Re: Wendover Coil Vs USAF lightning TesT?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ben McMillen <spoonman534@xxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,
   Along the lines of lightning tests..

Has anyone here in the US that's an IEEE member read the
article in this month's issue titled "Stealing Celestial
Fire" ? It looks to be along the lines of the 'N2 laser
triggered spark gap' thread we had awhile back..

For those of you who haven't read it..

They're using a Teramobile (titanium sapphire) laser to
create a plasma channel between a charged electrode and a
grond point. The laser is capable of 100 fempto-second
pulses with a max power of 5 terawatts. Rips the electrons
right form the air, creating what they're calling a
'filament'. From the pictures it looks like one heck of a
triggered gap. The idea is to scale it up a bit to reduce
lightning strikes at airports.

Someday I'll have a job like this.. ;)

Coiling In Pittsburgh
Ben McMillen

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Original poster: syd <tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> That coil is running great! Anyone know how much power is
> being fed to it
> in this video?
>
> Must admit that the USAF 'lightning test' claims are
> absurd. The only
> similarity between tesla coil arcs and atmospheric
> lightning is that they
> look alike, somewhat, and that they are beautiful to
> watch. I can't imagine
> a single useful piece of lightning survivability data
> that could be derived
> from from spraying a little model plane with perhaps a
> couple milliamperes
> of RF alternating current, when lightning strikes it
> carry tens of
> thousands (more?) of DC amperes. Seems that a massive Van
> de Graaf
> generator, or Marx bank would better simulate the effects
> of an actual
> lightning strike.
>
> But whether it was a PR stunt, or just a way to reach
> into the deep pockets
> of the U.S. Military, I'm glad the machine was able to be
> built!
>
> ~syd klinge
>
>
>