I just have one question
Can I get an AR-15 lower and upper receiver made out of transparent aluminum:
In Star Trek IV there is made mention of transparent aluminum. Very cool idea, huh? Well… science and engineering have nearly caught up with that science fiction material. It’s aluminum oxynitride that the US Air Force is testing for transparent armor:
Cool.
October 18th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
Heh.
That would be cool!
October 18th, 2005 at 5:25 pm
So, was it suddenly “invented” in San Francisco? đŸ˜‰
October 18th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Very cool.
Though expensive today. I think a Humvee windshield would cost over $25,000.
Wonder how quickly the cost would come down if it got wider use for military armor. I suppose it would depend on how much they purchase. Sounds perfect for airplanes though.
October 18th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
My understanding was that we had had this stuff for a long time, but it was very cost-prohibitive. The main use was for cruise missile nose-cones, so the camera could beam back hillarious video of the taget right before it converted some slopeydope o gas and plasma. I remember the cost for a 3 inch diameter nose cone being something like $30K a pop. This is considerably cheaper.
October 19th, 2005 at 9:49 am
In terms of an airplane – that could be used to shield the cockpit from below, possibly around the engines on something like the A10.
It would be cool for helocopter pilots to be surrounded by that stuff and not have to worry about being hit by a sniper or ground fire.
Heck, just build the doors of Humvee’s from that….
October 19th, 2005 at 10:15 am
Or you could build you entire car from that. Lighter and stronger than steel, can’t beat that for saftey and gas mileage.