I am fairly confused about how this thing is being touted among its specified community – first the ABL is on track, then it's being scrapped. Then it's back in testing, then it's scrapped. I'm catching up on a few hundred websites now, but from about a week ago comes this video of the YAL-1 [...]
Read More ABL, Airborne Laser, Boeing, Danger Room, defense, defense light, Department of Defense, lasers, war profiteers, weaponsI have written and referred to the 747 with the big real genius laser strapped to the nose a bunch of times. I just read an article over at Wired's Danger Room about the YAL-1 project – some call it the "Flying Lightsaber" – and things ain't going too well financially. The project is $4 [...]
Read More Airborne Laser, defense, megawatt, Northrop Grumman, YAL-1Remember that movie Real Genius with Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret, William Atherton, and a big ol' laser? You know, the one that had a bunch of students building a laser that had already been purposed as a stealth weapon? Well, most of that has come true already. Boeing has a plane, a 747, that is [...]
Read More ABL, Airborne Laser, Boeing, Laser, Real Genius, YAL-1