Henry J Cobb wrote:

Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal wrote:
On 2/28/04 1:01 AM, in article , "John Keeney"
wrote:
It's all just a trick: the USAF wants the F-35Bs so they can rip
the lift fan out and put the generator for the laser there. ;-)

Honestly, now that I've said it, it doesn't sound that far fetch...

They better get that laser thing miniaturized quick then because right now
it's HUGE!

The bigger problem is cooling it.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.o...cle.cfm?Id=994
Cooling a laser is a “very difficult engineering challenge,” said Zimet,
especially when the goal is to generate high levels of power. In a 100
kw solid-state laser, for example, there could conceivably be 900 kw of
wasted power that has to be eliminated. That is because, by nature,
solid-state lasers are not efficient. Ten percent is considered high
efficiency, compared to most solid-state lasers that average 1 percent
efficiency.

AvLeak article on F-35 and laser/HPM he

http://www.aviationnow.com/content/p...20708/aw32.htm

Guy