In the end of ww2 the Germans developed the Horton HO 229.
The prototype of the plane crashed during the test, but what matters is that this plane was stealth to raidars back then.
Why did the first fully operational stealth plane appear so much later?
(I know that it takes time to develop and test, and raidars get better all the time, but still a very long time past since the end of ww2 and till the first fully operational stealth plane went into service).
If am sure that if the war would have lasted longer (and thanks god it didn't last longer) the Horton or some other stealth plane would go into fully operational service.

A cool picture of a Horton Ho 229 and a B-2A Spirit:


(not a real picture of corse)

First stealth plane came, out and was retired without ever being de-classified. I can tell you that much. F-117 and B-2 are too advanced to be only the 1st and second. Of course you know that they have another stealth bomber that no one know about.... I'm sure....

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"deeds, not words"

not only that, but you have to understand the sheer amount of money needed to not only develop but to put these weapons into productions are just massive. THe cold war was more of a reliance on numbers rather than technology, technologyicaly superior forces only appeared around the 80s...

During the cold war many new superior technologies were also developed (not only in the end of the cold war in the late 80s).
During war military techology is developed much faster then during peace time, and during war if you need a superior weapon you usually don't care how much it costs, what you care about is putting it into service.

There are a few reasons for its "late" arrival.  First, the aerodynamically unstable designs required more flight corrections than a human can react to, and digital fly by wire was in its infant stage during the 1970s, when the first technical drawings were conceived.  Second, the lightweight materials were yet to be developped.  Third, operational concepts needed time to be developped.