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by edwhitesell 3926 days ago
Well, the Hopeless Diamond (F-117 model) was 15 years _after_ this plane. This plane clearly had some of the early thoughts on lowering RCS though, similar to the SR-71 Blackbird.

There were no facets on this plane because that really only came about after Ufimtsev's paper described how to calculate RCS. Computers at the time of the Hopeless Diamond/Have Blue/F-117 couldn't run those calculations on curved surfaces. Which meant Ben Rich's team used the flat surfaces (I don't recall exactly who suggested it, but it's in the book).

I'd also be curious if Boeing had any thoughts in the areas of radar absorbtion/dispersing paint in the 60s. I recall the SR-71 Blackbird had some of those properties in it's paint (though the paint was mainly used for cooling).