But it was not an American discovery..it was a Russian one
The world’s first production aircraft incorporating radar stealth characteristics, the F-117 Nighthawk was produced by the Americans. Yet the genesis of this US aircraft and [to a lesser extent] subsequent aircrafts possessing radar stealth can be traced back to the work done by a Soviet Scientist, Petr Ufimtsev.
When he first put forth the equations that would enable one to generate profiles for deflecting radar waves away from the receiver, the resulting surface profile so obtained lead Soviet Aircraft designers to conclude that an aircraft having such a surface would be incapable of flight. Yet, the Americans, who had been struggling to come up with their own stealth aircraft, made use of Ufimtsev’s work and finally succeeded in building the Nighthawk.
An interesting documentary report, Russian stealth: Hunt for the invisible tells the story of how the Americans built their first stealth aircraft with the work done by a Soviet scientist to maintain/establish their supremacy over the Soviets themselves.
Language: Russian, with English subtitles
Duration: 10 mins 44 secs
Russian stealth: Hunt for the invisible Part 02 [Duration: 10 mins 44 secs]
Russian stealth: Hunt for the invisible Part 03 [Duration: 1 min 50 secs]
Russian stealth: Hunt for the invisible Part 04 [Duration: 10 mins 44 secs]
Report gives one a feeling it was made by someone who yearned for the Soviet days, when, undoubtedly funding for Science, especially that which could have military applications, was virtually unfettered & a feeling of condescension for the Americans too is apparent – not surprising I’d say.
Godspeed