by expat » Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:24 pm
That's a very interesting effect. I'd never heard of it before now.
Does it happen only with helicopters or can it happen with any kind of prop aircraft? It seems like a bit of a search light out to anyone in the desert though... Friendlies and enemies.
I have seen a similar thing once with a Harrier. It was pitch black, night ops and as the engine was wound up the intake was full of static sparks. As for choppers and it being a search light to enemies, I don't think so. If you read the article it does say that when the pictures were taken the only visible thing to see was the chemlights as it was pitch black and a very sensitive camera was used. Also if it was visible to the naked eye, we would have heard about it by now (I would have thought).
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA

People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.