The most natural stealth aircraft was the T-33 Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael C. Berch" <mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 8:51 PM Subject: Re: Radar > Well, yes and no. Please keep in mind the distinction between "primary > returns" and transponder information, and between civilian and military > radars. What ATC uses for the most part is transponder data - that > is, the little box next to a blip that contains identification > information about the aircraft. Depending on what part of ATC you're > talking about, that will include flight number or registration, a/c > type, speed, heading, altitude, etc. HOWEVER, when that system is not > available (i.e., it crashed), ATC has to use so-called "primary > returns", which are what the rest of us call "blips". And on > *civilian* radar, all blips are pretty much equal, and include false > returns like trucks, boats, birds, and weather. The aircraft metadata > is then kept on a backup computer system and/or the paper-strip system. > > Then there are military surveillance radars of various sorts (primary, > IFF interrogator, phased-array [PAWS], over-the-horizon backscatter > [OTH-B], etc.), used for air defense and for tactical air control. On > those, all returns (blips) are *not* the same; that's where > stealthiness comes in. The art of stealth aircraft design is to reduce > the radar profile of a large plane to that of a small plane or a bird, > or disappear completely. An air defense radar (ours, anyway) can > definitely distinguish a 747 from a Cessna. > > I worked on PAVE PAWS and OTH-B, back in Cold War days, on the > communications networking part. > > -- > Michael C. Berch > mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > On Friday, December 5, 2003, at 05:26 PM, Floridasky@xxxxxxx wrote: > > A radar blip looks exactly the same for 747 and single engine Cessna. > > Believe > > or not flock of migrating geese will appear like an aircraft. In South > > Florida controllers call possibel traffic for semi trucks on I 595 on > > occasion not > > know for sure what it is. You can observe ships just off the coast on > > radar at > > times also. They all look an aircarft hit. > > > > Mike (MIA) > > >