Is it possible for a flying superhuman to avoid detection in todays society?

Question

I have a supervillain in my story that can fly at speeds up to Mach 2. For obvious reasons, this character does not want to be detected while flying. However, I am facing writer's block and cannot think of any way for this character to remain undetected by citizens and government officers alike.

• This character is allowed to use any piece of technology that currently exists but not any form of Clarktech.
• The story is set in modern-day America.
• The character uses iron-man-like fire thrusters to fly which as you can imagine are pretty bright.
• Nobody knows superpowers exist in the story yet.

Edit: The character is a pyrokinetic and shoots super hot fire out the back of their legs to fly. Additionally, this character is flying over new york at night.

Answer 1

Yes and No

It depends on what you mean by Detected. Allow me to elaborate:

Stealth aircraft (F22, F117, B2 etc.) still have a Radar cross-section. That is, they are not invisible to Radar. They are about the size of a Bumble Bee (reportedly, this is not the War Thunder forums...).

And as such, most Radar systems filter them out - after all, think of how many birds, Bees and other things that might cause a Radar return in the sky that are the size of a Bumble Bee - you would have so many targets that the system (both human and computer) would break down and cry.

Why all this guff about Radar - well, if you have big long afterburning flames, you need to fly high enough so that these are not visible from the ground (probably around 10,000 ft or higher) - which means you are going to be visible to Radar.

Furthermore, since it is New York (and therefore densely populated) you cant do any form of low-level terrain following flying to hide yourself from Radar.

So, you are going to be tagged by Radar.

A regular human has an approximate Radar cross-section of around 1m².

Aerial Missiles (which are detectable on Radar - but we will get to that) are around 0.1m².

Wikipedia defines a Stealth Aircraft as something with a Radar cross section of less than 0.1m² - Ideally we want to be about the same Radar cross section as a Bird or smaller (0.01m²).

However - things like Distance and Radar type are also a factor in detection. A Commercial Radar setup at say JFK international are not going to be setup to track something as small and fast as an Aerial Missile (let us for the sake of argument assume the Radar array can, it is just not configured to do so).

So, our goal should be to minimize the Radar cross section to be small enough that it is filtered out by most Radar systems.

A suit made out of Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) - I think is feasible enough, something like the paint used on the SR-71 Blackbird, or some special mesh material that absorbs Radar waves instead of reflecting back.

This should allow us to get small enough on Radar that most systems wont notice us.

However - unless he constructs a special suit with angled surfaces (like the F117), I think he is still going to have enough of a return that a modern fighter jet (like the F22) in close-ish proximity, could probably detect him - but the chance that there is going to be an F22 intercepting him as he is flying is small - but it is a risk.

In short - I think it is plausible that with a relatively simple suit, your villain could reduce their Radar cross section to be small enough to be ignored by most commercial and ground-based military Radar installations - but if he gets close enough to a modern fighter, he might have problems.

Answer 2

Low to zero chance

The use of New York airspace is controlled by the New York Air Route Traffic Control Centre which is "the busiest of all ARTCCs within the United States". It receives inputs from at least 5 different airport surveillance radar sites. Now, while there may be ways to avoid detection by the ASR (which pings for transponders as well as for overall radar return), the chance that someone flying around at night by shooting flaming exhaust out behind them will not be detected is negligible. (Note that flying drones is illegal over all of NYC apart from designated parks.)

Next, let's factor in CCTV on the roof of the (many) buildings with helipads, amateur astronomers, plane/helicopter watchers and consider that this is one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the USA. The chance of detection drops even lower.

Third, let's consider the (unspecified) capabilities of the US military tasked with protecting US airspace in general and in particular the city that suffered the worst attacks on September 11, 2001. Given that stealth aircraft are a known thing to exist, these capabilities include the ability to detect passive infra-red, which flaming exhaust very definitely qualifies for.

Finally, let's consider that not only the US military got paranoid about air threats after September 11, the New York City Police Department Aviation Unit also increased it's focus on counter-terrorism relative to other duties. So, there is a unit specifically focused on dealing with exactly this kind of thing that can coordinate with the other 36,000 police officers in New York to collect information and sightings.

It is vaguely plausible that a single flight might not be observed or identified by all of the air traffic control, civillian pilots, military surveillance, police and millions of random ground-based civvie observers. The chance of multiple flights being missed by all of those groups is so close to zero as to make no difference. This is assuming that the flyer remains subsonic - as soon as they go supersonic in the vicinity of an inhabited area they will trigger reactions from everyone.

EDIT: There are also over 130 embassies, diplomatic missions etc in New York. Not to put too fine a point on it, lots of embassies have espionage as a secondary mission, with lots of antennas and cameras. Then there's the FBI, whose job it is to watch all of those actual or potential spies, in a world where drone usage is becoming common and diplomatic immunity may let embassy staff get away with activities that most people cannot. So, add a whole extra group of organisations that will be looking at the sky for drones and will definitely note a flaming person.

Answer 3

Detected? Yes. Identified? Maybe not

Just the nature of firing the Iron-man style thrusters means this villain is going to be detected visually by anyone with an eyeball before you bring in any radar.

You can reduce the cross section but depending on the radar system used you are going to be detected and it feels like when people see the mysterious flaming flying object it's going to be detected when the military get involved and start putting out their radar which can track artillery shells.

However detection is not the same as identificiation, so your villain is going to look like some weird type of rocket. They are going to be able to know it's the same villain if they keep flying around later again, but that still doesn't give the identification to know that it's your villain or any person in the rocket.

Your villain could be targeted by radar and shot with missiles but it seems unlikely to do that in close proximity to urban centres especially if it doesn't look like your villain is attacking anything. Flying towards a US Navy ship and the villain is going to be swiss cheese after the CIWS has fired a few brrts.

So as long as your villain manages to find a subtle place to hide and remove suit and avoid any surveillance cameras until in large enough crowd of people then they can at least be safe from identification, but the more they fly the more likely they will be tracked down by the government.

If they are subtle enough at the start though they may avoid being investigated if they look like some weird firework and only move when there are fireworks going off, but it seems unlikely they would be able to travel much in New York without attracting increasing attention that would get them caught.

Answer 4

Sonic Boom!

Another factor that could allow detection is the sonic boom created when flying supersonic. The boom dissipates with distance, and its strength is a factor of several things, like size (the bigger the object, the more disruptive airflow, so the bigger the boom) and shape (pointier/tapered will not create as big a boom).

The character's size would probably generate a boom similar to a patriot missile, vs a B-1B bomber. Above a certain altitude he wouldn't generally be heard. Just over the rooftops of NYC? most folks would hear a boom or at least a "crack" sound.

Answer 5

He would be very easily detected by Infrared Search and Track (IRST).

In the linked Wikipedia entry under Performance it lists a target detection range of 40KM from the front and 90KM rear for a system on fighter. In other documents it highlighted the ability of IRST to spot targets not typically spotted by RADAR, Drones and rubber assault boats.

To be undetectable he would need to be able to completely eliminate IR emissions. I don't see a feasible way to do so.

While I am unaware if IRST is deployed in NYC, I would heavily lean that it is. That is based on the assumption that you would want the ability to spot RADAR Stealth targets.

Answer 6

Modern Satellite Early Warning Systems

Modern systems like SBIRS (link below) should detect them, if not immediately i.e. the first time he or she flies then eventually. A lot would depend on the flight profile however. Assuming the first few flights are test runs trialing control, maneuverability and speed etc? Then they would probably start with simple 'hop skip and jump' flights i.e. short range, low altitude, night time flights initially only lasting only a few seconds or minutes. Flying over New York might also help screen him given the city's thermal footprint. Unfortunately all the eye witness reports and (phone camera footage) that will inevitably start streaming into authorities will draw official attention.

The real problem however starts the moment they decide to go 'high and fast and long distance'. Then their thermal signature is likely to (more or less) match something that looks like a missile and the low Earth orbit tranche of SBIRS is likely to 'ping' him and phone home. If only initially as a potnetial 'anomaly'.

However once authorities put two and two together (eye witness reports and the satellite detection's) they can probably adjust the systems parameters so that it tracks and reports all future sightings of this unidentified 'object'.

SBIRS - Wikipedia