Original F-117 Sketch

"Ford Prefect" wrote in message
...


B2431 wrote:
From: (robert arndt)


At least you didn't try to claim the F-117 was drived from "lampyridae."

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired



But it was derived from Soviet research done years before....

That happens to be true. The inspiration for the initial F-117 design
(faceting) was indeed derived from a Soviet text on electrostatic
engineering. However the Soviets had no idea what to do with this book, and
never even bothered to make it a classified material. It was obtained pretty
much by chance by one of our engineers, passed around in the right circles,
and a few years later we had the F117.

Mind you, this book was not a blueprint for a steath aircraft, it just had
some interesting theories and mathmatical formulas, and was never more that
a piece of a very large puzzle. It took an enormous amount of innovation,
imagination, money and engineering genius to create the F117. Fortunately,
these are qualities that the Soviets sorely lacked, and Americans have in
spades.