Buccaneer stealth properties

[Martes]

I remember that there were some measures during the design stage to reduce the radar visibility for the Buccaneer.
Did it work out? Are there any numbers for actual RCS of the aircraft?

 

[Hood]

According to Royal Aircraft Establishment Technical Note No. Rad.817 of May 1962 the "echoing" areas for the Buccaneer S.1 are:
20m sq head-on
250m sq broadside
10m sq tail-on

It was thought that adding DX3 RAM to the intakes would reduce the centimetric echo by 10dB.

 

[Martes]

According to Royal Aircraft Establishment Technical Note

Thanks!

But doesn't that more or less correspond to the the surface areas of the aircraft, not the signal return strength?

 

[Mr.T]

Buccaner Stealth was low level flight

 

[scautomoton]

Buccaner Stealth was low level flight

I don't know, all those people jumping in the air to stop one hitting their ankles may give the game away....

 

[Dilandu]

Buccaner Stealth was low level flight

AK-630 and Osa-M kinda disagree.

 

[quellish]

Thanks!

But doesn't that more or less correspond to the the surface areas of the aircraft, not the signal return strength?

RCS is expressed as either dbsm or square meters. When using square meters this really means “the return is equal to that of a perfectly conducting sphere of this size”.

 

[scautomoton]

AK-630 and Osa-M kinda disagree.

I think even Osa-MA2 would struggle with something this low

 

[Dilandu]

I think even Osa-MA2 would struggle with something this low

Well, it could work on targets flying as low as 5 meters over surface. It was mainly a proximity fuze limitation; the 5 meters was the smallest setting that could be set.

 

[Martes]

RCS is expressed as either dbsm or square meters. When using square meters this really means “the return is equal to that of a perfectly conducting sphere of this size”.

So it means that all the elaboration taken to make the internal weapons bay, anti-radar paint and everything else - it didn't work in the end?
Because 20m2 head on is glaringly large.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I don't know, all those people jumping in the air to stop one hitting their ankles may give the game away....

Buccaneer flight manual:

"After takeoff and retraction of landing gear, descend to cruise altitude."

 

[Hood]

The diagrams from the report.

TNA catalogue number AVIA 6/17663.

 

[Scott Kenny]

The diagrams from the report.

TNA catalogue number AVIA 6/17663.

Hrm.

So, lowest RCS is about a 30-45deg quartering approach? Am I reading that correctly?

 

[Martes]

The diagrams from the report.

Thank you so very much for posting these!

 

[Martes]

So, lowest RCS is about a 30-45deg quartering approach? Am I reading that correctly?

I think the lowest is that angle on departure, and then the approach. It's curious how do you plan bombing runs with this.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I think the lowest is that angle on departure, and then the approach. It's curious how do you plan bombing runs with this.

Quartering approach till they detect you anyways then line up the shot from there. You'd have ~20sec (edit)60sec head on, I think.

(edit) I screwed up the time per km.