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2004-09-29 Home Front: Tech

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Posted by Steve 2004-09-29 8:52:10 AM|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The North Koreans and Chinese have also tried to blind our pilots. I also remember reading the Chinese have lasers to blind ground troops. Soon laser safe goggles will be required combat equipment (and airline pilot gear it seems).

PS. A near infrared laser is better. The victim would not realize anything is happening until his retinas were burned out.

Posted by ed 2004-09-29 9:40:26 AM|| 2004-09-29 9:40:26 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Does any person have the ability to hold steady a laser for more than a split seconnd. "ed" has an idea to have goggles that filter out the wavelengths of the lasers that are harmful. Perhaps what could be developed is like virtual reality headgear that the pilots wear, showing to them the approach with a TV like image, two cameras which give depth, but only the tri-color of TV without letting any light in, plus autopilot stuff from the airplanes computer to assist the landing

Several years ago, a pilot flying into a Western airport was hit by a light from a laser light show.

I remember hearing about this at the time... It was LAX, and the Laser show was the Hollywood Bowl, who had John Williams come out and do a Star Wars thing.

Posted by BigEd 2004-09-29 12:20:01 PM|| 2004-09-29 12:20:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Thank god it wasn't Wellingtons Victory.

Posted by Max K 2004-09-29 12:58:28 PM|| 2004-09-29 12:58:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 But what if both pilots get blinded on final approach?

Using GPS and advanced autopilot ground approach technologies, some passenger jet liners are capable of taking off and landing at an overseas destination without any pilot assistance, once the craft is lined up on the runway. This is why China needed congressional approval to buy Boeing 767s. Their onboard avonic guidance system is sufficiently accurate for dual-use in ICBMs.

"ed" has an idea to have goggles that filter out the wavelengths of the lasers that are harmful.

BigEd, all wavelengths are "harmful" when you concentrate watts of power on a spot size of no more than a few square millimeters. This is the nature of the beast with coherent radiation. The human retina is not able to disperse so much concentrated energy, regardless of frequency. While costly, it might be possible to provide fast response LCD "shutters" on the cockpit windows so that they would black out when incoming coherent radiation was detected.

Manufacturers already utilize LCD shutters for gating the output of high power industrial lasers used in machining and cutting of materials. While the cockpit windows could not be water cooled, which would enable resistance to prolonged high wattage exposure, they could certainly give pilots time to don goggles and switch the plane over to autopilot controlled evasive maneuvers.

Posted by Zenster 2004-09-29 1:07:31 PM|| 2004-09-29 1:07:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 one wonders what the effect of the shutters closing might be just the instant before wheels on the ground.....

Posted by Sheemp Omeens7966 2004-09-29 3:02:58 PM|| 2004-09-29 3:02:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I recently got a Baretta 96 with a laser site built into the grip. I can tell you from experience that its nearly impossible to hold that laser on target for more than a few seconds. It bounces all over the place with every breath or pulse of your blood.

Posted by rjschwarz 2004-09-29 3:13:29 PM|| [http://politicaljunky.blogspot.com] 2004-09-29 3:13:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 with every breath that you take?

(I'm like the pulse of blood thythm.)

Posted by Lil Ronnie Spektre 2004-09-29 4:47:40 PM|| 2004-09-29 4:47:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 one wonders what the effect of the shutters closing might be just the instant before wheels on the ground.....

Sheemp, please go back and read the part about, "some passenger jet liners are capable of taking off and landing at an overseas destination without any pilot assistance." It would be a simple matter to create overlay software whereby pilot handling can be instantaneously released into autopilot control that is fed with prior flight path information and ILS (Instrument Landing System) runway approach data. There is no reason why the plane should lose any significant degree of touch-down accuracy due to handover during final approach.

Posted by Zenster 2004-09-29 5:03:24 PM|| 2004-09-29 5:03:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 #2 Wonder if the pilot heard Ben in his head... "Use the force"...

Posted by IG-88 2004-09-29 8:13:15 PM|| 2004-09-29 8:13:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 one wonders what the effect of the shutters closing might be just the instant before wheels on the ground.....

PS: One would have to direct different laser beams at each individual cockpit window to make that happen. The only other way of doing so would involve being situated directly in the aircraft's approach path and using a rotating scanning mirror (like at your supermarket but far more expensive) to scatter a tightly distributed incident beam over all of the cockpit windows at once. They would have better luck recruiting a "black widow" bomber first.

Posted by Zenster 2004-09-29 11:26:54 PM|| 2004-09-29 11:26:54 PM|| Front Page Top

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