Inventor 67 years old, in a wheelchair and stealth paint

A German inventor, Werner Nickel, has invented a stealth paint that can help avoid radar detection. The German defense industry began to care for this special paint.

From raising worms in the desert to stealth paint preparation

Werner Nickel, a 67-year-old German amateur inventor, is a wheelchair user, but has had impressive studies.

He has been to the United Arab Emirates to carry out his project: developing a worm whose droppings can help grow radishes in hot, dry desert lands.

The chiefs here were really impressed with this German inventor's project.

Initially, the project seemed promising because of the growing cucumber, cabbage and beans in the experimental fields of Nickel in the Abu Dhabi suburb. However, later, the project needs to use a large number of worms (up to 3000 individuals / m ² ), too expensive, so it is difficult to implement and is not interested by donors.

Although he was a very enthusiastic person in ideas, Nickel eventually turned to research. At this time, he decided to make a paint to cover tanks, boats and planes that could avoid radar waves, similar to stealth bombs. He named this invisibility paint AR1.

Werner Nickel.

After losing thousands of hours of laboratory research, Nickel finally blended the paint he was trying to find. He sent one of these paint cans to radioactive physicist Helmut Essen, who runs the radar technology department at the Natural Science Research Company (FGAN) near Born. Essen tried Nickel's special paint and was surprised to see that the paint had "worked with all military frequencies".

The physicist found that when scanning AR1 on a house, a ship or a car, the radar could not be detected. It has disappeared almost completely in the dark. However, Mr. Essen did not explain why this was: he said that it was possible that the paint was a Jaumann absorber, reflecting the radar wave to the extent of canceling each other. It is also possible that these are tiny magnetic particles capable of absorbing the radiant energy of radar waves.

However, Esssen is still not sure exactly what makes this paint work. Essen also considers the fact that Nickel has mixed this paint in the desert and there is almost no research tool for Nickel- 'but it's almost unbelievable.' And so on. Each of the paints Nickel sent to Essen worked better in May, Essen even wondered: 'How did he understand how to do his research?'.

AR1 and historical landmarks

Nickel began to focus on researching some radio coatings during the Cold War. A Yugoslav friend who worked at the consulate in West Berlin introduced Nickel to weapons experts, including an American expert living in a villa in the area.

In the early 1980s, the American expert invited Nickel to visit a military base to invite him to perform an aluminum sphere coated with one of Nickel's first stealthy paint versions. The results are pathetic!

Anyway, some people showed great interest in Nickel's stealth paint and began contacting him. In early 2002, an Iraqi person visited Nickel, telling him that Saddam Hussein's government was looking for ways to hide military and defense activities from the US military's aerial patrols.

Nickel said: 'They are willing to exchange my invention with 18 million dollars, half of which will be converted with oil. However, according to Nickel, 'the whole amount seems too hot to me.'

In 2007, Chinese people also knocked on Nickel's door. The Shanghai-based GSHolding representative told Nickel that they were "very impressed with his product and promised the product would be profitable in the vast Chinese market ." Nickel said he was fascinated by the offer and arranged a plan to meet a delegation from China's Ministry of Defense in May. However, he eventually favored "those". who knows what comes from his own country ' .

F117 stealth aircraft.(Photo: nicosfly.free.fr)

Germans have long known Nickel's stealth paint. In 2004, Nickel sent the first paint sample to FGAN, the company with the main customer of the German Federal Defense Force, the German armed forces. And experts at FGAN told Nickel about the effectiveness of AR1 that 'it outperforms the same paint samples that we can create.'

In 2005, FGAN had an Unimog (Mercedes' Off-road vehicle), Nickel paint, and this was an invisible product for defense professionals. Some delegations from Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands are also on hand to see the above-mentioned stealth facilities.

However, the Federal Republic of Germany's defense force showed little interest in Nickel's stealth paint products. In July 2007, Nickel sent a letter to the German Ministry of Defense. He wrote: 'I should let everyone know that many countries are willing to buy my invisibility paint products . ' Then there were a number of ministerial staff contacting Essen at FGAN. Essen recounted: 'They called me and wanted me to confirm that Nickel was a freak!'.

Later, the situation changed, Nickel received a very friendly letter from a man named Rheinmetall, the Defense Ministry liaison who expressed "really impressed" with stealth paint products. The security radar manufacturer Tec-knit also expressed the view that 'very interested in the coating effectiveness of the coating'. Nickel also received responses from the Ministry of Defense and from the technical center of the Federal Republic of Germany for some Special Protection Technologies (WTD52).

Essen introduced the report on this coating in the middle of May 2008.

The invention is full of meaning

After all, Nickel's invention could bring more value to human use instead of military and defense.

Pilots and flight controllers around the world often complain about the interference effects of buildings in the airport area on radar screens. If these buildings are coated with Nickel's invisible paint, the noise will be less obstructed.

Essen said he tried to tell Nickel a long time ago that Nickel could get rich with civil aviation instead of military and defense.

However, in a way, Essen's message is disappointing. The driver did not expect to be invisible to police radar traps anymore. 'When an object is moving at such a short range, even the best coating is difficult to work.'

Bui Thanh (Summary from Spiegel, wikipedia, ant7)