How to Protect Pilots from Lasers

There is not much anyone is going to do to someone who is intent on being an a__ and doing something to harm others. We once had in this country the where with all to but people away who where not quite right in the head. Can't do that anymore, not the proper thing to do. But, we better wake up to the fact the that sometimes we need lock people away. Mental health issues are out of control.

Then you have the ones that just are playing around. Need to make an example out of a few of them to show the rest we mean business. But, we will not do that either, not in us anymore. We've become soft.

I agree with you 100%. The lawyers have all but ruined us in trying to protect ourselves and others against idiots! The two most common elements in the universe are nitrogen and stupidity!!

Ummmm, yeah....

Ten most common elements in order of abundance
Atomic #, Element Name
1, Hydrogen
2, Helium
8, Oxygen
6, Carbon
10, Neon
26, Iron
7, Nitrogen
14, Silicon
12, Magnesium
16, Sulfur

You can thank Geraldo Rivera for getting the crazies released from the mental hospitals.

........sometimes we need lock people away.

I don't think that does much good............I know what I would do with them........however that is not politically correct.

Perhaps a better solution would be to get these people along with illegal immigrants and put them into work gangs in some inhospitable place to build pipelines, large channels or whatever is needed.........minimum supervision required, because they ain't got nowhere to go.

In Australia we have plenty of inhospitable places.........they could build a pipeline and pumping stations from Lake Argyle in the North West of Western Australia to the Murray/Darling River system in eastern New South Wales.

They may not be tradies at the start, but after pulling down their mistakes a few times and starting again..........they would soon learn............and WHEN it is decided that they have learnt something they may be able to fit into a "normal" society.

There are already goggles (and eye shields) available for military pilots that selectively absorb certain high-power laser wavelengths.

Similar goggles or even just well-fitted wrap-around 'sunglass'-type eye-wear with either absorptive lenses or laser-line reflective coated lenses could be made. The laser-line (reflective-notch) filter lenses would be nearly transparent to other wavelengths like regular glass (so no problem wearing them at night), and aren't that expensive. The reflective notch can be tuned exactly to the green laser pointer wavelength without interfering with the perception of the colors on the cockpit displays.

This sounds potentially worrisome, but is there yet an actuarial record on eye damage or distracted piloting problems? How perfect is laser collimation through the atmosphere (or conversely, how much beam spread)?

It is becoming an aggravating problem. If all the offending wavelengths were known with precision, then the notch filter suggested would work.

If there are power lasers for many frequencies,not just laser pointers, then abuse outside of the notch is possible, but the notches will block the common ones.

Laser blinders have been developed, and as far as I know, have been outlawed, like poison gas. Sadly, once made, things like that tend to get used.They work on the retro reflective principal whereby a scanner looks for a reflecting eye and adds a power surge when one is found. I think circular polarizing goggles would block the retro reflection?

Ultimately, fly by wire systems, where the pilot sees a screen,via unblindable sensors will work for the military. Civilian aircraft? Have any planes been crashed? or pilots blinded or flight disabled? Is it a real manace or just a nuisance at the pointers low power (100 Mw)??

The green laser pointer is by far the main offender, and it's wavelength is precisely known: 532 nanometers. It's the main problem for these reasons:

1. The wavelength is near the peak response (555 nm) of the human visual system, so the beam from a 5 mW green laser pointer appears much, much brighter (~ 50 times) than the beam from an equivalent-power red laser pointer.

2. The 532 nm beam quenches the rhodopsin (visual purple) in the retina in the eye that helps the eye to see at night. Once the rhodopsin is quenched it takes about 20 minutes for it to come back. (Which is why it takes a person about 20 minutes to become dark-adapted.) The red laser pointer is typically 635 nm and does not quench the visual purple. (That's why red lighting was used for many years for cockpit lighting for nighttime flying.)

3. The green laser beam back-scatters much more due to fine dust and water vapor in the atmosphere (rayleigh scattering) so the user can see the beam much better than the beam from a red laser pointer which has far less back-scatter -- which is why people have the urge to flash them around at night. You can see the green beam better, so it's easier (and more fun) to point it at something, like a star or an airplane.

While it may be possible to do some actual eye damage with an extremely intense green laser pointer, perhaps if it were aimed directly at one spot on the retina, the 532 nm wavelength itself is not unusually harmful like an (invisible) Ultraviolet beam which packs more energy or an (invisible) Infrared beam that might burn a spot on the retina. I think the natural "blink response", along with the automatic muscle twitching that takes place in the eye continuously, would prevent a pilot from sustaining real eye damage from a green laser pointer beam.

I think point #2 above is the main concern; that a pilot can be temporarily distracted and have his night vision impaired.

If the problem is this big for aircraft: what's it like for cars/drivers?

We can able to stop a car with in a second whether it is possible in case of aeroplanes?

And also the no.of persons,cost of the vehicle,materials carried by the car is very less when compared to the aeroplanes.

we can easily spot out the accident zone in case of a car and can do a necessory actionbut it is toomuch diffcult in the second case.

Whatever may be in both cases we met losses. The seviority is muchmore different in either cases

Stop reporting them to the news media. The kids doing it are just trying to see of it gets on the news. no news, they get bored, no more 'lazertag".

So, this is assuming that the laser can be pinpointed at the pilots eyes from what one would assume a few hundred meters and up to kilometers in distance. I would think the time duration for this annoyance would be in minimal. Probably no longer than the time it takes for a bird to smash into the windshield or the time it takes the pilot to sneeze.

RE: "So, this is assuming that the laser can be pinpointed at the pilots eyes from what one would assume a few hundred meters and up to kilometers in distance. I would think the time duration for this annoyance would be in minimal. Probably no longer than the time it takes for a bird to smash into the windshield or the time it takes the pilot to sneeze."

From what I have read, the dark adapted pilots are aggravated by the light cone, which is quite large from these divergent laser pointers and it reflects inside the cockpit and causes a general loss in the visual signal to noise ratio.

Lots of info here

A pilot on final approach during landing is looking toward the ground, facing the same direction for perhaps a minute or two. Someone even a mile or two from the airport could easily aim and hold a laser pointer at the cockpit windows in this situation.

""A pilot on final approach during landing is looking toward the ground, facing the same direction for perhaps a minute or two. Someone even a mile or two from the airport could easily aim and hold a laser pointer at the cockpit windows in this situation.""

Paint the front facing portions flat black. With no back scatter, the miscreant would not be able to know if he has the plane. The windows would reflect upwards, and so would not provide backscatter. Sort of a stealth mechanism.

In daylight, laser pointers are not a problem, since the ambient is so high...

It would make sure there was no second offense!

Don't they use lasers to create targets for cruise missles?

...Target lock attained .......launch........end of problem!

edit.... darn...someone beat me to it.!