I’ve spent an entire engineering career designing new materials for new applications and have always had a passion to apply those materials and technologies to unconventional applications, and that’s how The Omega Whistle was born. I’m using 3D metal printing (additive manufacturing) to manufacture tactical whistles that can’t be machined by conventional means.

I get asked a lot why I call it The Omega Whistle. Two reasons. I’m a proud Christian and believe that Christ the Lord is the beginning and the end (Alpha and Omega), so it is my humble attempt to pay Him homage. It also is the last whistle you’ll ever need to buy – like Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Since I didn’t have to worry about being able to machine anything, I was able to put all my focus on the form and function of the whistle.

On the Function:

I did extensive prototyping to hone in on a design that was able to combine rugged and aesthetically pleasing external features while maintaining the necessary internal structure needed to ensure a clear, loud and unique sound (including a shrill). Another benefit of the corkscrew design is the improved grip with wet or gloved hands – this was a design priority for me.

The picture below shows some of the prototyping that I did starting with basic wood and then I went right into additive manufacturing in plastics and various metals until I honed in on the best sound and feel.

Unlike the majority of the available whistles out there, The Omega Whistle is of single, monolithic construction. There are no joints to fail or secondary parts to fall out or fail at the worst possible moment. This also ensures that there is no annoying internal pea that can swell and render most other whistles useless in wet weather.

On the Function:

In parallel to the physical prototypes, I ran Computation Fluid Dynamics (I mentioned that I’m a nerd right?) to optimize the air flow for sound characteristics. It is sized so you can wear it around your neck, on a pack, or your key chain.