One of the main problems with stealth Aircraft is that they must have all ordinaces held internaly, because ordinaces show up radar. As well when the bombays are opened they show up more on radar. My idea eliminates this problem.
Basicly what you would do is put external hard points on the wings like conventional aircraft. You make a pod that is stealthy to radar in conjunction with the airplanes radar cross section. The pod can hold older non stealthy weapons such as Sidwinders, AMRAAMs, and precision bombs. The system could either jetison and then deploy the weapon so then it would not give away the airplanes position when the weapon is released, or just open up the pod to deploy the weapon.
This system could be implimented on aircraft such as the B-2A, F/A-22 Raptor, F-117 NightHawk, and future stealth platforms like the newly proposed verticle take off mach 2+ low cost " in military sense" , stealthy Joint Strike Fighter being built by Lockheed and British Aerospace.
The pods after being used could be jettison and self destructed so the pods could not be captured by enemy forces.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 13 2003 AGM-129A http://www.designat...et/dusrm/m-129.htmlA stealth cruise missile, carried on external hardpoints. [Madcat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Are you sure you can hide a non-stealthy weapon inside a stealthy pod as easily as all that? I would have thought that big iron would go right on reflecting those radar waves even if you put it in some non-reflective container.-- DrCurry, Nov 13 2003 The container would have a RAM " Radar Absorbant Materials" coat over it just like the skin to a stealth. Currently the F-117 has basicaly a conventional airframe and skin under a special coating of RAM. The Shape of the pod would reflect radio waves away from the source and would be designed to work with the Aircrafts Radar Cross section.
Missles and other ordinaces are not designed to be stealthy and if they were it would be too much of a hassle to design differnt weapons that must include the design perameters of stealthyness and to make them work with specific aircraft.
In sense you would have to have a differnt type of missle for the F/A-22 than for The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to match each aircraft designs unique radar cross section. Instead of doing this you could just design pods for each aircraft's design that could use any weapon system future or old. You could also make Fuel drop tanks that are stealthy as well.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 13 2003 Please leave a note when voting for or against.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 13 2003 This is actually baked; after a fashion. Well, not really, but they're thinking the same thing in a way... See link.-- Madcat, Nov 13 2003 Can I still get my local 100.7 "The Bay" radio station I love so much?
its for our boys so +-- FeelinPhine, Nov 13 2003 Madcat- This is a differnt idea the b-52 isn't intended on penetrating enemy airspace but the missle is. My idea is to eliminate the problem with having missiles exposed on the wing hard points.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 13 2003 I was just asking that as a favour.-- JoeLounsbury, Nov 13 2003 My experience is the more you talk on your own ideas, the less other people speak up. And whining really brings on the fishbones. Things may be different for you, of course.-- DrCurry, Nov 13 2003 I think that the hard points would reflect a lot to be useful, Thats one of the main ideas behind using weapon bays, the hard points would mess the RCS of an airplane. The weapons are another matter. How about stealth pods on stealth hardpoints???-- Wallace, Dec 03 2003 Internal missles and bombs are not done so only for stealth. They drastically improve aerodynamic of an airframe.-- azmatsci, Dec 23 2003 random, halfbakery