Lockheed Martin’s F‑117 Nighthawk uses angled panels and RAM to achieve low radar
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Lockheed Martin positioned the F‑117 Nighthawk’s angular panels to deflect radar energy away from the transmitting radar and added radar‑absorbent material to further reduce the return.
The aircraft is 65‑foot‑11‑inch (20.1 meter) long with a radar cross section of 0.011 to 0.032 square feet (0.001 to 0.003 square meters); its design was based on Soviet physicist Pyotr Ufimtsev’s work on scattering from flat shapes, which Skunk Works engineers Denys Overholser and Bill Schroeder turned into the Echo 1 computer program that predicted radar return from flat‑triangle surfaces, and the Have Blue demonstrator that preceded it weighed roughly a quarter as much as the production F‑117.