Technology: Stopping Bullets with Nylon

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To prove a point in the most graph ic way, Czech-born Engineer Jan V.

Weinberger of Ottawa once shielded himself with a sheet of nylon and let a Canadian soldier jab at him with a bayonet. Anyone would have thought him mad. But the bayonet scarcely dented the fabric.

Weinberger is the proud inventor of a new nylon "body armor" — a 1/8-in.-thick fabric that holds great promise for wide use in war, law enforcement and industry. According to Davis Air craft Products Inc., the Long Island firm which is producing and developing it, the material is 48% more effective than any armor now in use. "The difference between this material and other nylon fabrics is primarily a matter of weave," says Weinberger, who is keeping the pattern a secret until his patent is granted. "It works by diverting the impact energy from the impact point." Threads of the new material, says Davis Aircraft President Robert L. Davis, "pull together and tighten up when struck by a bullet, force it to wobble, then actually pucker around the projectile and stop it."

Chopper Armor. As protection against shrapnel, which inflicts 80% of all wartime wounds, U.S. troops now wear 10-lb. nylon felt vests. Davis claims that his 8-lb., all-nylon version wards off not only shrapnel, but also direct hits from small arms up to .38 caliber.

For helicopter pilots, he is also developing a 23-lb. vest (too heavy for infantrymen) with 14 layers; the eighth layer has stopped submachine gun slugs fired from 15 yds. In Viet Nam, helicopters are armored with titanium that stops snipers' .30-cal. bullets at 200 yds. But "any closer," says Davis, "and the bullets go right through." He proposes lining helicopters with 14-layer nylon, which can increase the amount of protection by 40% while reducing the cost of the armor by about the same amount.

The Davis-Weinberger fabric will soon be tested in Viet Nam as a boot lining to protect infantrymen against poisoned bamboo stakes set out by the V.C. At a recent Davis demonstration, a single layer of the nylon draped over a man's knee stopped a chain saw cold, indicating a wide range of possible industrial uses. Samples have since been ordered for evaluation by the Air Force, the Marines and five foreign nations. Police in several U.S. cities are also interested. During the riots, a New York City patrolman was slashed open from shoulder to waist by a looter wielding a broken bottle. "Had he been wearing our nylon riot shirt," says Davis, "he wouldn't have suffered a scratch."