As the US faces issues with aging radar-absorbent materials, China has turned to traditional methods for its advanced solutions.
As US stealth aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor face issues with their radar-absorbent coatings peeling off—a problem compared to “molting cicada wings”—China asserts it has discovered an age-old remedy for this challenge affecting its fifth-generation fighter jets.
Recently, defense industry experts have disclosed information indicating that advanced stealth technology may
technology
aboard China’s smooth-skinned
stealth fighters
Its durability might be attributed to a 3,000-year-old textile advancement: the technique of silk jacquard weaving.
Contemporary stealth airplanes, including the
F-22
and
F-35
Relies on multiple coating layers to bounce off radar waves. However, these materials deteriorate quickly when subjected to strain.
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U.S. maintenance records indicate that even small scratches caused by high-speed flights or dust storms in desert environments can significantly reduce stealth effectiveness, necessitating repeated applications of protective coatings.
radar-absorbent materials
(RAM) approximately every three weeks, with each flight hour costing over $60,000, as reported by certain US media outlets.
Moreover, in areas such as Florida, humidity worsens adhesive problems, whereas corrosion around seaside installations additionally diminishes effectiveness.
Chinese aerospace engineers have frequently criticized these temporary fixes. Rather, they aimed for a fundamental solution—one integrated into the very fabric of the materials themselves.
As reported in a study released last month in the Chinese scholarly magazine Knitting Industries, the solution hinges on a two-tier combined material modeled after
Han dynasty
(206 BC–AD 220) Jacquard looms – a weaving technique for silk production originating around 200 BC.
By incorporating conductive threads into a “double-sided jacquard” fabric using a warp knitting technique, scientists from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and Tiangong University developed a material that can absorb up to 90.6 percent of radar waves within the 8-26 GHz range, surpassing traditional coating methods.
According to Professor Jiang Qian’s research team, this material represents a blend of traditional patterns and contemporary electromagnetism.
Similar to how traditional Jacquard weavers utilized “flower books” with patterns akin to perforated cards to store complex designs, Jiang and her team integrated stealth-enhancing shapes right into the fabric’s structure. The quartz fibers serve as an insulating foundation, whereas stainless-steel threads generate resonating circuits that convert electromagnetic waves into thermal energy.
Each conductive thread is carefully positioned to direct and capture signals, similar to how ancient weavers would arrange silk strands to portray dragons or clouds, as stated in the source.
researchers
.
Laboratory tests uncovered remarkable mechanical benefits. It was discovered that the composite can endure up to 93.5 megapascals of longitudinal tensile stress—over tenfold compared to conventional coatings. This exceptional resilience is due to the knitted material’s anisotropic design, wherein the load-carrying threads run parallel to the direction of force.
aircraft’s
stress vectors, reflecting the axial strength found in Han Dynasty brocades.
The Smith Chart, which is used for electromagnetic analysis, further demonstrated nearly perfect impedance matching in the longitudinal direction, enabling
radar waves
to delve into rather than mirror, as per the study.
Archaeologists link Jacquard’s roots back to the looms of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), where craftsmen used manual “multi-heddle” systems to create intricate geometric designs. By the time of the Han Dynasty, these devices advanced into complex machinery capable of utilizing as many as 120 heddle rods—a technological precursor found in the world’s earliest known Jacquard weaving mechanism discovered within the Laoguanshan Tombs near Chengdu.
“A scholar from Beijing specializing in history mentioned, under conditions of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the technology, that those Han dynasty looms were not solely used for producing luxuries,” he stated.
Just as early binary computers stored weaving codes in physical memory, today’s military engineers appear to have rediscovered this approach.
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The article initially appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), which serves as the premier source for news coverage of China and Asia.
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