At 6:19 PM -0500 5/8/01, Jim Choate wrote:
>On Tue, 8 May 2001, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
>
>> The "total frontal area" is irrelevant if it bounces the radar signal
>> anywhere except more-or-less directly back at the radar gun, which is rare.
>> (Think F-117A.)
>
>Think radiator; a flat plate reflector of much larger area beats out a
>corner reflector every time.
You're neglecting the "except more-or-less directly back" part of
Sandy's argument.
In fact, a flat surface _much, much_ larger than a little tiny corner
reflector will return less of a signal if the surface is not almot
perfectly parallel to the emitter.
Which is why the F-117 Stealth fighter is made up of mostly flat planes
Do you think about what you write, or do you just make it up as you go along?
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
