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From: ems@apple.UUCP (Mike Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.research
Subject: Re: Microwave power beaming  (and airplanes).
Message-ID: <892@apple.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jun-87 15:02:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: apple.892
Posted: Mon Jun  1 15:02:39 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jun-87 01:42:48 EDT
References: <6693@allegra.UUCP> <1115@oliveb.UUCP> <5893@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1266@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 40
Summary: Can you say 'fiberglass'?  I knew you could!

In article <1266@ssc-vax.UUCP>, eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) writes:
> In article <5893@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
> > In article <1115@oliveb.UUCP> gnome@oliveb.UUCP (Gary) writes:
> > 
...
> > What is to keep someone (even a poor little bird) from flying
> > through the beam by accident?
> 
>  [...] The direct answer to your question is 'nothing'. [...]

Not quite nothing, but very close to it.  Birds have been shown to 
stop flying and WALK through an area of high microwave flux near
radar antennas.  I would expect many birds to get 'nuked' into confusion.

> [...]  As for airplanes, the beam area
> will probably be marked as a keep out zone, to prevent long-term low
> level exposure to passengers and crew.  Of course, an airplane could
> stray into the beam by accident, but the metal skin of the plane will
> reduce the interior intensity to only a few watts per square meter, and
> the plane will generally be through the beam in less than a minute.

Can you say 'Fiberglass'?  There, I knew you could!  And now try
Kevlar, boron composite, and Plexiglass.  If you think it is only a
few high tech craft that have this problem, try Wood and Cloth.

I fly a glider.  It is metal tubing covered with cloth and paint.  There
is a plexiglass bubble above me.  Gliders tend to do lazy circles in
thermals and hang around an area for a long time.  They also wander
cross country based on the wind and lift.  Please paint the power 
recieving station in a skull and cross bones pattern with black and red
paint.  And don't try to radio me, many gliders don't have radios or an
electical system...
-- 

E. Michael Smith  ...!sun!apple!ems

'If you can dream it, you can do it'  Walt Disney

This is the obligatory disclaimer of everything. (Including but
not limited to: typos, spelling, diction, logic, and nuclear war)