B-52 crews pull shades on nukes
(Credit: USAF)Having your shadow scorched into the wall is one drawback to detonating a nuclear weapon; being blinded by the flash (PDF) and not being able to drive away in your B-52 Stratofortress is another.
Now engineers at the 540th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron's B-52 Communications Navigation and Weapons Flight have designed a thermal curtain that could protect aircrews from that blinding light (PDF).
The curtain resembles a common windshield sunshade used in passenger cars, except these cost $2,500 for a seven-shade set. Measuring about a tenth of an inch thick, 40 inches to 50 inches long, and 30 inches tall, each curtain is made up of three layers--a reflective layer, a stiffener, and a rubberized vinyl cloth.
The design is elegant in its simplicity, flight chief William Plasters said in an interview. "The new design is simple, quick to install, and can be removed easily to perform maintenance, or when not required."
When not in or around a nuclear holocaust, the curtains can be removed and stored in a bag. In fact, the Air Force wants them broken out for official use only, and not as common sunshades, which causes them to wear out sooner.
Air Force officials "suggest" that aircrews and maintenance personnel in the habit of deploying them for shade during warm weather switch to common fabric sunshades, which cost only $300.
Mark Rutherford is a West Coast-based freelance writer. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Email him at markr@milapp.com. Disclosure.





disgusting.
As to the article, well, it's just silly. These curtains have been there since the first Buff rolled off the production lines back in the 50s. It looks to me that the only new thing is that they made a newer version that's easier to replace. That's not exactly news. Hell, you can see them in the HBO movie from the late 80s or early 90s called 'By Dawns Early Light" which is about a limited nuclear exchange between the US and the USSR in a classic Cold War scenario.
Never understood why we need B-52s with nukes though. B-1 can do a much better job at it. That, or an SSBN or ground launched ICBMs are far more reliable. But I guess nuclear triad consept is what makes people feel safer.
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by DigitalFrog
December 17, 2008 12:22 PM PST
- I wonder if they got the idea from here: http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2008-12-16/
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by sythara
December 17, 2008 12:51 PM PST
- lol.
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by gjl229
December 18, 2008 8:32 AM PST
- There are some complex scenarios to play with here. One suggests that the aircraft is operating at an altitude measured in hundreds of feet and perhaps underneath the propagation of the gamma radiation while still exposed to visual light dispersed by the atmosphere and/or reflected from cloud cover. As you say, gamma radiation tends to penetrate rather than be reflected.
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by sythara
December 18, 2008 11:53 AM PST
- Very true
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(17 Comments)What they are forgetting is the gamma radiation emmited during a nuclear blast. The shades will protect against the ir, visible, and uv radiation. But unless they line B-52 with lead gamma radiation will pass right through.
Unless I'm wrong here, if yes please correct me.
We can at least agree that the light shield would, all else being equal, allow the crew to return safely for treatment for the gamma exposure.