Can someone explain?

[Bobbo]

What makes a Stealth jet stealthy? i dont understand, does it have to do with the radar avoiding things or what?

[Matthieu]

mostly shapes of the plane itself, and the paint used on it to avoid radar detection. not using yourself a radar is also a good idea to stay undetected

[A Lamp]

Originally posted by Bobbo:

What makes a Stealth jet stealthy? i dont understand, does it have to do with the radar avoiding things or what?

Mostly down to the shape of the aircraft so it can direct the radar waves away from the source. It's effectiveness depends greatly on the angle the radar waves intercept the aircraft but the shape of the aircraft and radar absorbing paint makes it so the radar single that returns back to the dish is super small that it gets filtered out as clutter. For example the radar signature of an F-22 (often called Radar cross section or RCS) is about the size of a bumble bee. Now imagine being a radar operating looking a screen where every fly's position is showed. You wont be able to see anything so objects with a small RCS get filtered out and thats the goal of stealth aircraft to make their RCS so small it's indistinguishable from background clutter. Important note stealth technology becomes less effective the closer the range. Eventually the aircraft can get close enough that enough of the radar waves get returned to get shown. Thats why in Vtol vr you can see stealth aircraft from about 10 nm (in my experience).

[SpaceGhost]

Stealth in aircraft terms mostly refers to the radar cross section of the aircraft. In VTOL VR, it is (as far as I know) entirely about your radar cross section. In real life it's mostly the same, but there are some other factors that can make an aircraft more capable of "stealth", such as having a higher flight ceiling (like the U2 spyplane from the middle of the cold war).

The F45 has a smaller radar cross section than other planes from most angles. In the f45, your radar cross section is tiny if you are flying low, slow, and heading either directly toward, or away from the radar (the radar sees either your nose or your thrusters).

In the F45 your cross section is so small that you can radar missiles by turning your nose directly toward them after deploying chaff. As long as you are not too close, after doing this the radar missile will likely lose lock and fly right by you.

From the sides, the radar cross section is larger, and the radar cross section is largest when the radar is looking directly at either the top or bottom of your plane.
Having weapons mounted externally offers more surfaces for radar waves to "bounce" off of, and makes you more visible. For example, if you wanted to maximise your stealth capabilities for the F45 you would want to mount only internal weapons. If you do mount external weapons, keep in mind that you have the option to jettison those external weapons when and if the situation changes and stealth becomes more crucial.

I saw a youtube video a few days ago that was really awesome, and explained in great detail the stealth profile of the F45 and compared it to other player aircraft in VTOLVR.
There are many such videos, a lot of them are really good, but this one had a segment where they actually were able to overlay what in game radar "sees" as the cross section of each plane from different angles.

The F45 is a designated stealth aircraft, and the only player pilotable one in VTOLVR, but all aircraft in VTOLVR have radar cross sections and can be more or less visible to radar depending on their position, speed, and condition relative to any observing radar site. The F45 is just miles better at being unseen than all the rest.

It was very helpful, and I'm so sorry I can't be much help and link it here as it would be really useful, I just spent a couple minutes trying to find it on youtube and in my watch history but can't find it. If you do watch youtube, check out some of the more popular f45 vids and you might find it. If you don't, you will at least have more idea of stealth as it applies to the vehicles in VTOL VR and how to be stealthy. (and if you do, please link it here so I can see it again lol)

It may have been a VR Sims video, he has made a lot of good informational videos about VTOL VR. I leave this video of his as consolation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOiDhS2xww8