[net.auto] Car Mounted Lasers

eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) (12/23/84)

> 
> Actually, my sympathies rest with the person who suggested the 20mm cannon.
> There is a flaw in this approach, however.  Your car will invariably
> be damaged by the shrapnel.  I think a 3 or 4KW CO2 laser aimed at one
> of their tires would be a lot more effective in just getting them out
> of the way, and giving them a day 's amusement, gratis.  I'm not so sure
> it's technically unreasonable, either -

     A 6 kW CO2 laser would just about fit on an 18-wheeler.  That's a little
too big for what you want to do.  Properly focussed, 6 kW will do a fair job
cutting through plate metal.  How about 1 Watt Helium-Neon laser in their
rear-view mirror?  P.S. I think a car tire is moving too fast and has too
much air-cooling to be blown by a transportable laser.

[The preceding has no correlation to the official position of the Boeing
Company, a safety minded employer that builds passenger airplanes, B-52's
Minuteman I,II,II, and Cruise Missiles.]