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The SR-71 was designed to minimize its radar cross-section, an early attempt at stealth design.[21] Finished aircraft were painted a dark blue, almost black, to increase the emission of internal heat. One of the problems you get at is that airframes heat up at high speeds.
A stealth aircraft looks to a radar a bit like a disco ball: its reflections are all specular and concentrated in specific directions. Except, unlike a disco ball, the mirrors are arranged such as not to hit the observer's eye as often, and are tinted dark by using RAM.
What is in the 'stealth paint' that coats stealth bombers e.g B-2 spirit, and stealth aircraft, e.g SR-71, and how does it absorb/deflect radar?
Moreover, stealth aircraft generally operate during night when contrails are less visible. Stealth aircraft have low visibility on radar. Not necessarily. VHF radar should be able to detect them at long range. Moreover, RCS of aircraft is a complex phenomenon, depending on many stuff (frequency, aspect angle, polarization of signal etc).
Many places in the world do not have primary radar coverage at all, meaning that if a transponder fails - stealth aircraft or not - it will disappear from the radar screen. Controllers will then revert to providing procedural (non-radar) separation, based on position reports transmitted by the pilot.
A stealth aircraft isn't actually invisible to radar. It's just harder for current radars to see stealthy aircraft at longer distances. This gives a stealthy aircraft the element of surprise against an enemy.
Modern stealth aircraft such as F-22 and F-35 accept some possible dihedral corner reflection spots, but mitigate the effect by use of non reflective / absorptive materials. Epilogue: Modern civil radars do not need much of a return signal to spot a target, military radars even less so.
Stealth technology uses angles in the aircraft shape, and homogeneous orientation of the surfaces. In the F-22A Raptor wing leading edges, tail surfaces, air intake bypass doors, refueling aperture, etc have the same orientation.
Why are stealth aircraft not painted sky blue on the bottom to make them hard to see by looking up from the ground? At night or with clouds between the plane and ground, the plane won't be visible anyway, so color doesn't matter then. On a clear day, however, wouldn't it be harder to see the plane if it matched the color of the sky?
For aircraft delivering ordinance it must be taken into account that releasing bombs, missiles and such will most certainly give out the position for the aircraft. Therefore if it for example turns away right after release, the radar signature during that maneuver is not that important, approach and departure signatures are.