stealth fighter

A fighter aeroplane, such as F-117A, that isn't visible to radar.

Construction of such plane involves, among other things, covering the surface with material that doesn't reflect the radar beam well, careful planning of heat exhaust and minimizing radio usage.

The result is often kind of cumbersome otherwise, but you've got to sacrifice something to get optimal results on other areas...

In MicroProse's "F-19 Stealth Fighter", the plane is aerodynamically as nice as a frying pan. F19SF was a simulator that the real F-117A pilots thought was very accurate flight-model-wise (The plane the game is about, designated as F-19 Nighthawk, never existed, though). I played F-19 Stealth Fighter a lot back in the day; I was a bit shocked when I got Falcon 4.0 and noticed that yes, that thing actually flies nicely unlike F-19...

Acutally both existing stealth planes the F-117A and the B-2 are bombers. The upcoming F-22 will be an air-superiority fighter.

The reason these things are so ugly (specially the F-117A) is / was the lack of computing power when it was designed. The knowledge on how to design stealth planes has been around quite some time (... to-do : find out original mathematicians name) but the computing power to actually implement it, hasn't.

The trick is to have no surface of the airplane directly reflect radar-energy back to the transmitting radar (who would see a radar-return) but to deflect it in other directions. The more modern B-2 bomber was designed with more computing power at hand. Therefore the designers were able to use all curved surfaces instead of the straight edges used on the F-117A and the F-22.

Also, radar-absorbing materials are used as coating for the planes.

Talking about undergunned: The F-117A is only able to carry two LGB and has no other defensive or offensive weapons (like a gun or Air-to-air missiles on board).

Also the stealth planes are not invisible as seen in the 1999 Kosovo conflict, when one was shot down. During the Gulf war the F-117A only went out on night-sorties so that the enemy wouldn't be able to spot them.