Lasers

[412driver]

when one speaks of these "lasers"....

 

perhaps Goldmember would have more information on these "lasers"

 

wait...no....that was Dr. Evil

[GoldMember]

Fricken laser beams. Here's a silly question, how do you know if you've been lasered? Aside from the obvious pain and/or damage.

[helicopper]

my understanding is... an extremely bright, red or green thin column of light which immediately fugs up your vision (and potentially situational awareness)... you will normally be aware/recognize it instantly.

[Skids Up]

Are we talkin' about the lazers that you see with the kids everywhere, or are these more powerful than that?

 

Just wondering about the many possible "Scotty, I need more power to the shields" areas that are out there.

[helicopper]

skids up... yes, the more powerful, commercially sold LASER pointers are precisely what we are talking about... they've gone from classrooms to hockey rinks across this country... we DO NOT need them graduating to the skies!!!

[Helijason]

imagine getting hit with one of these lasers http://wickedlasers.com/

they claim to be able to light matches, cigarettes and cigars and shoot 100 miles. Those ones surely wouldnt take long to do some major damage to your eyes.

[Fenestron]

At least the price will keep alot of the yahoos away from buying them.....Myself, I ordered 10. They'll make great stocking stuffers for the delinquent kids in the family.

[RONIN]

Relax. Non Commercial lasers that are used for this type of aviation harassment have a very wide beem at 1000 feet and a serious decrease in energy. The tests you guys are talking about are done in a lab, at 12 inches, in a stable environment for prologed time periods (5 min.). Try and hold a laser pen at at target 500 ft away and see how long you can keep within the size of an eyeball. You are most likely to see flashes in the cabin (green will always seem brighter due to the physiology of the eye). Now try that during the day when you can't see the beam. This is a night issue and limited to companies that are involved in night ops.... really just an distraction. You can always do what the SAC bomber pilots did and fly with an eye patch to protect them from the nuclear flash..... :up:

[w squared]

From my understanding, the issue with protecting yourself from lasers while flying (not a new question in military circles) is that a visor sufficent to filter out all wavelengths likely to be encountered would actually be opaque to visible light.

 

As far as NVG's go, they absolutely do magnify visible light by 5000X or more...but in order for the NVG's to damage your eyes, the tubes in them would have to be capable of generating a light of sufficent intensity to damage the retina - and the modls that I've used (AN/PVS-7 single tube) can't do that. A laser would obviosly cause your pupils to contract and render you temporarily blind because of the rapid change in light conditions (just like when somebody turns on the lights when the badguys are using NVG's in a movie). Obviously not a good thing to happen while you're the pilot of an aircraft.