Night Vision Test House

Descriptive Overview
The Facility is a 35m x 22m x 8m dark tunnel enclosure on the Boscombe Down aerodrome capable of accommodating certain fixed and rotary wing aircraft for testing night vision systems. The Facility allows compatibility of aircraft cockpit and equipment lighting to be examined and assessed.

Characteristics of Facility
The Facility conforms to Mil Standard 3009 Feb 2002 and provides an environment for testing of electro-optic and night vision compatible devices and systems on aircraft and vehicles:

• Nightsky projector suspended from the ceiling used to generate overcast and starlight conditions.
• Apex Moon and Horizon Moon capable of creating starlight illumination and low elevation moonlight simulation.
• Daylight illumination.
• Resolution Targets supporting the USAF 1953 test patterns.
• Night Vision Goggles (NVG) performance test set.
• Infra-red collimator for systems boresight and Minimum Resolvable Temperature Measurements (MRTM).
• Spectro-radiometer (350 – 1050 nanometres).
• Thermal imaging camera.
• Spectrally correct paints for landscape targets to USAF 1953 standard.
• An infra-red target trailer for electro optical system testing capable of definition to 0.1º.