Air Force Uses Beetle Skills To Repel Water, Hydrate Troops

A team from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research has developed a new transparent coating for aircraft and optical elements on aircraft that will repel water by causing it to "to bead up into drops and roll or bounce off a surface." Apparently they've never heard of Rain-X. The Air Force has the intention of using the new coating to prevent corrosion on aircraft and reduce ice formations. Led by Dr. C.J. Brinker the team included the Brinker Nanostructures Research Group at the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Brinker indicated the technology allows them to control the behavior of the water for a specific behavior that will allow the Air Force to "to define the pathways along which water droplets will roll." The most interesting part of this story is that in addition to keeping water away, the team learned that the technology can be used to combine extremely water-repellent and water-absorbent materials to actually draw moisture out of thin air. The Air Force is envisioning this new method of collecting water without using energy as a means of potentially supplying water to troops where the supply is scarce. According to Brinker, this tactic is allegedly modeled after the Namib Desert beetle which collects water droplets on its back from vapor in the air. The research team will likely transfer the technology to commercial applications so you can plan on waterproofing your iPhone and using it as a canteen in the future.



[AF Link]

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