The FAA distributes NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen [Airpersons??]) to alert pilots to various activities. Here is one showing a laser light show:
A8459/04 - LASER LGT DISPLAY 421914N 830159W (CASINO WINDSOR) (APRX 4.4 NM NW AIRPORT). BEAMS PROJECTING NORTH. LASER BEAMS MAY BE INJURIOUS TO EYES WITHIN 2500 FT HORIZONTALLY AND 1500 FT VERTICALLY FROM THE SOURCE. FLASH BLINDNESS OR COCKPIT ILLUMINATION MAY OCCUR BEYOND THESE DISTANCES. 21 SEP 01:00 UNTIL 30 SEP 05:00 DAILY 0100/0500
This one is from Windsor, Ont. Probably too far from Salt Lake City.
One major limitation of color limitting windshield films would be interpretting the red and blue/green lights on the port and startboard wingtips respectively. If the red is on your right, and the blue on the left, you are approaching head-on.
If you had a blue film blocking out the very common red laser light you would lose this information. Same applies to having a red film to stop the blue light. Lose-lose situation.
A few years ago Ret. General Chuck Yeager give a speech at the university I attended. He said something that made me fall out of my seat: there have been successful tests in which satellites have been shot out of Earth orbit using air-to-air missles fired from F-15 Eagles.
I don't raise this issue to suggest any such event occurred with the Columbia disaster, but to provide some additional insight into the performance envelope of current technology.
As an additional note, he also said that the first generation of air-to-air radar systems on jet fighters could detect objects in orbit around the planet. He went on to say that subsequent revisions implemented system to block detection of objects above a certain, unspecified, altitude. If you think about it, this makes sense, as there is no magical barrier at the edge of the atmosphere blocking radar-wavelength electromagnetic signals. The ionosphere aproximately 250 miles above the Earth; the space shuttle flies between 200 to 240 miles above the Earth.
I recently attended a conference by Pharmacia, the company noted at the end of the article, in which the topic was vancomycin resitant staph aureas. During the conference they informed us that vancomycin is one of the major anitbiotics our national poultry suppliers feed in bulk to their chickens. Thanksfully, Pharmacia is being very smart and not giving out samples of their antibiotic in order to limit the number of bugs (bacteria) that encounter it and thus reducing the rate of resistant strains. I think the company needs a round of applaus for that one.
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It's all fun and games until someone reaches escape velocity.
A8459/04 - LASER LGT DISPLAY 421914N 830159W (CASINO WINDSOR) (APRX 4.4 NM NW AIRPORT). BEAMS PROJECTING NORTH. LASER BEAMS MAY BE INJURIOUS TO EYES WITHIN 2500 FT HORIZONTALLY AND 1500 FT VERTICALLY FROM THE SOURCE. FLASH BLINDNESS OR COCKPIT ILLUMINATION MAY OCCUR BEYOND THESE DISTANCES. 21 SEP 01:00 UNTIL 30 SEP 05:00 DAILY 0100/0500
This one is from Windsor, Ont. Probably too far from Salt Lake City.
If you had a blue film blocking out the very common red laser light you would lose this information. Same applies to having a red film to stop the blue light. Lose-lose situation.
I don't raise this issue to suggest any such event occurred with the Columbia disaster, but to provide some additional insight into the performance envelope of current technology.
As an additional note, he also said that the first generation of air-to-air radar systems on jet fighters could detect objects in orbit around the planet. He went on to say that subsequent revisions implemented system to block detection of objects above a certain, unspecified, altitude. If you think about it, this makes sense, as there is no magical barrier at the edge of the atmosphere blocking radar-wavelength electromagnetic signals. The ionosphere aproximately 250 miles above the Earth; the space shuttle flies between 200 to 240 miles above the Earth.
I recently attended a conference by Pharmacia, the company noted at the end of the article, in which the topic was vancomycin resitant staph aureas. During the conference they informed us that vancomycin is one of the major anitbiotics our national poultry suppliers feed in bulk to their chickens. Thanksfully, Pharmacia is being very smart and not giving out samples of their antibiotic in order to limit the number of bugs (bacteria) that encounter it and thus reducing the rate of resistant strains. I think the company needs a round of applaus for that one.