Posted on 09/28/2004 8:12:49 PM PDT by ableChair
Greta Van Susteren reported that a Delta pilot enroute to Salt Lake City was lazed in the cockpit this last Wednesday. Only country I know that has that hardware (for lazing bomber pilots) was the Soviet Union. Pilot reportedly required medical treatment and this was not a minor injury (weak laser) wound. More will come out to tomorrow as this story hits the print press.
I think the U.S. military came up with some kind of goggles they issued to flight crews on U.S. surveillance flights near the Soviet border in the 80's.
Yup, get me talking 'bout St Elmo's fire and Green ball lightning sometime... It'll cost ya a couple of 7&7's though >>>> (:^)
Military personnel (Apache drivers, anyway) are supposed to use eyesafe lasers in training. SUPPOSED to, of course...
I'm no expert on laser engineering but I would think that a laser like that would have to be EXTREMELY powerful. Not very common on eBay. Why would someone need something THAT powerful? It has to cut through several kilometers of atmosphere, penetrate UV protected windscreens then hit a man's eye with enough energy to damage or blind him. This ain't no sighting laser!
Visible light lasers will easily burn your retina. It all comes down to power level and how long you are exposed.
The questions I would have are:
1. What altitude was the plane at. If it was 30000ft while descending.
2.What was the delivery system thought to be? On the ground, in the air?
Those two questions when answered will tell us the potential impact.
But since common consumer lasers are a few milliwatts, this is a whole bunch of cooking power.
Tell that to Lt. Daly.
"The Pentagon investigated Daly's claims and concluded from medical examinations that the injuries to his eye were consistent with retinal damage from a low-power laser. "
http://www.aeronautics.ru/nws002/ap036.htm
50 watts!? Dude, a space heater puts out over a 1000 watts. This laser would have to be MUCH more powerful than 50 watts. All that power is going to be dissipated as it heats the atmosphere over several kilometers distance.
Here is another one:
Report: N. Korea Fired Laser at U.S. Warplanes
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/13/74427.shtml
On the eve of a meeting between President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, it has been revealed to the Washington Times that North Korea's military fired a laser in March at two U.S. Army helicopters patrolling the demilitarized zone.
According to the report, the laser attack occurred at about the same time that four North Korean jets intercepted a U.S. spy plane and attempted to force it to land in North Korea.
Any bets that this ends up being some teenage boy with too much time on his hands and just "wanted to see what would happen"! No offence to most teenage boys!
Umm, not to nit-pick, but that was not the word to which I was referring. Please read the post again.
Whoa...... No Sh!t... I didn't hear 'bout that one...
Got any details ?
New VCSEL designs are making it possible to fabricate arrays of diode lasers inexpensively on a single wafer.
This really, really creeps me out that any kid will be able to pay a few bucks for a device that can blind people in an instant.
Yikes.... Just looked at my watch... G'night all
Gotta make some high-schooler lives miserable tomorrow
Robe
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