Text 21780, 53 rader
Skriven 2012-02-28 19:24:00 av HAP NEWSOM (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: SILENT SERVICE 20228
============================
Hey Glen!
-> 
->  -> departure each day.  One of the projects I, and 3 colleagues, were
->  -> working on was the design of an aerial camera with a wide field of
->  -> view - 100 degrees. As is usual for any design engineers, the first
->  -> thing to do is to see what has already been invented, so when going
->  -> through the existing cameras of that type, we found a Russian-made
->  -> panoramic camera with a swinging lens, which principle we could use.
->  -> Using legal process, we bought one and took it back to the office to
->  -> study, but forgot to notify the security people.
-> 
->  HN> That would have probably been the HorizonT a
->  HN> swinglens all mechanical camera...basic but
->  HN> some of them were pretty well built...which
->  HN> was not always the case for Russian products,
->  HN> then OR now!
-> 
-> I think so.  A simple design, but solid, and it worked well.  Our
-> camera was made of fibreglass, took 75 mm film, weighed 1/3 lb and
-> took high quality pictures (one at a loading) from an altitude of 100
-> feet, of everything from directly below, to above the horizon.  It was
-> carried in a nylon dart that was launched, almost silently, from a
-> foot-pumped compressed air gun.  My job was designing the gun, the
-> dart, timer and camera actuator.  Others did the camera, which was
-> designed to take launch and landing accelerations of 1000g.
->
The really critical elements would be the 
film transport (to keep the film flat 
on the film plane) and to keep the lens
working properly. those would be the only
moving parts to deal with once the body
was sturdy enough to take the impact of 
landing.
 
-> It was intended to use this for surveillance in Vietnam, but that war
-> finished before it got beyond the prototype stage.  It worked, though,
-> so eventually the prototypes were given to a university to use for
-> taking low-cost aerial photos of vegetation.
-> 
-> When demonstrating it to the military, to show its easy portability, I
-> arrived at the test field on a bicycle, carrying the complete
-> equipment on the handlebars.
-> 
-> Fun!
->
Sounds interesting too! I would have liked
to have seen the launching system and 
design for the "projectile"...would be
fun to do even today!
chat with you soon!
ha
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