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NASCAR innovation to aid chopper pilots
A protective windshield coating that improves visibility for NASCAR drivers is getting a new application - on the windshields of U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters flying combat missions over Iraq. The clear plastic film, which race teams have been using for several years to keep flying debris from ruining drivers' view of the track, was pioneered by Pro-Tint Inc., a 14-person operation headquartered in a small building in the heart of Nextel Cup racing country.Pro-Tint pioneered tear-away windshield film for racing teams in the late 1990s. The multilayer product is now used by virtually all Nextel Cup teams to protect windshields from small rocks, car parts and other debris that can reduce vision at speedways like Darlington and Bristol. Instead of replacing a scratched and pitted windshield, race teams merely peel off a layer of the protective film to reveal a new, clear layer of film underneath. Recently, Pro-Tint teamed up with United Protective Technologies, another tiny firm, to produce a thicker and more complex Mylar protective film for military helicopters. Starting this month, the companies will start shipping the coating, which is to be installed on hundreds of Blackhawks that are being flown on combat missions overseas in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. In normal use, Blackhawk windshields last about two years. But the harsh conditions of the Middle East - where choppers are pelted with gritty sand and other debris, particularly during takeoffs and landings, have reduced the average durability to under a year, the military has told Pro-Tint. Scratched and damaged windshields are having to be replaced in a matter of months, at a cost of up to $15,000 for all three front windows of a Blackhawk, plus downtime for installation. The Army hopes to save millions of dollars with windshield films, which have been given the decided military moniker ASSALT - Advanced Screen Saving Aviation Layered Tear-away. ASSALT kits aren't cheap - about $1,000 - but they're a bargain compared to replacing a windshield, said Pro-Tint vice president Steve Fricker. "This will double the life of a Blackhawk's windshield," Fricker said of the technology, which resulted from a three-year-long development effort with United Protective Technologies, which employs five people and is based in the Charlotte suburb of Mint Hill. "We had to prove ourselves over the years with our work for NASCAR racing teams," Fricker said in a recent interview at Pro-Tint's headquarters, which about the size of an automotive repair garage. "Then we started getting inquiries about whether this kind of technology could be used by the Army." Too small to be able to finance the cost of developing and testing a product that would suit the military's needs, Pro-Tint got help from the government, including $500,000 from the Defense Logistics Agency. Nate Bordick, a test engineer at the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Fort Eustis, Va., said windshield films were tested under rigorous conditions in the Arizona desert, which demonstrated the product was a potential solution. "We were doing 'brownout' runs, which are takeoffs and landings," he said. "The windshields were being pelted with rocks an inch in diameter and lots of sand and dust. ..."The pilots told us they really liked it and they were not affected by it," he added. United Protective's Brent Barbee said that when the project began, the developers hoped to use essentially the same kind of technology used for the racing teams. But United Protective's engineers soon learned the film needed by the Blackhawks would be similar in appearance only. "We thought we could use their (Pro-Tint's) technology, but we could not," said Barbee. "There were a million things that needed to be changed." For example, the adhesive material that holds the film onto the windshield had to be much stronger because the Army did not want the film detaching in mid-flight and hitting the chopper's blades or being sucked into the engine. And the film needed to work even when the pilots used night-vision goggles. Some plastic coatings can distort their vision. "Any pits in the window really interferes with the pilot's ability to see" with night-vision goggles, Barbee said. The film also had to be considerably thicker than that used on race cars - 7 millimeters instead of the NASCAR-standard 4 millimeters. And to maintain a clear view through the windshield, the engineers determined that only one layer of film could be installed on helicopters at a time, instead of the multiple layers used in NASCAR. Both Barbee and Fricker are confident the product will soon become a staple in the U.S. military, which relies heavily on agile and powerful choppers like the Blackhawk for critical missions. "We know how to make it and we have shown we can make it work," Fricker said. "NASCAR racing teams tend to be perfectionists. And we also are perfectionists, just like our friends in the military." Once the military sees how well ASSALT works on the Blackhawks, Barbee predicted it won't take long for other branches to start calling about using it on Chinooks and other military helicopters. Already, he's getting inquiries from officials in foreign countries that purchase Blackhawks for their military needs. "I got a call last week from military officials in South Korea," Barbee said. Posted by: tipper 2005-01-12 |
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