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 don't buy it. Despite the coherency of light frequency with a laser, it still heats the atmosphere as it passes through it; i.e. it is not 100% efficient. Several thousand, if not million watts, would be needed to send a laser beam that powerful through that much atmosphere and through glass. A 50 watt laser would quickly dissipate it's energy in heat and wouldn't get very far.
Reminds me of the warning label found on more-powerful lasers produced for less-intelligent users:
CAUTION! Do not stare into beam with remaining eye!
Also of note is that a 150 milliwatt green laser (15% of a watt) will shine for miles through the atmosphere.
A simple Nd:YAG laser would do the trick. I had an intern who built one into a children's toy pistol producing 50 mJ of Q-switched light for <$200.
A Joule at 1064 nm isn't hard to do.
Good evening.
I don't know why I remembered this but, didn't a witness see a blue flash in his mirror after passing Dodi Fayed's limo, right before it crashed?
21st century weapons are nasty.
Michael Frazier
I remember landing in SLC on an L1011. Foggy and snow. Plane landed itself.
Not true.
Milliwatt levels can damage the retina.
It depends on atmospheric conditions as to how much beam spreading and attenuation there is.
50 watts of power over a two millimeter diameter area is very powerful. That would badly burn your skin and likely cut through it if it were passed over it slowly.
I'm just telling you what's in the literature, smart a$%.
They may become standard issue if this isn't an accident.
I just did a search and it popped up.
I have found the incident of the Russian freighter shining a laser at Lt, Daly, then one about pilots being injured by lasers, while they were flying over Bosnia, this N. Korean incident, and how many other are there that we don't find out about.
Putting your finger under a laser is apples and oranges to what we're talking about. The point is that the energy of the laser WILL dissipate over great distances. I would be glad to put my finger under a 50 watt laser that is 5 miles away from me and passing through the atmosphere.
You Guys are soooo anteletical--but I'm tellin' you I can just visualize "Dude, there goes a plane--let's just try it on them and see what happens" (snicker, snicker)
Not to worry........it doesn't have a bayonet lug !
It is much more complicated than you imply. The aversion reflex prevents most damage. The determining factor is retinal illumination.
Not true, how about ruby or argon-ion? Green is a great dazzler as it is centered at the peak of the visual response. Doubled YAG will give 532 nm.
Still, the most likely laser (if this report is accurate) is a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser in the near infrared.
Go argue with the FAA. This was a study done by them.
http://www.hf.faa.gov/docs/508/docs/cami/0107.pdf
Then there is this article about pilots in Bosnia
http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/ccw/news/bosnia981104_laser.html
Can be done from the ground, hence, its simplicity and effectiveness. The Puget Sound incident I referred to was from a freighter on the ocean. The plane was no doubt flying much lower than 33k feet as it was within 15 miles of Vancouver Intl airport and 70 miles from various US military airstrips in Northern Washington State.
A YAG laser is invisible.
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