main reflection angle much less electromagnetic energy is scattered. The key to making an aircraft stealty is to make sure that any reflection of radar energy goes in a direction other than back towards the radar site.
Now, if you strip the skin off an aircraft (or make that skin semi-transparent to the radar...because even wood reflects some radar energy), you're looking at a whole bunch of separate scattering sources that would normally be hidden by the metal skin. While each individual source may be smaller than the surface they're hiding under, they all add together to make a very large and very broad (angularly speaking) radar scatterer. This is why the F-117 and B2 still have skins that are
not radar permmiable (i.e. they're not see-thru to the radar). They do have radar absorbing materials (RAM) selectively placed around the aircraft, but not to kill the specular, or direct radar return. The RAM is there to kill only certain types of secondary radar scattering. The overall shape of these stealth aircraft is designed in fact to make the biggest possible specular radar return, but to make the angles you see them at very narrow.
Sorry for the long winded explanation, but I can't help it...I've a backgound it this subject. As far as the Gotha goes, stealth was not the primary design driver; rather it was a side benefit of a design that was chosen for other (aerodynamic) reasons. Just how stealthly depends on many factors, most of which were not well understood until recently.
