The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

Actualy in cases like this, who pays?

Is it the truck's owners auto insurance because he did it?

Or is it the plane owners, whatever planes are covered by insurance, since it covers the plane?

I have never delt with insurance, so I dont know.

Presumably the plane company has insurance and then the guy might have to pay them for criminal damages or something

As Garcon noted there are various insurance agencies that get involved. The guys own insurance might have to cough up a portion of costs for damage. Fines and fees can be levied to further alleviate costs to the damaged property.

Apparently the US has had ambitions of laser armed aircraft for several decades. Back when DARPA was still ARPA there was project Eighth Card. A project to create flying laser armed bomber escort craft to shoot down enemy planes and missiles. The project was launched in the late 60's to discuss the weaponizing of lasers.Also the "Flying Lightsaber" idea had it's origins back in the early 70's with the idea of fitting a laser into a 747 sized aircraft. See the section Power for Zapping Airplanes.

^ Somebody was a fan of B Movies and was overjoyed that the laser was invented back then.

edited 30th Aug '16 7:10:52 PM by MajorTom

The Maser was invented first. As for B-movies, they used an airplane-mounted maser to kill the Monster of the Week in The Giant Claw.

EDIT: my mistake, The Giant Claw was a Z-movie.

edited 30th Aug '16 7:27:19 PM by pwiegle

Apparently Dr. Kumar Patel was very proud of his Carbon Dioxide Laser and bragged they could possibly fit it into said aircraft.

Interestingly the Russians played with aircraft mounted lasers as well and left it off. Supposedly they have restarted said program. They also had the Polyus space craft that had a carbon dioxide laser that that had a big oopsie in it's stages and wound going ballistic back to Earth.

edited 30th Aug '16 8:46:34 PM by TuefelHundenIV

A Laser was certainly fitted on board a KC-135.

Well there you have it. The US has been playing with flying laser planes for decades.

Which didn't work too well, if memory serves.

They swatted small missiles like AIM-9's but it wasn't a very powerful laser. The flying light saber was a lot more powerful and still didn't really pan out. It is however starting to look like solid state lasers might give us the power to weight balance that might make them viable.

They put a laser on an airplane For Science!

I feel that's justification enough.

Also, I love that somebody looked at an air refueling tanker and thought "Man, this thing needs Frickin' Laser Beams."

We've mentioned the YAL-1 haven't we?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

Wait, what? They scrapped it? Oh no! What if the Salvation War actually happens and we need to beat Uriel? We're fucked!

Of if The Race arrives a few decades latter.

Speaking of the 747,Joe Sutter, the "father of the 747", has died. Farewell, you certainly left your mark on the aviation industry.

Random Books Coming Out Soon:

• On Atlas' Shoulders: RAF Transport Aircraft Projects Since 1945^note  It is 'that Chris Gibson
• British Secret Projects: Britain's Space Shuttle

Aircraft from the Wyoming Wing of the Civil Air Patrol assist with two separate searches in the Big Horn Mountains.

Sounds like they had a busy weekend a couple of weeks ago. A SAREX, followed immediately by a a search, and then another search. Not bad for a wing that has like ten people (I exaggerate; it's more like 250 people in the WYWG, compare to the Florida Wing which has 3,500 members)

The Beverley did a sterling job for us. Including flood relief in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. No shit.

"The longest-serving Beverleys were in the Far East; 34 Squadron received its aircraft at RAF Seletar in October 1960 and continued flying them until the end of 1967. During this time, 34 Squadron carried out flood relief work in South Vietnam."

... This is news to me, seeing as how the Conservative and Labour governments during the War denied that British servicemen were ever near that country. In Parliament, no less.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if the UK simply masked its activities in Indochina by working from within or coordinating with the Australian involvement.

Nice to see the big fella back.

As for what they could be used for by the Chinese military, well, hmm. They've got a growing number of problems/opportunities now, so they have.

Can either of those countries actually produce working models though?

No reason why both of them can't. Why do you think that neither China or the Ukraine can't do this?