Picture of the day.

[N4521U]

That's a lotta white!

 

[fannum]

OK, 'nuff slurring of a noble product some of us grew up with ... I can't find my Vitalis either these days ... or my hair, for that matter (except in my noise and ears, that is!)

To put an end to this, some serious trivia: What did Drene shampoo contribute to aviation history?
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Remember that high altitude flights were just pushing above 30K' and only rocket powered aircraft were pushing the upper limits, and these experimental craft were stripped of everything not needed for the short flights. You'd heat the pilot instead of the cockpit, and there was no engine source of heated air to circulate. With the cold, rarified air, any trapped moisture from lower altitudes or from breathing condensation would collect on the glass/plexiglas canopies ... and turn to frost, becoming opaque ... requiring an already overloaded pilot to try to constantly wipe and scrape ... if they could reach!

There is film of first X-1 flights landing with white areas covering most of the cockpit windows, relying even more on the chase planes to talk them down.

Bill Bridgeman is credited for coming up with a solution being utilized by scuba divers and high altitude glider pilots (making flights above 40K in the nearby Sierra Wave updrafts. They found that Drene shampoo worked best, polished on the inside of the windows, and the thin, invisible detergent film would break down the micro droplets of moisture, avoiding the frosting.

If you have copies of the early X-plane books written by Bridgeman and Yeager, you'll find mention of this trick.