Thermal imager in British Army Helicopter 1972

[PANews]

The 'side looking' Marconi Heli-Tele installation in the British Army Scout [mainly used operationally in Northern Ireland] was dated 1974, that was not a TI camera

In 1970 elements of the Army Air Corps were providing air support to the Royal Ulster Constabulary [RUC]. At a time when the Army was only just in receipt of gyro-stabilised binoculars they started to experiment with the means whereby they could capture and transmit live video pictures from military helicopters flying some distance away from the subject of their interest. What they sought was a Trojan Horse system that was relatively small and capable of being placed so far away from the target that no one would suspect its purpose even if they could see the helicopter that carried it. They failed first time but further experiments in 1972 led to a working system. Either what you have seen has been mistaken for the video system or the sources I asked forgot to mention the TI. I am aware that some of the early stuff was literally a camera suspended by ropes in the door of an unspecified helicopter type. I am unsure whether those early TI cameras were that robust.

The project was eventually taken over by Marconi who came up with the gyro-stabilised Heli-Tele which was shoehorned into the confines of the rear cabin of a standard Westland Scout helicopter. The first time TI was mentioned was 1982 and that was when the Pope visited the UK. That was the first UK civil use of the TI [in an Alouette].

I have just re-read my text and found this section which suggests that your dates may be a mite early....

The military past of the technology has ensured that some elements of the development of thermal imaging have remained veiled. The leading US based supplier of commercial systems, the Portland, Oregon, USA based FLIR Systems Inc [FSI] first developed a commercial TI system as a hand held unit in August 1979. This equipment was used by the California Dept. of Forestry to image forest fires. They soon mounted the hand held unit in a pod on a plane, effectively pre-empting the first Series 1000. First civilian user was shortly afterwards, in 1980; a user on the Pacific Northwest of the USA used the unit on a fixed wing single engine aircraft. Among other things it was used to image the Mount St. Helens volcano eruption. To achieve the necessary coolness to the image sensor they had to pour liquid nitrogen into the system while airborne. The first FSI system sold to law enforcement was in 1981; the purchaser was the Texas Dept. of Law Enforcement. The first Series 1000 unit, a simple unit offering pan and tilt, was produced in 1981 and entered service with the San Bernardino Sheriffís Dept in California. The first Series 2000, arguably the most famous of the early flir units, was in production from 1982. The first user was the US Coast Guard.

Hope this helps.