Hitler's Death Ray

[norml]

FULL CIRCLE : Hitler's Death Ray
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Back in 1935, Hitler spooked the world with rumors of a death ray. Turns out that Hitler's ray-rumor ended up leading scientists to radar. Now, the rumor-turned-radar might be coming full-circle.



By Noah Shachtman, DefenseTech.org

The British government was spooked back in 1935. Not because of Hitler’s air force or his infantry. Because of his death ray.

Newspapers screamed that the Nazis might have a super-weapon that could incinerate living tissue or detonate a bomb at long distance. Flooded by letters begging for a response, the British Air Ministry asked prominent physicist Robert Watson-Watt to see if a radio-wave-based death ray was feasible.

Within ten days Watson-Watt reported that such a weapon was unlikely. But using radio waves to locate an approaching bomber was a real possibility. And that's how radar was born.

Now, seventy years later, the invention may be coming full circle, Aviation Week reports. The Pentagon is actively developing active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars that might be "used as weapons. They are fulfilling the U.S. Air Force's desire for offensive tools that can find enemy threats, accurately identify them and immediately strike."


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http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_DT051012,,00.html

[sarcasmo]

1. Was Hitler demanding one million dollars?

AKA, Austin Powers and his death ray.

[McKenzie]

2. sounds similar to "Tesla"

don't know a great deal about it although I am aware that it uses high energy laser beams (I think that's what the tehnology is...not certain) to punch "holes" in the atmosphere. There is a division of opinion on whehter doing so is a good thing or not apparently. I downloaded a video about it a while back that I haven't watched.

The thing about military technology of this order is that it is kept very quiet. The Stealth Bomber is a case in point.

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_wendwar.html

[gordianot]

3. Great article

Not as far fetched as it may appear to some. Lots of possibilities have been collecting in back rooms for years, many of these inventions (discoveries) have both productive and destructive applications.

Of course the destructive applications are always released first.