• Jan 29, 2018
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • 260 New Classroom Building
  • Dr. John Schaeffer, LMCO
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Pat Artis
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Abstract: In the mid-1970s, the Defense Science Board was tasked with an analysis of aircraft losses in Vietnam War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War along with the continuing investments by the Soviets in air defense technology. The Defense Science Board concluded that US aircraft would soon have a real challenge getting through Soviet air defenses. The result was the US investment in low observable or stealth technology. This seminar will define stealth and discuss basic radar technology, the principles behind stealth aircraft design, as well as why stealth is difficult to defeat.

Bio: John Shaeffer earned his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Physics. He is a Principal Scientist and is the founder of Matrix Compression Technologies LLC and Marietta Scientific, Inc. He is a co-author of RADAR CROSS SECTION (2nd edition still published by SciTech), is one of the originators of the Georgia Tech Radar Cross Section Reduction (RCSR) short course (still being offered some 37 years later) and has developed a three-day “Design Oriented Radar Cross Section” short course. He was the first Engineering Program Manager for Low Observables at the Lockheed-Georgia Possum Works. He has specialized in visualization and method of moment codes for scattering applications. He has contributed several book chapters and has occasionally published peer reviewed journal articles in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Journal and Magazine.  He received the 2010 NASA Exceptional Technology Medal for “Exceptional technology achievement and development of a matrix compression technique which dramatically improves the capabilities of Electromagnetics Codes.”