Electrochromic Anti-Nuclear Flash Goggles

[william]

Strategic bomber pilots have a lifesaving rule during nuclear strike drills: in those tens of seconds after dropping the bomb and turning around to flee, in addition to sealing every window in the entire cockpit tightly with metal radiation-proof blackout curtains, the pilot must also wear a pair of bizarre-looking thick-framed goggles on their face.

The lenses are made of lead lanthanum zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramic; under normal conditions, a weak current keeps them transparent; once the photoelectric sensor on the helmet detects a nuclear-explosion-level burst of intense light outside the window, the circuit instantly cuts off the voltage within 100 microseconds (one ten-thousandth of a second, not much slower than the speed of light propagation), and the transparent lenses turn directly into completely opaque pure black sunglasses at a speed a thousand times faster than the human eye's blink reflex—then automatically revert to transparent once the intense light passes.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2117063257622192413

• The post details nuclear strike drill protocols for strategic bomber pilots, requiring cockpit windows to be sealed with anti-radiation blinds and special thick goggles to counter flash blindness from detonations thousands of times brighter than the sun.
• It describes PLZT electro-optic goggles made from lead lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramic: normally transparent with applied current, they switch to fully opaque black in 100 microseconds via light sensors to protect vision while allowing instrument visibility.
• Early Cold War pilots used a simpler method of patching one eye before flight, preserving the covered eye's vision to fly home if the other was blinded by a distant nuclear flash. Grok