Lasers: Threat to aircraft or a way for a contractor to profit from fear?

[Cannikin]

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, lasers in the cockpit has become an epidemic that must be stopped. This has been going on since the early 90s but now after another vague terror memo, we have to act on it.

According to this AP article, fortunately for us (sarcasm), one company just happens to have laser-detection technology that can be mounted on all of our military and presumably civilian aircraft to detect laser and let the crew know if it is a hazard to eyesight or not. And at the low price of $3,000 per unit.

Maybe I've been hanging out with the tin-foilers too much, but I smell a rat. I think this story is a fraud. They've got a new toy they've been working on and they want to require it on airliners...IMHO.


Ubiquitous Lasers Pose Aviation Problem

A New Jersey man was arrested Tuesday after authorities say he admitted to pointing a laser at a helicopter and a jet. The FBI (news - web sites) and Department of Homeland Security sent a memo to law enforcement agencies last month saying they had evidence terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons.

snip.. Federal officials have said there is no evidence the recent cases are part of a terrorist plot, and such incidents are nothing new: a Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) study said "several hundred" similar cases have been reported since the mid 1990s.

The U.S. Navy expects to roll out a detection device early this year for military use. It can be mounted to a plane's bulkhead and will alert a flight crew if their plane is being tracked by a laser.

Under development for 2 1/2 years, the laser event recorder uses software algorithms to measure a laser's intensity and compute whether it could hurt a crew's eyes.

James Engel, president of Optra Inc., which will make the recorders, said he's received no inquiries from commercial airliners

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=1&u=/ap/20050108/ap_on_hi_te/laser_alert

[BrainRants]

1. If you have to ask... n/t

[tridim]

2. "Warning! Warning! Warning! The laser in your eyes will hurt your eyes"

Gawd, this country has gone crazy. It seems like everything with a corporation attached to it is a scam. I guess it's kind of been that way forever, but lately it's becoming so blatant and obvious. Yet most Americans still happily believe everything they're told.

[Cannikin]

3. kick

[Nitrogenica]

4. When are they going to finish developing the

portable hand held 6pack-coolerbomb-detector. July 4th is right around the corner.

[Eloriel]

5. Here's my question about these laser beam "episodes"

The altitude I heard for one incident was 8500 feet. How is someone on the ground, or even in an apartment or office building, able to aim the laser beam into the cabin in such a way that it's a threat to the pilots' eyes (or anything else)? The trajectory just isn't there, as far as I can tell or imagine. The person with the laser would have to be pretty far away and even then, the angle would be problematic I would think.

So these stories strike me as implausible at best if not downright foolish. I mean I'm sitting here and asking myself, just how stupid do they think we are -- or worse, how stupid ARE we to believe this kind of malarky?

Or what am I missing? Can someone explain this to me?