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Turn your paint on ????!!

I volunteer my currently unpainted -7A for a test case :).

I wonder how bright it is...

Wicked cool stuff!
 
Something on the lower side of the wings would be cool and cause a lot of UFO reports after a night flight.
 
I don't know how practicle it would be but could you imagine entering the ATA of a small busy airport at night using that technology. Sure would make "see and avoid" easier.
 
You could paint the bottom of your plane and be virtually invisible in the daytime from below. Yes, daytime.

The military should be their biggest customer. Where do we invest?????
 
Night airshow application

I wonder who will be the first to put it on a plane for night airshows. Then the pyrotechnics could be added as highlights instead of continuous.
 
Just a little stripe here and there...

....would do wonders for night ops. Like a little stick airplane on downwind...:)
 
Ama-zazing!

Super cool technology, I would love to paint a "flying saucer" motif on the bottom of my 8 ... it would make the night flights more meaningful and interesting :D

But seriously, I'm guessing that it would be expensive, at least in the infant stages, and the additional wiring , additional weight...but I think it's really cool! Tons of uses...
 
WOW

That is wayyyyyy cool.....gets the brain moving a million directions:eek: An Angel painted on the bottom of the airplane would look cool flying thru the night skies!:)
 
vfrazier said:
You could paint the bottom of your plane and be virtually invisible in the daytime from below. Yes, daytime.

The military should be their biggest customer. Where do we invest?????
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It's said that they did this with a helicopter way back when. Quoting from another site:

Back in the ?70s, there was the Invisible Loach, which used rheostats, a wiring harness, and little white Christmas lights to reproduce the ambient light over the fuselage ? it worked. I watched the li?l beast hovering at about 50 feet AGL over one of the test ramps. The pilot activated the system (i.e., he flipped the switch) and one each OH-6A vanished from sight. I could still hear it, but even though I *knew* where it was, I couldn?t see it.
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Boy would I love to find some photos or video to confirm this!

mcb
 
More detailed information regarding colors and tinted topcoats is available here:

http://lumilor.com/science/

As for price, it will probably cause a lot of people to faint. The 9 1/4" x 4" x 1" sample is $300 without a top coat. Just a quick guess (the shape of the sample is odd) but I'd estimate its about half a square foot of painted area. How many sq. ft. on an RV? The wing area alone is 110 to 127 sq. ft. on the 6, 7, 9 and 12. I'm guessing that's one side...add the fuselage, tail feathers and perhaps the landing gear and you are definitely talking well into 6 figures.

If it were reasonably affordable, the possibilities are nearly endless. Maybe in time the cost will come down.
 
Matt,

The air force did similar experiments way back in WWII. One of the tricks was to put lights on the leading edge of bomber wings to help hide their position, I suppose from oncoming fighters. I'm sure that there are other stories of similar ideas.
 
UFO sighting

plehrke said:
Something on the lower side of the wings would be cool and cause a lot of UFO reports after a night flight.
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My son and I were thinking the same thing, we would put "UFO" on the bottom of the plane and then when the officer asks "how could you tell it was a UFO" you could say " cuz it said U F O on the bottom!!
 
How about turning the paint that's on your RV on in the dark, someone should do it before the FAA writes a regulation against it. This is really thinking out of the box.

I'd be more afraid that the FAA will require this scheme for night ops, rather than prohibit.

Joker
 
Depending on the lumen output one could use this in the cockpit for night time instrument and accent illumination
 
Very cool. I wonder what the switch response time is? Could it be used for flashing indicators? How about a light bar that "travels" down the side of the fuselage?
 
That is amazing

I want to paint the teeth on my tiger. That is all. Just show the teeth at night. Create nightmares for children.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT Phase I complete.
 
chrispratt said:
I wonder how the paint would respond during a thunderstorm, or static buildup? Just wondering. :rolleyes:
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Chris,

My bet is that it would have no effect.

My rationale would be that the potential difference of the painted surface would remain unchanged relative to the supply voltage.

Static buildup is only relative to airframe as compared to another surface of differing potential (such as the earth).

Know what I mean?

I like this paint!

It is pretty cool!

:cool: CJ
 
After spending all that money on a paint job, would you be willing to fly the plane in the rain? What about bugs?


Tim
 
I am not an electrical / radio engineer and no one has mentioned it, but I wonder what effect this would have on radio operations since the sheet metal itself is the ground plane. I suppose if all antennae were mounted exterior (i.e. no wing-tip nav or com or under-cowling GPS) you might be ok? Just a thought.
 
Jamie,

Seeing as we are all speculating and everyone has an opinion, I may as well offer up mine!

:D

The paint is "powered" by AC. The ground plane needs to be "relatively" DC.

A waveform in proximity of the ground plane would certainly be a bad thing, I would guess.

I venture to guess that you might have some signal degradation if the paint were turned "on" and the painted surface was either in contact with the antenna or within a foot or so.

If I were to do this (and I really like the idea!), I would keep the painted area small (less current flow) and away from antenna(s) as you suspected.

It would be an interesting experiment!

Besides, you could always turn the paint "off" if you had radio problems...

I like Izzy's idea of painting UFO's under the wings. That would be funny!

;) CJ
 
Electroluminescent was used extensively in Exit signs in our industry. They are rarely used today and only marketed by, well, the lower end of the lighting food change.

The biggest problem is Lumen Depreciation. It is very severe. They are very bright for a relatively short time. The depreciation curve is steep due to phosphor degradation. Temperature, drive current, drive frequency, phosphor saturation, oxidation, moisture, and the quality of the phosphor all play a role in how fast it will degrade. It will have a limited life in which it will produce light that is visible, even in the dark. So, you might be left with a very odd paint job that does nothing at night.

The other issue is they require AC power. So, in an aircraft application you will have to install an invertor. Invertors throw massive amounts of junk on electrical systems and into the air. Higher quality true sign wave invertors help, but they are very expensive.

This technology has a lot of issues when it comes to practical application in anything, let alone an airplane.
 
JonJay said:
The biggest problem is Lumen Depreciation. It is very severe. They are very bright for a relatively short time. The depreciation curve is steep due to phosphor degradation.
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All of the nomenclature on the shuttle instrument and switch panels were done with electroluminescence, and we were always scolded for using the panel lights in the simulators when we could just turn up the cabin lights - because they wore out and cost a LOT (especially at government contractor prices) to replace. It was also a rule never to adjust panel lighting during ascent because of the potential for ripple on the AC busses that were sued to power the engine controllers - we were always afraid of a minor blip that could fault an engine.

This was all 1970's technology, so they might have advanced since then....:rolleyes:
 
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