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Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech
cartechboy writes "It looks like the old-school windshield wiper is about to be replaced by new technology — but not until 2015. British car-maker McLaren is apparently developing a new window cleaning system that is modeled from fighter jet tech. The company isn't revealing exactly how it will work, but the idea comes from the chief designer simply asking a military source why you don't see wipers on jets as they land. Experts expect McClaren to use constantly active, high-frequency sound waves outside the range of human hearing that will effectively create a force field across a car's windshield to repel water, ice insects and other debris. Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth."
This wiper also keeps lions away.
so it also drives cats, dogs and other animals crazy in 100m radius?
I'm pretty sure that most tech involving sound waves is not developed in space.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Will the vibrations exacerbate the crack?
What happens when its raining heavily, and a vehicle going the other way hits a puddle, and dumps a massive wave of water on your windshield? What happens when its full inch of heavy slush? I'd say its a nice addition on top of regular wipers, but I'm very skeptical about replacing them.
You could just buy a bottle of Rain-X.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
In space, no one can hear you wipe
Surely someone at the automotive companies has already tested a tiny, high pressure air nozzle that sweeps across from just below the windscreen. It's nice that McLaren is driving new technology, but face it, our cars could be much better. The issue is always budgets, and the $1 here, $4 there for better components supposedly adds up to automobiles costing 2-4x what they currently do. At least that is what the accountants that turn down the engineers ideas say. Sometimes that is true, sometimes I want to yell bullshit as I whack someone upside the head with a baseball bat.
Why not use a superhydrophobic nano coating?
Is this why my dog howls when he drives my McClaren in the rain? I always thought he howled for the sheer fun of it!
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. -- John von Neumann
Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth.
Um, I hear those sound waves just fine (high frequency sensitive). My dentist had to give up using it on me.
If this sounds anything like that horrid sonic plaque cleaner, I'm going to have to move to my zombie apocalypse survival compound in Montana. Too bad, I was saving it for the actual zombie apocalypse.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
Jet fighters use bleed air to clear the windscreens, not high frequency sound. The pilot just has to remember to use it sparingly on the ground, or the windscreen melts, which most pilots agree is a bad thing...and mechanics get really ticked off replacing them. Another way to clean the windscreens is a quick shot of JP-8 from your nearby in-flight refueler (booms works best), but you didn't hear that from me...
Impetuous! Homeric!
As one who drives through regions (think the U.P. of Michigan for U.S.'ers), I am curious as to how it will "fix" the bugs getting smeared on the windscreen.
For maximum effect, apply JP-8 and scorching hot exhausts simultaneously!
but passenger aircraft have very standard motorized windscreen wipers, really low tech...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIasu8TdhA&hd=1
...for about 30 seconds and then as the aircraft accelerates past 200kts or so, the rain x is scrubbed off. We tried it, didn't work. Best thing is to use a plexiglass polish to keep the glass as smooth as possible between flights. A bug hitting the windscreen of a fighter jet going 500+kts is not going to be repelled by high frequency sound or any hydrophobic surface. I've seen dents in the leading edges of the wings just from hitting grasshoppers...
Impetuous! Homeric!
If there's a solid there, then it isn't space, is it?
In our avionics shop one prankster would set (after hooking up a concealed tweeter) the audio oscillator just above the range of normal hearing and enjoy the reactions from those who still had some of their high freq sensitivity left.
His other trick was telling noobs the black plastic urinal cup on OV-10 Broncos was an "auxiliary interphone" and having them speak into it while listening for side tone.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Notice you can't buy refills anymore? Used to be, you just bought the rubber part and only replaced the rigid part when it was really trashed (basically never). Now stores only sell the whole blade.
Progress!
(on topic, nobody drives a McLaren in the rain.)
:wq
"Inferior" and "Superior" are subjective. It might give an inferior cleaning but still be a superior product for other reasons. My Nook Color is a technically inferior product to my mother's Nexus 10, but I consider it a superior product because it costs significantly less. Likewise, my car has an inferior engine when comparing power, but it's far superior in terms of mileage. Canada may be inferior because they invented Justin Bieber, but they're actually superior because they got rid of him.
They still have to taxi, takeoff, and land.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
They don't land at 10,000+ feet, you say? Are you saying this thing is a fake?
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I've seen dents in the leading edges of the wings just from hitting grasshoppers...
If pilots are doing 500+kts at altitudes reachable by grasshoppers, I'd be worried about the dents caused by trees. And small children.
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Similar systems were announced in the 1980s in various popular tech rags. damn, live long enough and things just go in cycles.
http://www.google.com/patents/US4768256
I believe jets do indeed land at 10,000+ feet. There are 13 commercial airports with an altitude of 10,000 feet or higher. That's not including any military airports.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
This works on fighters because 1) in flight, they're always going really fast by automotive standards, and 2) their canopies are angled far into the windstream. If water can be broken free of surface tension, it will be blown away. For a car stopped in heavy rain in traffic, it probably won't do much.
The interplanetary medium can carry sound waves. Of course, it is moving faster than the local speed of sound outward from the sun (the solar wind). So if you shouted really loud from the ISS, someone in the asteroid belt might be able to hear you. But not the other way around.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
Not even with Russian sandpaper grade industrial toilet paper.
Especially when it's been hit by an ice insect from outer space...
Is 1563649 a prime number?
If pilots are doing 500+kts at altitudes reachable by grasshoppers, I'd be worried about the dents caused by trees. And small children.
You may have heard of locusts before. All a locust is is a grasshopper in its migratory phase. Many species of grasshopper can fly quite well.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Good thing this guy is already dead.
This would just be adding insult to injury. His whole life, the industry rapes his idea. Now they just toss it aside, obsolete.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Generaly Maclarens don't have trouble with vehicles coming the other way, and if its raining that heavily, you'd better box, and put on full wets (Of course Maclaren only take a couple of seconds to actually change the tires)
Not only that but jets can land and take off below sea level.