Stealth - How Does it Work? (Northrop B-2 Spirit)

Video from the channel Real Engineering about Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 3:58. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The video explains what the B-2 Spirit's stealth is based on: how radar works, what radar cross-section measures, and why an aircraft with a 52 m wingspan can produce a return comparable to that of a large bird.

As background, it mentions the transparent fabric skins of German World War I aircraft and the arrival of practical radar in the late 1930s. It contrasts the B-2 with the F-117 Nighthawk, which, lacking supercomputer modeling, relied on flat facets.

The B-2 deflects radar waves with a complex curved shape and houses its engines within the wing, with intakes and exhausts on the upper surface. It controls yaw with split rudders at the wingtips or with differential thrust, and its carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic skin absorbs radar energy. It cites the 1944 Horten 229 as a precursor.