Anyone who’s ever seen the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home will remember that fantastic scene in which James Doohan has that great interaction with a computer:
[faced with a 20th century computer]
Scotty: Computer. Computer?
[Bones hands him a mouse and he speaks into it]
Scotty: Hello, computer.
Dr. Nichols: Just use the keyboard.
Scotty: Keyboard. How quaint.
And what was he trying to do with that computer? Why lay out the design for Transparent Aluminum of course, something which in their time was a simple compound they created, yet in the time frame of the movie seemed light years ahead of itself. The audience watched in awe as this material was used to hold back a tank for whales, all the while dreaming of what could possibly come from such a discovery.
Well now it appears, Transparent Aluminum is becoming a reality, thanks in no small part to a group of engineers working for none other than the Air Force. As posted over on the Air Force Link:
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s materials and manufacturing directorate is testing aluminum oxynitride — ALONtm — as a replacement for the traditional multi-layered glass transparencies now used in existing ground and air armored vehicles.
So it’s aluminum, and it’s being used to replace glass transparencies. Yup, sounds like science fiction is becoming science fact! Talk about a leap in technology. And not only is it transparent, but it appears as though it’s VERY durable, as is stated later in the article:
Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALONtm piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.
ALONtm is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant.
In a June 2004 demonstration, an ALONtm test pieces held up to both a .30 caliber Russian M-44 sniper rifle and a .50 caliber Browning Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. While the bullets pierced the glass samples, the armor withstood the impact with no penetration.
So give it about 10 years or so, and let them get the price point down (currently sitting at about 5 times more expensive than the traditional glass product), and we might actually see this being used in commercial applications. Can we say bullet proof windows in your standard home? What other applications could come from this miracle material? Leave your opinions, and lets see what we can come up with for this stuff.
It would be great to find the material in areas torn by gang conflict. As you suggested, using the material in homes is a good idea – even better when used in homes where drive-by shootings leave innocent victims slaughtered by wild shots.