how does the FLIR in helipcoters works ?

Answer 1

FLIR stands for forward looking infrared. It is really just a camera that is more sensitive to the infrared spectrum than it is to the visible light spectrum. Infrared light comes off of objects the sameway visible light does. it's just that our eyes are particularlly sensitive to a band that we call 'visible' light. the FLIR camera is sensitive the IR, not visible light. Then there is a video processing step in the camera that takes the IR sensing image, and converts it to a black and white image. really all it does is put shades of white light on the screen that mimic the brightness of the IR in the image that the camera detects.
As for the forward lookign part, the camera is mounted in what is called a gimbal. this is a camera holding mechanism that lets the camera rotate on two axis. imagine the old fashioned floor standing globes. the kind that lets the earth spin and also has a ring that the poles of the earth are mounted to. Now replace the earth with a camera. That's a gimbal mounted camera.

Answer 2

OK, you get a star. This is a good question. Here's what I believe (then I'm going to go out and find out for sure)!!!! We would need to check the reflectivity of an aluminized surface in the infrared range. UPDATE: This isn't a very good update, but all I could find are articles that suggest that normal optical mirrors coated in aluminum have a reflectivity index of only about 80%. For some reason that doesn't sit well with me. I would have thought it would have been higher. ANOTHER UPDATE: Cosmo saves the day... Good point!