Title: Airborne Schlieren Imaging System (ASIS)
Designer: David Faust/Graphics
Year it was designed: 2001
Explanation or story behind the logo: The ASIS program was with PVP Advanced EO Systems, who refurbished an old FLIR pod and put in schlieren optics. The F-18 with the FLIR pod would fly at about 250 knots with the FLIR pod locked onto the Sun. We had a supersonic target aircraft fly to the side of the camera aircraft, positioned to eclipse the Sun as depicted on the patch. GPS on both aircraft, transmitted with a radio link, and a computer and pilot display for the camera pilot to achieve the ~100-ft eclipse point. It used a streak camera that had to be scanned at the proper rate with knowledge of the relative speed and range of the target. All that worked great. We flew around 2001 to 2014, with perpetual problems getting the FLIR to lock onto the Sun, to keep the parts connected in the high vibration environment. We would get a flight, and something would break, and then we would have to wait 6-18 months to get a part repaired or refurbished. There was no way to determine if the optics were in focus until all the components worked. We got all the components working in Feb 2014, and then found out the optics were not in focus. Parallels to the Hubble Space Telescope. We regrouped a month later by abandoning the FLIR pod optics, and using a high-speed handheld camera got equivalent images. This effort was dubbed the Advanced Schlieren Photography System, or ASPS. Good schlieren images were obtained of an F-15, unpublishable. The GPS, radio link, and display computer for relative positioning was essential for success.