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FrozenGate by Avery

Lasers vs Airplanes on ABC

wbp said:
I've often wondered what would happen if a bunch of us got together and pointed at ISS as it went over - what would it look like from orbit?
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I can just see the blown out of proportion headline now

"Laser terrorists try to shoot down space station"

I hate the media....
 





I've often wondered what would happen if a bunch of us got together and pointed at ISS as it went over - what would it look like from orbit?
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With the divergence our pointers have? After all that athmosphere they have to go through?
Astronauts would see exactly nothing.

I call bullshit on "laser vs plane"! It's just like a cellphone ON a plane.
....
It's more likely little kids with 1mw lasers
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You couldn't be more wrong. High powered laser pointers (not 1mw) are a very
real danger to airplane pilots on short final or takeoff.
If they get flashed at the wrong time, they'd have to go around.
Sure, there's always two pilots , but still...
Even more so for helicopter pilots, they always fly low and slow.
 
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You couldn't be more wrong. High powered laser pointers (not 1mw) are a very
real danger to airplane pilots on short final or takeoff.
If they get flashed at the wrong time, they'd have to go around.
Sure, there's always two pilots , but still...
Even more so for helicopter pilots, they always fly low and slow.
Last edited by anselm; Today at 11:27 PM.


Show me Proof of one laser related crash! Yes it COULD Be a problem... But it isint. Ya know it's just as easy to get a gun! Did you know any 18 year old person can buy a flair gun! It's like a hand held flaming grenade luncher!!! You can also have a high altitude model rocket can get sucked in a planes engin during takeoff, flight, and landing! oh no! Anything can be dangrous to a pilot during takeoff and landing!

Gross Example:
If a co-pilot farted in the captins face while taking off, and the captin threw up on the controlls and the co-pilot got sick from the captins vomit. And as a result the plane crashed. Would you blame the fart? NO! You would blame the man dumb enough to fart in a dangerous situation! Lasers are like guns. It's the people using them dangerously that is bad... Not the laser itself!

People need to understand that if your going to be dumb ANYTHING IS DRANGROUS!
 
Show me Proof of one laser related crash!
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Luckily there hasn't been one yet, as far as I'm aware of. But then again
only recently have high powered pointers become so widespread, (almost) everyone
can get a 200mw green.

! Did you know any 18 year old person can buy a flair gun! It's like a hand held flaming grenade luncher!!!
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Yeah those are dangerous as well if someone dumb fires them off near an airport.
But the analogy is flawed, because the flair is essentially one shot, while as the laser is
CW-autofire.
You can just wave it around untill you eventually hit your target.
 
Any pilot that would be flying a commercial plane like that can land a plane, especially a commercial plane like that, without being able to see out of the cockpit. (This is why the pilot said he lowered the sun screen, he doesn't need to see anything.)

It's called IFR or Instrument Flight Rules. It pretty much means flying using only the instruments for situations where you can't see anything outside the plane. It is possible to land a plane using nothing but instruments.

Also, large commercial planes like that have autopilot systems capable of landing the plane with no help at all. In fact it is mandatory to land using autopilot a certain number of times a month in certain planes. I would bet that most pilots use that system as much as possible.

I can almost guarantee that no laser would ever take down a plane under normal flight conditions though I can't say the same about heli's since I don't know anything about flying those things... (though I highly doubt getting hit with a laser would cause a pilot to immediately put the copter into a nosedive.)

I also beg to differ on the whole "constant wave-autofire" argument, a laser targeting a plane is never going to be "Constant Wave" unless it is controlled by some super sophisticated tracking system. If you can target a plane with a laser, held by hand, and keep it on the cockpit for any more than a split second then you have the hands of a god. If you move your hand so much as a fraction of a degree it is going to move the end of the beam hundreds if not thousands of feet off target because of the distances involved. (Remember Trig? The whole A squared + B squared thing? you could calculate the beam deflection for every degree of movement if you felt like it.) You would have to hold your hand perfectly still, a lot more than any human would be capable of. And then again, that's assuming the plane is standing completely still. If you did hit the plane the beam would only be on the plane for a fraction of a second, and if you somehow managed to constantly target the plane then the pilot would just lower the sun screen and fly by instruments. (Also, chances are the plane is already on autopilot. There's an autopilot for everything.)

Is targeting a plane with a laser a good idea? No. Is it ever going to cause an accident? I HIGHLY doubt it. Has the media overblown the whole thing like they do with everything they ever touch? Defiantly. There were far more cases for accidents with the Child molester pointing those lasers around the city like that.

I bet that more airports have problems with birds than they do with lasers...
 
Pontiacg5 said:
It's called IFR or Instrument Flight Rules. It pretty much means flying using only the instruments for situations where you can't see anything outside the plane. It is possible to land a plane using nothing but instruments.

Also, large commercial planes like that have autopilot systems capable of landing the plane with no help at all.
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IIRC only the most modern planes like the Airbus A380 and the latest
Boeing have autopilots than can actually fly the plane all the way down
to the ground.
In every other plane the pilot has to fly the last 200 feet or so of altitude
by hand.
If there isn't enough visibility, airports don't let anyone land.

Even if he isn't blinded by the flash, he is very busy at this time.
Watching airspeed, keeping roll and pitch steady, correcting for
crosswind, preparing for reverse thrust, etc. etc.
The pilot doesn't need ANY distraction at this moment.

Will he crash the plane? Probably not.
But even a go-around isn't something you just do for the lolz.

I also beg to differ on the whole "constant wave-autofire" argument, ....
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Maybe I didn't explain myself properly, what I meant was:
The flare gives you one shot. You'd have to be an absolute crack or
get incredibly "lucky" to score a hit on the cockpit's windshield.

The 200mw pointer almost "guarantees" you a hit if you scan it in the
direction of the plane long enough.
Well at least it's much more likely to eventually flash the pilot than with
a one-shot flare.
 
Stephen j gilman said:
Show me Proof of one laser related crash! Yes it COULD Be a problem... But it isint. Ya know it's just as easy to get a gun! Did you know any 18 year old person can buy a flair gun! It's like a hand held flaming grenade luncher!!! You can also have a high altitude model rocket can get sucked in a planes engin during takeoff, flight, and landing! oh no! Anything can be dangrous to a pilot during takeoff and landing!
Click to expand...


Oh, so you'd rather wait until people do die before steps are taken to keep that from happening?

Your rocketry example doesn't work, and shows you don't know much about that subject either. High power model rocket engines, H and up I beleive, are controlled just like explosives are. You have to be licensed before you can even buy them, and all flights of high powered rockets require a FAA wavier. In the protected airspace surrounding airports though, it's not legal to launch ANYTHING regardless of power. So if this scenario ever happened, the person responsible is just as deserving of their jail time as the morons who illuminate aircraft with lasers.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but we are on the ground right? The plane is in the sky right? If we are below the plane and the cockpit is on top of the plane how is it evin possible to get a laser beam to bend at 2 right angles to evin hit the inside of the cockpit?

Its just dumb... And impossible!
 
Stephen j gilman said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but we are on the ground right? The plane is in the sky right? If we are below the plane and the cockpit is on top of the plane how is it evin possible to get a laser beam to bend at 2 right angles to evin hit the inside of the cockpit?

Its just dumb... And impossible!
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Ok, since it's impossible, go outside and start shining lasers at every plane and helicopter that flys over. It's impossible for them to see so they won't notice right?

Then this problem will solve itself..... Just don't drop the soap.
 
I didint say it wasn't Illegal! I said it is impossible for the beam to enter the cockpit and hit a pilot in their eye! You must not be able to read qumefox! If you have anything relevant to say go for it... If not don't tell people to do illegal things!

My point was the beam only travels in a straight line! It's called "line of sight" if you can't draw a straight line from point a to point b, the laser won't hit the target with out reflecting off of something!

Ps qumefox you must know from expierence about the soap huh?
 
Here is a crayon like drawing of what I mean!
f1977c2d.jpg
 
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