Stealth from the aircraft designer's viewpoint

The reduction or other control of an aircraft's radar, infrared, visual and acoustic signatures can greatly improve its survival, resulting in improved weapons' effectiveness. Although radar and infrared stealth are important, other aspects of low observability (i.e. acoustic and visual) cannot be ignored. However, this paper, for of brevity, focuses on control of radar and infrared The topics of: benefits of signature control; contributions of an aircraft to its radar cross section (RCS) and infrared (IR) signature, methods to reduce RCS and IR signature; penalties/costs of signature reduction, in of performance, volume, weight and maintenance; use of radar absorbing materials; and decoys are The conclusion is that while signature control is important, there are penalties to be paid. Signature has become yet another factor to be considered in the series of compromises made during aircraft design trade-offs.