Posted on 01/02/2005 7:16:29 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants
Just reported: An airline on approach to the Nashville airport has had it's cockpit targeted by a green laser. The plane was about 6 miles out and at 3000 feet when the incident occurred. The plane landed safely and no one was injured.
This makes SEVERAL reports of green lasers being targeted at commercial airlines in the past several days. Something really weird is going on and it is a concerted effort by several individual groups acting in concert or one very mobile unit.
I can testify to the dangers of an IR laser. After years of working with YAG lasers with the Army, I caught a reflection and received a tiny burn spot in my eye. Since an IR laser is invisible, I did not know it had happened until much later.
Today, I can only detect the burn spot when viewing a white wall. Other than that, it has not been a problem.
However, I learned a very valuable lesson about the dangers of IR lasers.
"Here's a video of one burning a hole (!) in a plastic cup from four feet away."
What is shown in your video is not a laser pointer. The laser shown in your flick is a multi-watt laser. Instead of 100 bucks, try a couple thousand.
We developed a mega-watt 1.54 micron laser for probing the atmosphere, and I would personally demonstrate it's safety.
With a large group of officers standing around, I would fire the laser into a piece of black plastic. You could hear a large pop, and I would then show them the hole which was burned into the plastic.
I would then aim the laser directly into my eye and fire it...
Although they could hear the audible pop when the laser fired, nothing would happened to me!
Dog and pony shows like that are always fun. However, it was an important demonstration as to why 1.54 micron laser development was important for the safety of military personnel.
P.S. The laser could not penetrate the aquas-fluid inside of my eye and cause any damage, however, it would cause heat inside of the eye and give me a major head-ache! I never mentioned that little annoyance.
You can move your laser sight at random, and it will occasionally flash upon the target.
Now a steady illumination, lasting over a minute, would be a totally different matter!
1) Connect a laser detector to your modulated laser.
2) Place the laser detector on the target.
3) Point your modulated laser where you would like the missiles to hit.
4) Meet the Air Force pilots at the local bar that evening and watch their sad faces, since every one of their missiles missed the target that day.
5) Deny everything!
The laser guided missile would simply target the brighter illuminated target.
Once the missile is released from the aircraft, the pilot or weapons officer could only watch.
Since I had full control of what target was illuminated, the missile went for the target which I had designated with the brighter laser.
Exactly how this was performed, is obviously classified.
Would it be a CO2 laser or a solid state laser ?
Can any of them operate in the green spectrum ?
A CO2 laser uses Carbon Dioxide as the lasing medium. It is the most powerful commercial laser available, and is often used to cut metal. It operates in the IR spectrum and is invisible to the human eye.
A solid state laser is similar to a LED, which is used in many home applications. For instance, you CD or DVD player has a solid state laser inside of it, for scanning the rotating disks.
Today, technology has produces some fairly high-powered solid state lasers at reduced cost.
Yes, solid state lasers are produced that operate in the green spectrum.
This specific green laser can be purchased for $189.00
The real concern is that they are apparently able to "track" a moving aircraft at 300-500 mph. ~175-250 mph coming in for a landing at 6 miles. The laser isn't just appearing and dissappearing, it's consitently visible enough to be identified as such. Not an easy feat with a pocket pointer, even if you could find a green one.
If actual incidents were fairly common, a certain percentage would likely be attributable to reports of things that aren't really there. When they are so relatively uncommon (with no evidence except the recollections of the aircrews) one cannot discount the possibility that all or nearly all the events are attributable to "the mind playing tricks."
State your source of this information please!
Remember, just a quick flash of green light, only takes a split-second to recognize as being unusual.
I could randomly flash a laser at you, and you would immediatly recognize it as such.
Pure hysteria. These lasers are no more dangerous than a flashlight at 3000+ feet.
Outlaw lasers and only outlaws will have lasers.
How bright is a star at night? Can you see it?
What is unusual, is a green flash originating from the ground. Nothing dangerous, but unusual.
Many people have falsely stated that a very low power laser (such as a laser pointer) could not be seen from many miles away.
Once again, I will use the example of a faint star at night.
Think about it!
State your source of this information please!
Here's one source. The last sentence in the second paragraph on this thread states just that.
What bothers me about this case is that the plane was taking off, not landing, when the beam hit.
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