Green Laser Effects on Airplanes-Picture!

Cyparagon Is right about the IR laser. The divergence in those things are CRAP, you'd have to get about 1 meter or less away from the person for it to even give them a blind spot. I know that shining lasers at planes have happened, but what i don't understand, is how someone could get that TINY little dot right in a pilots eye, AT NIGHT, not to mention the curved windscreen that would reflect a fair bit of the light away. When people think laser, they think something that will blind you or burn a hole in you. Yes they can blind you, but thats why they have laws about lasers, so idiots can't go out and blind people. Maybe it is a good thing they are expensive! I think we should get the mythbusters to test if shining a laser at a plane would blind the pilot, i think it would be a good myth.

They already have a green laser, i saw it on one of the episodes, and they were shining it right into the camera which can actualy mess up the camera, it will burn out the sensors on the ccd

...lazer... ;D ;D ;D

Allright then, someone email them and ask em if they could do a myth on it ;D

The danger isn't in blinding the pilot, it's in distracting the pilot.

Well, I guess if I were to land a plane after mybe a stressful flight and get the annoying light into the cockpit, it would surely distract me (i am nothing anywhere close to a pilot, though).

Considering, if you were standing rather close to the beginning of the runway, and the plane is basically heading for you, it would not be hard to aim at the cockpit, as it (appears to) move very slowly sideways.

It would be horrible if they were to show this on Mythbusters, because would they show it as myth, every stupid dumbhead would go out there with his something-mW-pointer pointing at planes "cause it don't do anything, they said".
Just to give them the idea is enough?!?

To keep on bashing the pic, considering the angle of the incoming beam and the angle of the pilot's face, it becomes apparent that the green lighting on the face couldn't come from the laser shown there, as the light wouldn't reach that far around. That is, assuming his head's gravitation is not so big as to act as a gravitational lens...however improbable that may be.
Also, his "headrest" would probably not be lit green, as his head's shadow would keep it dark.

My experience from my DX 30 was that about 40ft. away, the beam was about a foot wide (rough estimates). But nevertheless taking the beam's divergence to a plane a mile away will probably make it way too big.
Though a Herc will still give you enough power, and I'd rather not have a Herc pointed at me, be it a foot or mile away.

1. Source is too far away for the dot to be that small.
2. Instrumentation shows the pilots nose a degree or 2 above the horizon, which would be ok if the pilot was beginning a flare on approach the the runway, but this guy is not doing that, or you wouldnt see the runway the way you do. Looks like hes in a >4 degree nose in.
3. Someone indicated hes doing a 20 degree bank to the right. Instrumentation shows that he might be correcting from a slight left bank..blahlblah..but anyways, the direction the aircraft is pointing and where the light enters the cockpit doesnt match the reflection on his face, as others have pointed out.
4. He's at almost full flaps, but 2/3 throttle..doesnt look like he intended on landing in the first place.
5.

...the cockpit is located ABOVE the nose of the airplane,meaning that you would have to be on another airplane to hit it...

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You could hit the cockpit, but he would have to have his nose pointing down for the light to reach where it does, which is evident he is doing from the picture, but the instrumentation doesnt confirm this (I dont recognize the cockpit, just the instruments, so I wouldnt be able to tell where exactly the cabin is located on this aircraft). Otherwise, the 'dot' would hit the window and he could see it that way, but it wouldnt hit his face directly.
6. ...and so on, and so on.
7. Im rambling

Basically, looks like something isnt right here, to me.

*edit* Looked like a was on something when I wrote this, with all the mistakes. lol

What about a DPSS 20W 1064nm? That could screw you up from a long distance.I read that they can get 1.5mRad with a 2mm beam at aperture.Over a km away it would have a 1.5 m diameter beam and 20W spreaded across 1.5m[sup]2[/sup] is still somewhat dangerous.....

Over a km away it would have a 1.5 m diameter beam and 20W spreaded across 1.5m2 is still somewhat dangerous.....

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Dangerous is a relative term there. Direct sunlight carries over a kilowatt of energy per m2 - about a factor 100 over your scenario. While staring directly into the sun is bad for your eyes, even that will not do instantaneous damage.

However, during a night flight you could assume the pilots pupils are maximally dilated, resulting in much more light entering the eye. As i understand the difference in pupil area can be a factor of 50 between fully open and closed, so the total exposure gets closer to looking at the sun.

I doubt it'll do any permanetn damage really, especially since it would be quite difficult to explose a pilot on a moving plane for a prolongued period of time - especially since it only works if the pilot actually looks in your direction. Using an invisible beam, he really has no reason to do so unless you're sitting on top of a runway marker

That's 20W in 1,767,146mm[sup]2[/sup] Maximum pupil dilation is... I forgot - 4mm or so? That's 13mm[sup]2[/sup]. So only 0.0007% of the light would enter your eyes. 0.15mW isn't exactly dangerous. Let's not even address how difficult and cumbersome it would be to aim let alone track a plane with a heavy (not to mention invisible) laser such as that.

Cyparagon said:

Let's not even address how difficult and cumbersome it would be to aim let alone track a plane with a heavy (not to mention invisible) laser such as that.

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Yeah, another good point, not only will the laser be big, but you wouldn't be able to see where you were aiming it, security will catch you in no time!

In honesty, an 20W 1064nm would not have to be -that- big or heavy. While not quite a pointer, you'd still be able to sort of lift in including the batteries to power it for say half an hour. Actually aiming it is probably best done using a mirror, otherwise it would still be easier to aim a bazooka

I don't think we have to worry about anyone using lasers to blind pilots or otherwise distrub air traffic intentionally - terrorists can find easier ways and otherwise noone else in their right mind will try.

Cyparagon said:

That's 20W in 1,767,146mm[sup]2[/sup] Maximum pupil dilation is... I forgot - 4mm or so? That's 13mm[sup]2[/sup]. So only 0.0007% of the light would enter your eyes. 0.15mW isn't exactly dangerous. Let's not even address how difficult and cumbersome it would be to aim let alone track a plane with a heavy (not to mention invisible) laser such as that.

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You're probably right, though you could use a nightvision IR camera to aim it, it wouldn't cause much damage.
Still something doesn't seem to be right,I set up my dvd diode so that the "dot" would be roughly 1.5m on the wall and looked directly into it.It's an extremely bright light and very bothersome to the eyes, gave me an after image for a few minutes.So if that's only 0.0007mW, 0.15mW would suck a lot more to stare at.I seriously don't think that the difference between 100mW/m[sup]2[/sup] (what I just experienced) and 1kW/m[sup]2[/sup](staring at the sun, which I also experienced in the past) can be THIS SMALL.There are some other variables that have to be taken into consideration here, maybe the fact that it's coherent :-/...

"HOT" light seems to be harder to look into even at lower concentrations. I have a 250W halogen globe, and even standing over 5M away from it, you still find it to bright. I thinks its more the fact that you are still looking at the point where the light is coming from.

military dont mess with 737's plus that beam could not be on the head rest of the seat due to GIs' head in the way.

Phazonx said:

It makes you afraid when some idiot gets ahold of an IR laser. You could just be minding your business when suddenly you go blind. You wouldn't even know what hit you!

Its the worst and most dangerous of pranks.

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IR is too divergent. even if you were 100 feet from the plane, you'd probably be at a safe exposure level.

That picture is a fake. I can tell that was taken inside a sim. Pilots don't wear BDUs while flying and that person doesn't have the seat belt/shoulder harness on.

bcroft -
The USAF does have 737s. They are called C-40s though.