Flight Tests Start Before End Of Year

A Boeing 747 variant modified to carry an anti-missile laser system will make its first test flights before the end of the year, according to the Air Force. The 20 or so test flights will be conducted at the same time the laser itself is being tested on the ground at Edwards AFB (CA).

"We are talking about several months of testing before we can put it on the airplane," Air Force Col. Ellen Pawlikowski told the Los Angeles Daily News. She's the Defense Department Missile Defense Agency's program manager.

The laser itself was fired successfully its first time out at Edwards. The test lasted less than one second, but confirmed that the weapon's physics are sound, according to military officials.

"This was the first step in validating the laser's performance," Pawlikowski told the newspaper. "We have every reason to expect we'll get the design power from the laser."

As work on the laser itself continues at Edwards, the 747 platform will fly with a surrogate on board, a laser capable of much-lower intensity operations.

The first few flights will verify the airworthiness of the platform. In subsequent flights, researchers will test their ability to control the laser beam itself.

Eventually, Boeing and the military will marry the 747 and the laser for a second round of tests that will include taking shots at targets towed by Scaled Composites' Proteus aircraft.

If the weapon works as advertised, the military will fly the laser platforms in pairs over friendly territory. The system actually uses two lasers -- one to track and another fired from a turret under the nose of the 747, designed to kill a missile with a short burst of very intense energy.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.af.mil