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Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'
New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.
In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012.
The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank.
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The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself.
A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."
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How the technology works in a combat situation is very sensitive, but the MoD is believed to be testing a military jacket that works on the same principles.
It is the type of innovation normally associated with James Bond, and the brains behind the latest technology is the MoD's very own "Q" - Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London.
He said the only drawback was the reliability of the cameras and projectors.
But he added: "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible."
PARIS: The age-old fantasy of rendering objects invisible took a sharp step toward reality Sunday when scientists said they had created a material that can bend visible light in three dimensions.
For now the vanishing act takes place on a nanoscale, measured in billionths of a metre. But there is no fundamental reason why the same principles can’t be scaled up one day to make invisibility cloaks big enough to hide a person, a tank or something bigger, the scientists say.
For now the vanishing act takes place on a nanoscale, measured in billionths of a metre.
sled735
I read in a post on ATS from a thread from 2011 that a man thought he saw an invisible airplane that made absolutely no noise.
This happened earlier today, while I was sitting at a stoplight. And... it was huge!
While I was facing north, a HUGE (roughly) plane-shaped shadow came across the ground, from behind my car (That would mean it was headed S to N.)
This road was about 4 lanes across, with the median the size of a lane. So I'd say the shadow about 55 feet across. The edges of the "plane shadow" went from one end to the other.
I looked ahead to see the plane... but there was nothing, either ahead of me, or to the sides (I thought that the shadow might have been cast diagonally.)
Stranger still, I did not hear anything.
Let me say that I am used to seeing airplanes, large and small, fly close to the ground. Within 50 miles of me there are 3 major airports (DFW, Love Field, and Alliance) and 4 or 5 smaller ones. Every variaty of plane possible flies over my house and city on their takeoff and landing paths. So I know what planes look like
when they fly low, and how to get a rough idea of what size of shadow corresponds to what height. More importantly, I know what they sound like.
I don't think any plane would be able to fly low enough to cast that kind of a shadow, and still be safe. I've seen Cessnas and other small planes fly very low, but they cast a small shadow.
The shape and this shadow looked like it would correspond to a large passenger or cargo plane, but 1. No plane that big would fly that low over a city and 2. It would have been easy to see in the sky and 3. I would have heard it! Even over traffic, those things roar.... but there was nothing.
Also, this was not a "cloud shadow--" the only clouds around were small and whispy, and not moving nearly fast enough to create that kind of illusion.
Honestly, I think I saw an invisible airplane.
Has anyone else experienced something like this?
Edit to add: My theory is that it was covered with the fiber-optic stuff that makes an object seem invisible, I can't beleive I forgot to say that...
sled735
reply to post by wmd_2008
No, I didn't miss that.
You missed a very important part of the video that shows an invisible man during the same timeline when they said it could only be done on that small scale.
edit on 1/25/2014 by sled735 because: clarification