Aerospace Notes

Research workers in the U.S. are developing new radar absorbing materials that can be sprayed on transparent surfaces such as cockpit canopies and sensor ports to blunt detection of older aircraft and precision‐guided wea‐pons.Older aircraft have large radar cross sections, and externally mounted weapons and sensor packages increasing their vulnerability.The reflection of car lights from an animal's eyes is an effect similar to radar's reflection from the transparent section of a forward‐looking infrared sensor or television camera. The effect is known as retro‐reflection to reduce these radar returns, researchers are working on a variety of optically transparent, radar absorbing materials that if properly applied to cockpit canopies, Lantirn pods, and SLAM or Maverick missile heads will make them almost invisible to radar.