Eli5: What makes a stealth fighter harder to detect than a regular plane?

Question

Eli5: What makes a stealth fighter harder to detect than a regular plane?

In: 284

Answer 1

Radar waves just like light can be reflected, refracted and scattered. The shape and material of a stealth plane reflect the radar waves away from the radar emitter.

Instead of a radar signal bouncing off the plane and returning to the transmitter the radar waves bounce off the plane and scatter. This way the radar doesn’t detect the plane.