What was the first stealth aircraft ever?

Answer 1

The SR-71 was the first plane with designed-in stealth features.

Well, not quite!

Properly speaking, the first-ever stealth aeroplane was the Horten HO 229 "Flying Wing"jet fighter, of which the prototype flew in December 1944. Powered by 2 jet engines and made mostly of wood, it carried four 30mm cannon and could also carry two 500kg bombs. It had an estimated top speed of around 600 mph, was extremely manoeuvrable and, had it gone into production, would have been virtually unstoppable.

The only surviving prototype is now at the Smithsonian Institut's Paul E. Garber Restoration Facility in Suitland, Maryland, where it is undergoing restoration.

A non-working replica was recently made for a TV programme, and that is also on display somewhere or other in the USA.

Answer 2

Germany during world war two, but only two were created and only one survived and is currently in the united states. The modern U.S. Stealth bombers are based on this model.

More Information

Nothing Germany designed or built during World War II could be considered a "stealth" aircraft. While the Germans did manage to field the first operational jet fighter -- the Me262 -- it was hardly stealthy. Its swept-wing design was ahead of its time, but quite visible on a radar screen. And its two Jumo turbojets were like a pair of fire barrels, radiating infrared energy that rivaled the sun.

The first "stealth" jet was probably Northrop's YB-49, though the company didn't actually build the plane to be "stealthy."

Another AnswerThe Germans, Americans, and British all built aircraft in WW2 that were what we would call "low-observable": they had some combination of characteristics designed to make them hard to detect, whether by sight or radar. The US and Britain built several series of purpose-designed night fighters, which had a variety of features specifically tailored to make visual identification difficult. Both Germany and Britain built several all-wood planes which had much lower radar signature than comparable ones, but this was mostly a side-effect, and not an intentional design criterion.

The YB-49 mentioned above also had certain low-radar signature features, but these were incidental to the design.

The first production aircraft to truly incorporate what we now call "stealth" features (low visual observation, low heat signature, design and materials specifically intended to lower the radar signature) would be the U-2. The first plane designed for combat to incorporate stealth would be the experimental YF-12 variant of the SR-71 design, which was intended as a high-altitude interceptor.

The first real production-ready combat plane with stealth would be the F-117.

Answer 3

The B-2 Spirit was the first full stealth bomber. The B-1 Lancer was the first reduced signature bomber.