On 28 Feb 2017 20:30:09 -0800, Miloch <Miloch_member@newsguy.com>
wrote:
>more at
>http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7975/this-is-what-usaf-bomber-pilots-would-wear-during-a-nuclear-apocalypse
>
>During a nuclear exchange, as B-52H and B-2A pilots make their way to and from
>their targets, flashes from nuclear detonations would have the ability to
>temporarily blind them, making flying their aircraft impossible. This
>intermittent blindness could last two minutes during the day, or up to ten
>minutes at night. Different countermeasures were developed during the Cold War
>to counter this physiological reality. These included constructing thermal
>curtains to cover the B-52's windows, along with a television camera and FLIR
>system that, along with the BUFF's instruments, allow pilots to continue on
>their mission without external visibility. Polarized Lead Zirconium Titanate
>(PLZT, pronounced "plizzit") flash blindness goggles are also used for the same
>purpose, and they look as otherworldly as can be.
>
>PLZT goggles attach to the pilot's helmet and are interfaced with a igloo
>cooler-like control and power supply unit (see the whole system here). The
>system works to detect dramatic and fast changes in light. When that a happens,
>a circuit is broken. This triggers the goggles to quickly turn opaque. Once the
>light has returned to normal the goggles will turn translucent again.
>Flightgear.dk does a great job at describing this unique and somewhat obscure
>system and its genesis in great detail:
>
>more at
>http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7975/this-is-what-usaf-bomber-pilots-would-wear-during-a-nuclear-apocalypse
Yeesh. All it needs is the 'clank!' as he whacks it into the bulkhead
of the Millennium Falcon...
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