U.S. tests first ‘invisible’ plane

Press, 12 September 1980, Page 5

U.S. tests first ‘invisible’ plane

NZPA Austin, Texas A Delta-shaped prototype of the United States Defence Department’s new “invisible bomber," the first such aircraft made of a radar-invis-ible composite plastic, has been undergoing flight testing for about two years at a secret desert base in Nevada, sources have said. The sources said the bomber was built by Lockheed using a Boeing design and “stealth technology,” a complex synthesis of devices, materials and design characteristics developed to beat radar detection in a decade-old military research programme recently revealed by the Defence Secretary (Mr Harold Brown). Mr Brown’s disclosure of some general details of “stealth" has become a big presidential campaign issue with the Republican contender, Ronald Reagan, accusing the Carter Administration of striking a “grievous blow” to national security for political advantage. Spokesmen for Lockheed, Boeing, and the Defence Department declined to comment on the materials, design, or even the existence of a new bomber prototype. Sources said, however, that the prototype was expected to be unveiled in time to meet a March, 1981, deadline for funding; Congress set the deadline to

force the Pentagon to choose a new manned bomber design to be operational by 1987.

The bomber could replace the much-debated Bl prototype that was cancelled for production in 1977 after Congress withheld funds following claims that the Bl was too expensive and did not offer enough advanced technology. Mr Reagan has said that the Administration’s opposition to the Bl was a demonstration of Mr Carter’s bad judgment. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the former American chief of naval operations, has charged that it was President Carter who made the decision to leak information on “stealth” and called the leak “unbelievably harmful to the national security,” the “Washington Star” has reported. He said that the disclosure gave the Soviet Union “at least a five-year head start in reacting to it.” Mr Carter on Tuesday described as “absolutely irresponsible and false” charges that the Administration had leaked the classified information for political gains. Mr Carter said that “nothing has been revealed about the stealth project except that it exists. No details about it, no technological elements of it, have been revealed.”