Where the Stealth Meets the Road
At some point, it has to be faced. Finding a practical civilian use for advanced stealth technology has been, well, difficult.
Even in the military, failures were as significant as successes. The “Sea Shadow” stealth ship, unveiled in 1993, looked like a giant, ocean-skimming roach. Just one was built. The “Tacit Blue” stealth spy plane resembled an inverted bathtub and was tested from 1982 to 1985. It was scrapped and never flew a real surveillance mission. How about a stealth strategic missile? It was tried, and scrapped, in 1994. And when the stealth attack aircraft project, the A-12 Avenger, was scrapped in 1991, it represented the largest contract cancellation in Pentagon history.
In the civilian world, the hope was to make use of the lightweight composite materials of the stealth technology. Reebok made some carbon-fiber shoes using the technology, but the world-class sprinter market is limited.
What might actually turn this tide? The stealth bus? This entry is funded in part by none other than the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA’s relatively small share in the project comes from federal dollars earmarked for the MTA’s advanced technology bus program. The idea is to build low-emission buses whose operations would be more cost-effective because of the lightweight, glass-composite stealth-tech materials of the coach. The first of these vehicles rolled out onto Los Angeles streets for a test drive this week. We can imagine the Angelenos wedged onto old, standing-room-only buses watching the stealth model roll by, empty, with a sign that read “The Bus of the Future.” Imagine too a bus that had the radar invisibility of a stealth warplane. Bus drivers would be able to speed along without fear of being picked up by police radar, and passengers could expect the following excuse if a driver was late at a stop: “Hey, I was there. You just didn’t see me.”
That, alas, is one for the sci-fi books. L.A. should be satisfied simply to get a lean, clean machine.
