Stealth aircraft

The category, explained

Stealth is mostly geometry. Radar returns come from flat surfaces facing the transmitter, from sharp edges, and from cavities like engine intakes and cockpits. A stealth airframe reflects energy away from where it came from rather than absorbing it, which is why these aircraft look so unlike anything else.

The F-117 was faceted into flat panels because the radar-cross-section software of the 1970s could only solve flat plates. By the time the B-2 was designed, computing had advanced enough to model curves, which is why the later aircraft is smooth where the earlier one is angular.

The B-2 takes it furthest: a flying wing with no fuselage, no tail and no vertical surfaces at all. Twenty-one were built, and much of their performance data has never been released.

Every stealth aircraft here

Silhouettes are sized by real wingspan — bigger aircraft draw bigger.

Ranked by length