From the early days of World War II to the stealth fighters of the 21st century, the goal of remaining unnoticed by the enemy has been a constant obsession in military aviation. Aerial “invisibility”, more than a myth, It is a technological challenge that has marked decades of innovation in materials and design. A team from Chinese universities describes a flexible and ultra-thin coating capable of absorbing radar waves without losing thermal resistance, reports SCMP. If its effectiveness is confirmed in flight, it could change the conversation about modern aerial stealth.
The development was detailed on October 14 in Advanced Materials. The study, signed by Cui Guang, Liu Zhongfan, Huihui Wang and Maoyuan Li, among others, presents a graphene on silica fabric (G@SF) metasurface that combines flexibility, low weight and thermal resistance of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. According to its authors, the direct integration of the material into the insulating layer of an aircraft would allow the reflected radar signal to be reduced to −42 dB, without compromising the structure or weight of the aircraft.
A surface that wants to defy the radar
The material is based on a silica textile base on which the researchers deposited graphene using a chemical vapor deposition process. On that layer they applied a laser “erasing” technique, which allowed them to create a precise pattern on the surface and adjust your electrical impedance. In this way, they claim, they managed to make the coating effectively absorb electromagnetic waves without needing to increase its thickness or weight. The result is a flexible, ultralight metasurface with an adjustable sheet resistance between 50 and 5,000 ohms per square.
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Laboratory tests showed that the material maintains stable performance even under extreme conditions. After five minutes of exposure to 600 degrees Celsius in air, it retained its absorption capacity, and also withstood prolonged heating to 1,000 degrees in a vacuum without degrading. In tests with air currents of up to 200 meters per second, its loss of efficiency was less than 1%, and neither the surface pattern nor the resistance of the sheet were altered. These properties make it an ideal candidate for high-speed aircraft exposed to intense heat and friction.
The material described in the study poses a possible alternative to conventional coatings, although it has yet to be demonstrated whether its advantages are sustainable outside the laboratory. US stealth fighters, such as the F-22 and F-35, use absorbent compounds They offer good initial performance, but require constant and expensive maintenance. In China, the J-20 has been spotted with an apparently more stable coating, although those impressions come from displays rather than verifiable technical data. The difference, for now, is in the discourse rather than the evidence.
The new coating is still far from becoming a technology in real use, but it illustrates the direction of Chinese research in stealth materials. The challenge is not only to achieve high performance in the laboratory, but to keep it in flight and under extreme conditions. Chinese scientists aim to solve one of the most persistent limitations of modern fighters: the fragility of absorbent coatings. If the material achieves this stability, it could open a different stage in aircraft protection.
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Images | Wikedia Commons | Arthur
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The news
In China they have created a material for their fighters that opens a new technological direction: it aims directly at radars
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