Fulfilling whatever quota for gleeful, wanton destruction it might have, aeronautics giant Boeing has released footage of a plane-mounted laser slicing through the hood of a truck.
Now I won’t claim that this is the greatest way to destroy a civilian car — that honor will always belong to the “giant metal dinosaur devours compact” class of videos — but it should be pointed out, repeatedly and enthusiastically, that Boeing’s laser is cutting through that metal hood while strapped to the front of a plane in flight.
If you were strapped to the front of a plane you’d probably have trouble breathing properly, let alone mangling Japanese pickups.
What’s more, the video’s description claims that this laser isn’t even the biggest one Boeing has. To wit:
This video shows the effect of the high-energy laser beam from the Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL), fired at a stationary truck from a US Air Force NC-130H flying over White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on August 30, 2009. The ATL is a chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL), and is a scaled-down version of the megawatt-class high-energy laser in the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL).
Yeah, that’s the “scaled-down” version. I’m trying to imagine the “scaled-up” version and all I’m coming up with is that final scene in Real Genius.
