Sgt. First Class Paul Kagi, a helicopter mechanic assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment of the Virginia Army National Guard, tests visibility through the windshield of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that had just received a new laminate designed to prolong the life of the windshield. (Courtesy of Debra Bingham)
ARLINGTON, Va. — What does a NASCAR race car and a military helicopter have in common, besides speed?
Thanks to two military NASCAR fans, they now will share tearaway coatings on their windshields, which reduce the cost of replacing the glass when pitted by debris or sand.
The idea to apply the coatings to helicopters belongs to Sgt. 1st Class Paul Kagi and Sgt. Mike “Moon” Mullen, two Virginia Army National Guard helicopter mechanics.
The soldiers had to fix the damage when a trip to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., five years ago caused major wear and tear to the unit’s brand-new UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters. The windshields of about 80 percent of the unit’s choppers had to be replaced, at a cost of $15,000 per bird.
Helicopter units operating in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing the same problem. From Sept. 30, 2002, to October 1, 2003, Black Hawks in Iraq were requiring new windshields every nine months on average, according to Taylor Frazier, an engineer in the Sustainment Engineering Branch of the Defense Supply Center Richmond, in Richmond, Va.
Using the Army’s Suggestion Program, which pays soldiers for coming up with money- or life-saving solutions, Kagi and Mullen contacted the Defense Supply Center to suggest using the NASCAR approach to the problem.
Tearaway sheets were first used in NASCAR in 1996 to lower the wear and tear on windshields and increase drivers’ safety and performance by enabling them to have a clean view throughout the race, according to Community/NASCAR teams relations director John Dodson with the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, N.C.
NASCAR actually borrowed the idea from motorcycle racers, Dodson said.
“We watched them use tearaway sheets on their helmets and just adapted it,” Dodson said in a telephone interview.
After extensive testing, Army engineers found that the tearaway sheets worked as well for Black Hawks flying at 170 miles per hour as they do for race cars running 190 miles per hour.
The military version of the laminate, which is thicker and 10 times stickier than the one used on race cars and has added anti-static coatings, cost $1,100 per helicopter and takes two hours to apply (plus 24 hours for the adhesive to cure).
Each laminate buys an additional six to 15 months of life for the original screens and can be stripped off and re-applied as necessary, Frazier said.
On Feb. 28, the first Black Hawk maintenance unit in the Iraq theater was certified to apply the tearaway coating to its helicopters’ windshields, Frazier said. Eventually, all deployed Black Hawk units will have access to the laminate.
As a reward for saving money and improving the survivability of the systems, Mullen and Kazi will split as much as $25,000, although the exact amount has not been determined, according to Defense Supply Center Richmond spokeswoman Debra Bingham.
