From World War Two to 1970, people have figured a way to be tricky, and even invisible in plain sight. Mary Taylor never knew the world was going to take her idea to a whole new level. The Germans never suspected what was coming their way. America never knew they were going to invent a plane invisible to RADAR.
After Mary Taylor patented the idea of a camouflage plane, she began to create her idea. First, she painted unorganized dots on her plane, but quickly changed to a “dazzle,” which Norman Wilkinson had earlier invented. Next, she tried stripes and zigzags, but she got completely opposite results. Then, Mary tried to cut holes to let light through. Afterwards, she changed to lights that could change color and achieved her goal. Mysteriously, in 2011, Americans found remains of her plane plans in a barn.
“Night Witches” were the nicknames of the woman’s 588th Night Bomber Regiment. The Germans gave them this name because when they approached their destination, they turned off their engines and glided toward the final leg of the mission. As soon as they had dropped their bombs, they fired the engines back up and flew away. Each mission was completed this way in a Polikarpov Po-2 bomber. Although they served for the same cause as did Russia, men disrespected them. Irina Sebrova successfully completed 1008 missions as a “Night Witch.”
In 1988, the media were informed of a plane that was undetectable by RADAR called the F-22 Raptor. The designer of this plane was awarded the aeronautical award, the most prized award in the world. The plane took many years to perfect, as, in 1970 they had begun the research for the secret plane.
Many brilliant men and woman pioneered the idea of undetectable, invisible, and even quiet attacking planes. Even now we are amazed what planes can do. Mary Taylor affected the world in a drastic way with her camouflaged aircraft, while the Night Witches bombed without their engines on, and America stumbled upon the idea of making an undetectable plane.
CITATIONS:
1. Nick D’Alto. “Inventing the Invisible Airplane.” Air & Space Magazine, August 2016. (Accessed June 2, 2020) https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/art-camouflage-180959768/;
2. John T. Correll. “History of Stealth: From out of the Shadows.” Air Force Magazine, September 1, 2019. (Accessed June 2, 2020) https://www.airforcemag.com/article/history-of-stealth-from-out-of-the-shadows/;
3. Megan Garber. “Night Witches: The Female Fighter Pilots of World War II. The Atlantic, July 15, 2013. (Accessed June 2, 2020) https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/night-witches-the-female-fighter-pilots-of-world-war-ii/277779/.