Patent ID: 7248950

Claim:
A laboratory testing apparatus for testing the fog-penetrating capability of an infrared visibility improvement system used in aircraft, said apparatus comprising: a light source for illuminating said apparatus, wherein said light source represents the medium intensity approach light that is found on aircraft runways; a neutral density filter wheel having a plurality of filters that represent the intensity of landing lights at varying distances; a heater associated with said filter wheel for heating said filter wheel above ambient temperature; a fog filter adjacent to said filter wheel; a wide field of view collimator interposed between said fog filter and said light source; wherein said collimator has a field of view sufficient to cover the enhanced vision system sensor of said system; a glass plate positioned at the focal plane of said collimator; wherein said collimator further comprises a plurality of pinholes to emulate multiple light sources at said glass plate; a diffuser and integrating sphere, controllable by an operator, for controlling the density of a background; such that said apparatus is able to determine the fog-penetrating ability of the enhanced vision system over the entire wide field of view provided by said system.