Boeing Patents What, Exactly?????? Deflector Shields?

[Kid Eager]

A news article reports a patent on a force field, by Boeing. Must be true...

Here's the abstract from the patent:

A method and system for attenuating a shockwave propagating through a first medium by heating a selected region of the first fluid medium rapidly to create a second, transient medium that intercepts the shockwave and attenuates its energy density before it reaches a protected asset. The second medium may attenuate the shockwave by one or more of reflection, refraction, dispersion, absorption and momentum transfer. The method and system may include a sensor for detecting a shockwave-producing event, determining a direction and distance of the shockwave relative to a defended target and calculating a firing plan, and an arc generator for creating the second medium. The arc generator may create the second medium by creating an electric arc that travels along an electrically conductive path utilizing at least one of high intensity laser pulses, pellets forming a conductive ion trail, sacrificial conductors, projectiles trailing electrical wires, and magnetic induction.

Sounds like an electrically-produced effect similar to active armour (Chobham armour)?

Oops - ETA for link: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8981261.PN.&OS=PN/8981261&RS=PN/8981261

 

[azzthom]

It's a shockwave attenuation system. There have been several systems in the past. They've just found another way of doing it. The idea is sound. The patent application is legit.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

It's an active noise reducing headphone on steroids (seriously, it is).

 

[azzthom]

It's an active noise reducing headphone on steroids (seriously, it is).

That, sir, is brilliant!

 

[rwguinn]

This have any relationship to ScramJets^wp?

 

[Kid Eager]

It's a shockwave attenuation system. There have been several systems in the past. They've just found another way of doing it. The idea is sound. The patent application is legit.

The news article that reported it, unfortunately, sensationalised it several orders of magnitude beyond what was warranted.

Thanks for the explanation - I kinda followed teh patent abstract but couldn't connect all the dots.

 

[jaydeehess]

This have any relationship to ScramJets^wp?

I took it to be protection in an active war zone.

 

[Hellbound]

I took it to be protection in an active war zone.

Counter-Boom*

*-You all saw it, I came up with the name first...if Boeing markets it with that, I want my cut!

 

[Beerina]

The news article that reported it, unfortunately, sensationalised it several orders of magnitude beyond what was warranted.

Thanks for the explanation - I kinda followed teh patent abstract but couldn't connect all the dots.

Much more interesting to me was a demonstrated system that used magnetics to hold a wall of plasma in the way of things. Scaling up is a problem, but it works (i.e. can be done. I wonder how much destruction of incoming stuff would actually happen.)

 

[casebro]

Have you tried googling "Boeshield"?

 

[jimbob]

Much more interesting to me was a demonstrated system that used magnetics to hold a wall of plasma in the way of things. Scaling up is a problem, but it works (i.e. can be done. I wonder how much destruction of incoming stuff would actually happen.)

I do wonder what the refractive index of a plasma would do to a laser weapon.

ETA: I just like the idea of "proper" shielding being used and I like to think it would probably need to be altered to account for adaptive optics in the source weapon - for a proper staple of space opera

As an aside, I liked this article:

http://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011027

Abstract 

We demonstrate that femtosecond filaments can set up an extended and robust thermal waveguide structure in air with a lifetime of several milliseconds, making possible the very-long-range guiding and distant projection of high-energy laser pulses and high-average power beams. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate guiding of 110-mJ, 7-ns, 532-nm pulses with 90% throughput over ∼15 Rayleigh
lengths in a 70-cm-long air waveguide generated by the long time-scale thermal relaxation of an array of femtosecond filaments. The guided pulse was limited only by our available laser energy. In general, these waveguides should be robust against the effects of thermal blooming of extremely high-average-power laser beams.

 

[jaydeehess]

Counter-Boom*

*-You all saw it, I came up with the name first...if Boeing markets it with that, I want my cut!

How about Boom-be-Gone?

 

[casebro]

I do wonder what the refractive index of a plasma would do to a laser weapon.

ETA: I just like the idea of "proper" shielding being used and I like to think it would probably need to be altered to account for adaptive optics in the source weapon - for a proper staple of space opera

As an aside, I liked this article:

http://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011027

I beleive something like that was put into practice in Iraq and Afghanistan using a laser beam aimed at a possible IED, then send a plasma shot down the ionized air. IED goes boom at a safe distance.