Bryan Lane
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Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser
Truck-mounted IED-destroying lasers have already been tested in Iraq, but firing lasers from an airplane is a more difficult proposition. The first successful test of a plane-mounted laser gun came on August 7, when Boeing’s 18-ton chemical laser fired a beam from a C-130H aircraft and destroyed a three-by-three-foot target on the ground. It was the first time all of the ATL’s lab-tested pieces came together to vaporize a target. Why use a beam instead of a bomb?
11.10.2008 at 06:14pm - Comment by Bryan LaneThis looks like an ideal forest fire fighting platform. Cut precision fire lines from above to surgically fight the fire!
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December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
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