On 1/8/2011 3:40 PM, John Szalay wrote:
Kerryn wrote in

Didn't the original research for stealth come out of Russia (or at
least was done by Russian mathematicians...

In a-round-about way,

According to Ben Rich's book, the original formulas were from a scottish
physicist James Maxwell,developed a century ago, later refined by a german
electromagnetics expert Arnold Sommerfeld, then put in a paper by a
russian radio engineer scientist named Pyotr Ufimtsev ,paper was called
"Method of edge waves in the physical theory of diffraction"
that paper was ignored for 9 years until translated and discovered
by a Skunk Works mathemation named Denys Overholser.
once he understood the theory, stealth came into being.

REF:
Skunk Works" by Ben Rich& Leo Janos.
page 19

IMHO:
One Hellofa read, well worth having on your book shelf.

Check out Ed Lovick's "Radar Man: A Personal History
of Stealth." Ed invented some of the original techniques
during the work on the A-12. It predates the computational
work based on Ufimtsev's paper. His is -- as far as I know --
only the third memoir by a Skunk Worker.


Ed helped me a good bit with my book, "From RAINBOW to GUSTO."

Paul