posted on May, 25 2004 @ 01:24 AM
Mirrors on the bottom of a plane would show a reflection of the ground...thereby making the plane show up
more so than it normally would. Same
as from above--topside would reflect the sky, so you'd see an airplane-shaped patch of sky below you.
The trick is the adaptive optic camo intelgurl referred to. Space optical sensors and adjustable light emitters (the new thin-film LCD's, or OLED
sheets come to mind as possible sources) evenly over the surfaces of the craft. Pipe the incoming visual signals from one side of the craft to the
emitters on the other side, therefore achieving an optical camo effect. From above, you'd see a distorted ground-colored airplane shape. Not
terribly effective, granted, but the real beauty comes when viewing from below. From the ground, it can be hard to pinpoint a plane in the best of
conditions. Now imagine the bottom of this plane is the
exact same hue and shade of the sky above and all around it, no matter what the
weather!
In absence of contrails, you're talking about virtual invisibility insofar as visual contact from the ground is concerned. Especially at
night...(yeah, I know, just paint it black!)...you could match the exact shade of starlight, moonlight, whatever night sky and you'd not even be
detectable by your shadow. Only way this would be possible would be for someone to detect stars being obscured, or otherwise distorted by the
reproduction (star movement could be replicated, but wouldn't look right from all angles).
And, incidentally, not all choppers are that noisy. I could see this tech working quite nicely on a high-flying, supressed helo.