Reply #15: How easy it is to do something really, really stupid

[localroger]

First of all, here is a place (courtesy of Metafilter) where you *cough* used to be able to get the perfect device for such shenanegans:

http://64.252.62.40.nyud.net:8090/lasershoppe/index.htm

Second, about targeting: You have to remember that these lasers are continuous. It's not like firing a gun. When you hit the plane, you see a nice bright green dot even if the plane is a couple of miles away. Even though the plane is moving several hundred miles an hour at that distance it's a modest angular velocity and you have the advantage of being able to see the beam and a "hit."

All you have to do is play the beam around the front of the plane; at that distance it's several inches in diameter, and it only has to hit the pilot's eye for a fraction of a second to at least temporarily blind him. Score four hits and you have two pilots who can't see the runway or their instruments in the critical moments of final approach.

You don't need anything more sophisticated than that. A tripod would actually be a hindrance because the plane is moving. You might even want to use a deliberately miscalibrated collimator to make the beam diverge a bit more than it would naturally, but it doesn't sound like the doofuses doing this have thought of that (after all, they haven't succeeded in blinding any pilots).

It's really crazy-stupid that we have to worry so much about the way something this cheap and readily available can be used. Looks like backyard nukes are going to be the least of our worries.