Making all your military equipment invisible to the enemy is the age-old dream of the army officials of any country. Work in this direction has been going on for many years, its results are always classified and are a state secret. For a long time, the media have been writing about the unsolved secrets of the famous "Philadelphia Experiment" and "invisible" stealth aircraft (from the English stealth - "secretly"). But few people know that the “invisibility” of bodies that are opaque by nature was discovered a long time ago, back in 1767, in Russia.
Russian trace
On January 27, 1787, at the St. Petersburg Mining School, mineralogist Alexander Matveyevich Karamyshev, in the presence of numerous students and famous mineralogists Lehman, Brickman and Kankrin, demonstrated his apparatus with which the scientist gave transparency and colorlessness to opaque minerals like limestone spar. Karamyshev, known for his numerous works on mineralogy, chemistry and geology, was a Corresponding Member of the Russian and Swedish Academies and Master of the Chair at the St. Alexander Masonic Lodge in St. Petersburg.
Academician Lehmann wrote about the sensational discovery of the Russian scientist in his work "Problems of Mineralogy", and 40 years later an article by the historian and publicist Reinar Hagel appeared in the Swedish magazine "Miracles of Science and Technology". Surprisingly, then the ingenious discovery was forgotten for 150 years! Or does the military just read little scientific literature? But in the 30s of the XX century, the assistant to the director of the local history museum in the city of Kadui, Vologda region, V. I. Lyubenkovich found Karamyshev's diary with drawings and calculations of an unusual device, which was kept at number 978 in the museum's storerooms, and published an article about his find in the newspaper "Severnyi regionalist". The reaction of the authorities was not long in coming.
The secret of the OGPU
The entire circulation of the newspaper was destroyed, and Karamyshev's diary also disappeared from the museum. The Chekists arrested 70-year-old Lyubenkovich and was never seen again in Kaduya. A few months later, the museum worker's relatives were informed that he had died suddenly. Where Lyubenkovich is buried is unknown.
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And a few years later, on November 23, 1937, at the secret airfield of the Air Force near Vologda, an AIR-3 airplane (light aircraft) with an unusual silver lining was rolled out of the hangar. Even the base personnel were not allowed close to it, and there was a cordon around the entire perimeter of the airfield. The pilot started the engine, jets of exhaust gases burst from the exhaust pipes. And so, with the increase in engine speed, the plane … disappeared from sight, not yet rising into the air! Only by the sound it was clear that the car took off and took off. Two I-16 fighters followed. One kind of tried to catch up with the invisible, and from the second, two-seater, they were filming what was happening. The survey was also carried out from the ground, from several points, and it was obvious that the fighters never found the AIR-3. Several times over the airfield, in a completely empty and clear sky, the sound of a running engine was heard. After half an hour, the fighters landed and quickly cleared the runway. Soon the AIR-3 also sat down. The spectators understood - here he was rolling along the strip, then he stopped and seemed to turn around not far from the flight directors. The engine died down, and the plane again … stood at the airfield!
All frames of the filming material captured only clouds. The deed was done - the stealth plane was created! How did the designers achieve this fabulous effect? According to some reports, a device was installed on the AIR-3 that generated some kind of special field that creates the effect of invisibility. The designer of AIR-3 was a certain Alevas, according to one version - Alexander Vasilyevich Silvansky, who graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1937. However, it is unlikely that yesterday's student could have made such a brilliant discovery, and even more so be admitted to such secret work. But Silvansky was the son-in-law of the first people's commissar of the aviation industry Mikhail Moiseevich Kaganovich. This official punched and cleared the way for his relative.
How can we not recall Karamyshev's diary that disappeared from the museum after the visit of the NKVD workers! Probably, it was the publication of Lyubenkovich, who paid for it with his life, that gave impetus to the beginning of work on "invisibility" in the USSR.
Similar experiments were carried out with might and main behind the "Iron Curtain".
Secrets of the Pentagon
The invention of radar stations (radar) in the late 30s of the XX century greatly complicated the method of conducting combat operations. The stations could "see" planes both at night and in the clouds, and ships at sea were tracked by radar stations for tens of kilometers. How to deal with all-seeing radars? And here's how - to shield an object with an electromagnetic field, like a barrier, so that the station has no way of detecting this object.
One of the most famous mysterious stories associated with such experiments is the "Philadelphia Experiment". On October 28, 1943, an electromagnetic bubble - a screen that diverted radar radiation from the ship - covered the destroyer Eldridge. They thought to make the ship invisible to the radar, but got a side effect … dematerialization and teleportation. The destroyer disappeared from the dock in Philadelphia for a few moments and appeared in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia, located almost 400 kilometers from the place of disappearance.
Witnesses claim that three UFOs appeared over the destroyer during preparation for the experiment. One of them did not have time to fly away and was pulled into the crater formed when the Eldridge disappeared.
It turned out that conducting such experiments is deadly. The destroyer's sailors were badly injured: 27 people simply “soldered” into its hull, 13 died from radiation and electric shock, the surviving 21 sailors lost their minds, and they were hid in a psychiatric hospital so as not to talk too much.
Here's another story. In the 1960s, in the Nevada desert near Groom Lake, the Americans set up a secret training ground, Area 51. There, they tested stealth aircraft, almost imperceptible to enemy radars: the SR-71 Black Bird reconnaissance aircraft and the F-117a fighter jet. Some researchers directly associate the design of these aircraft with the fact that several saucers were in the hands of the Americans, and the military was able to use alien technology. The first tests of the "Nighthawk" F-117a "stele" took place on June 18, 1981, but they were kept secret until 1989. The aircraft had a low radar profile, black paint and a special anti-radar coating. Naturally, there is no talk of complete invisibility. But the radar "echo" of the aircraft was reduced by almost 100 times.
However, the declassification of the fighter suggests that the American military probably has more modern designs. Perhaps the successor to the stealth is the Aurora, an officially defunct supersonic stealth plane that flies silently. Rumor connects the appearance of "Aurora" again with UFO technology. One of the most secret NATO airbases, Mahrihanish, located on the summit of Cape Kintyr in England, is considered to be the place of registration of the aircraft. The Pentagon claims that the "Aurora" does not exist, but the same thing he said about the "stele" for many years. In 1991 the strategic bomber B-2 "Northrop" appeared in the USA, and in 1996 - the newest fighter F-22 "Raptor".
The path to the invisible fleet
Despite the dire consequences of the "Philadelphia Experiment", after the Second World War, the Americans continued their experiments using the "stele" technology in the navy. If a simple medium-sized ship is detected by marine radars at 50-60 miles, then the stealth hull is only 15-20 miles away, which means that there is a chance to hit the enemy before he sees you. The American ship Seas hadow, in addition to the stele technology, is protected by a special device that creates a cloud of water spray around the ship. This makes it nearly invisible to ultra-short range radars and thermal sensors. But the Seas hadow developed only 13 knots, so the first ship was not equipped with weapons, the ship was used to create a more "advanced" model.
If the ship's hull is made of carbon filaments that absorb electromagnetic radiation, then it can be detected only from 11 miles, and when the ship also turns on the active jamming system, then only from five or six miles.
The Russian corvette "Guarding" from the new series 20380 was launched last year. Its "invisibility" was handled by the NGO "Almaz", which allegedly focused on a certain secret technology. As you know, Russian designers are a lot of inventions, so it is quite possible to believe in it. The corvette is visible on the radar as a small ship, on which the enemy will be sorry to spend a missile.
Alas, the general public will hardly be able to find out all the details of such experiments. The military strategy remains the same - maximum secrecy and a veil of disinformation. But the "invisible" still leave their mark. We are not yet sure of their successful functioning, although mysterious experiments are probably carried out constantly and persistently. Apparently, it is far from easy to deceive the laws of nature and change physical reality.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №51. Author: Valery Kukarenko
