Long time lurker here.
This site goes fairly in depth into the way stealth works while still being, relatively, simple to understand.
the US has actually had 4 operational manned stealth aircraft. The F-117, F-22, B-2, and F-35. As for why nobody else has developed any until recently (I do believe that Chinas J-20 is a proper stealth fighter), it largely comes down to circumstance. There were only 2 major players dominating the world stage that likely had, or could have had, both the resources and technology to develop stealth. Those being the US and the Soviet Union. The US got an early lead and was able to keep the program very well hidden. The stealth aircraft at the time were also a massive pain in the ass to develop and maintain, so it really wasn’t reasonable for other countries to try and develop. Not even the US produced very many during this time period (the Cold War). Europe probably could have come up with their own if they all came together for it, but there wasn’t a massive need to do so. This is assuming they were even aware of the possibility prior to the disclosure of the F-117. The USSR tried to catch up, but it failed and eventually collapsed. With the USSR gone and Russia in economic turmoil the possibility of them developing stealth ceased to exist, and Europe was no longer under military threat. Because of this they had no reason to invest a ton of money and resources to develop and produce stealth. The us had already been developing new stealth aircraft prior to the end of the Cold War, so they kept up those programs afterwards. Albeit they did dramatically reduce the number they produced. It wasn’t until much more recently that Russia started beefing up its military, and China started to grow into a capable power. Even then much of Europe was involved in the F-35 program and purchased many aircraft, so they had their stealth needs meet with them. Now that China has developed stealth, and Europe has decided to increase defense spending, we are finally seeing other nations starting their own stealth programs.
that was a bit long winded, wasn’t it?
