Tag: Military
The Challenge
A prime aerospace and defense corporation came to us with a calibration challenge in their airborne laser defense system. Built from a modified Boeing 747-400F, the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser System was a missile defense aircraft designed to detect and disable ballistic missiles in flight.
Mounted inside the nose cone, two kilowatt-class target illuminator lasers needed to remain precisely calibrated to ensure accuracy at all times, and their calibration had to be performed under highly controlled environmental conditions. The missile-destroying chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) required extremely precise optics. Even the smallest imperfection-like dust, debris, or an oil film-could cause the airborne laser weapon to misfire or miss its target, with potentially disastrous results.
The optics required inspection and calibration in cleanroom conditions after every flight, but the aircraft couldn’t be rolled into a cleanroom due to its size. Achieving cleanroom-quality air in an enclosure as large as an aircraft hangar would be impossible.
The U.S. Department of Defense contractor needed a way to create a portable cleanroom environment for maintaining the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser System’s highly sensitive optics directly on the tarmac.
The Air Innovations Solution
Air Innovations created a self-contained, portable cleanroom system that could be rolled up alongside the aircraft and connected with flexible ducts to the avionics housing the laser optics. After every flight, the optics had to be recalibrated, so this environmental control unit (ECU) made sure the work was done in true cleanroom conditions right on the tarmac. Powered by high-static blowers, the system forced air through HEPA filters and long runs of ducting.
Our custom solution generated a high volume of cleanroom-grade air and allowed for precise control over humidity, cleanliness, and temperature. We delivered several units that would remain at the aircraft’s main bases, while others would travel with the plane.
Air Innovations successfully created a cleanroom environment on demand (that would even work outdoors) for a highly specialized defense application.
The Result
Air Innovations met all design requirements, delivering our largest mobile unit to date. The portable cleanroom system was fully designed, tested, and manufactured in-house. It came complete with cooling, heating, humidification, HEPA filtration, and precision controls.
In fact, the system exceeded expectations in the following ways:
- The unit was fully portable and self-contained, requiring only a power source.
- It delivered repeatable, cleanroom-quality conditions, even in non-ideal outdoor environments.
- The system allowed maintenance crews to perform delicate optical inspections quickly, safely, and consistently.
The contractor purchased additional units as more planes entered service, validating the performance and reliability of Air Innovations’ design.
Contact Air Innovations, Your Partner for Precision Environmental Control
This Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser project stands as a powerful example of Air Innovations’ innovative capabilities. We don’t just supply off-the-shelf equipment-we design, engineer, and test customized solutions to work in highly demanding applications.
From portable cleanrooms on an airfield to climate-controlled systems in mission-critical facilities, Air Innovations delivers environmental control solutions that protect your most sensitive systems and processes. Contact us today to get started on your custom environmental control project.
