Techniques

When emergency medical personnel are being trained, simulations of victims are used in the practice scenarios. This is where moulage comes in. It is the French word for casting or moulding. Moulage technicians use the same methods in accident and disaster scenes in movies.

Moulage may be applied to dummies or on people who are pretend victims and it can simulate all kinds of injuries. It may be simple make-up, false wounds made from rubber or latex or involve complicated prosthetics (artificial devices). An expert in moulage can fake a several limb, mangle a car accident victim, or create less obvious injuries which require careful examination and an in-depth patient interview.

Several firms specialize in moulage. They may work in the film industry or in emergency services training. Medical colleges usually have a moulage department so that a steady supply of fake injuries is available for lectures and practice.

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The nightsight can turn night into day for a soldier, which means that darkness no longer provides cover for enemy troops. With a nightsight their movements can easily be detected, exposing them to accurate fire.

A nightsight looks like an oversized telescopic sight. It enables a soldier to see clearly on all but the darkest nights by amplifying moonlight or starlight. First a highly sensitive photoelectric cell converts the image into an electrical signal, just as it would in a TV camera. Then the electrical signal is amplified by circuits similar to those of a hi-fi amplifier. It is finally turned back into an image and displayed on a small TV screen.

Even on a night that most people would describe as pitch black, there is usually some light, if only from the stars. In such conditions a soldier can accurately aim at a target up to 400yds (365m) away. More powerful versions, with a range of 1100yds (1km), are used by artillery, tanks, helicopters and aircraft.

If there is not even a glimmer of starlight, a different instrument can be used – an infrared camera, which detects hear rather than light. Objects that generate heat – for example aircraft, missile outlets, or army camp fires – can be detected at a range of several miles. These signals are used routinely in surveillance operations. During the Falklands War, they were used by British troops to detect the position of Argentine defences. Infrared cameras can also detect the body heat of an enemy soldier.

When all soldiers, tabks an aircraft are regularly equipped with nightsights, battle will be possible 24 hours a day.

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The most important pieces of wreckage to be recovered are usually the two recorders carried on all civil airliners.

The flight data recorder provides a record of the movements of key instruments, such as airspeed and altitude indicators, and the positions of rudders and spoilers. The information is recorded as electronic pulses on a tape. When the tape is played back, it will give a computer printout of the aircraft’s movements. A computer screen can also be programmed to look like the main instruments, giving a more realistic playback.

In the future it may be possible to increase the items recorded and to play them back through a flight simulator, which is normally used for training pilots, to re-create the cockpit of the aircraft in the hours before it crashed. Flight data recorders can record up to 200 hours of flying time.

Cockpit voice recorders pick up conversations and sounds of the crew. They work on a continuous tape lasting 30 minutes, so at any time only the last 30 minutes is recorded. A weakness of the system is that if a crash does not stop the recorder working, it can remain switched on and erase the vital section.

The recorders are installed in the rear of aircraft – the area most likely to survive a crash. They are housed in a case made of two shells of stainless steel with heat protective material between. They must be able to survivor a temperature of 2000ºF (1100ºC) for 30 minutes.

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