Laser supported propulsion of a micro-airplane with water-covered ablator is demonstrated and we succeed in flying a paper micro-airplane driven by a 590mJ YAG laser. The repetitive use of overlay structure is experimentally demonstrated with specially-designed water supply. The various transparent overlay is investigated by the CIP-based hydrodynamic code and experiments by pendulum and semi-conductor load cell. The momentum coupling efficiency of 5000 N・sec/MJ has been achieved by ORION experiments that agree with the simulation code. With the maximum efficiency 105N・sec/MJ predicted by the simulation, MJ laser can give the sound speed to 10 tons airplane. The concept can also be used for driving a micro-ship inside human body and a robot under the accidental circumstance of nuclear power in which large amount of neutron source makes electronic device useless.

1.
A.
Kantrowitz
,
Astronaut. Aeronaut
. Vol.
10
, pp.
74
(
1972
)
2.
C.R.
Phipps
, Jr.
,
T.P.
turner
, and
R.F.
Harrison
,
J. Appl. Phys.
Vol.
64
,
1083
(
1988
).
3.
L. N.
Myrabo
and
F. B.
Mead
, Jr.
, AIAA98-1001,
Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit
, 36th, Jan12-15,
1998
4.
C.R.
Phipps
and
M.M.
Michaelis
,
Laser and Particle Beams
12
,
23
(
1994
).
5.
N.C.
Anderholm
,
Appl. Phys. Lett.
16
,
113
(
1970
).
6.
F.
Winterberg
,
Lettere al Nuovo Cimento
16
,
216
(
1976
).
7.
H.
Azechi
,
N.
Miyanaga
,
S.
Sakabe
,
T.
Yamanaka
and
C.
Yamanaka
,
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.
20
,
L477
(
1981
).
8.
T.
Yabe
and
K.
Niu
,
J. Phys. Soc. Japan
,
40
,
863
(
1976
).
9.
F.J.
Fabbro
,
P.
Ballard
,
D.
Devaux
and
J.
Virmont
,
J. Appl. Phys.
68
,
775
(
1990
).
10.
C.R.
Phipps
,
D.B.
Seibert
II
,
R.
Royse
,
G.
King
and
J.W.
Campbell
,
III International Symbosium on High Power Laser Ablation
,
Santa Fe
,
2000
,
SPIE Vol
.
4065
.
11.
A.
Sakurai
,
J. Phys. Soc. Japan
36
,
610
(
1974
).
12.
T.
Yabe
,
F.
Xiao
and
T.
Utsumi
,
J. Comput. Phys.
169
,
556
(
2001
).
13.
SPIE
14.
C.R.
Phipps
,
D.B.
Seibert
II
,
R.
Royse
,
G.
King
and
J.W.
Campbell
,
III International Symbosium on High Power Laser Ablation
,
Santa Fe
,
2000
,
SPIE Vol
.
4065
.
15.
J. F.
Figueira
,
S. J.
Czuchlewski
,
C. R.
Phipps
, Jr.
, and
S. J.
Thomas
,
Appl. Opt.
20
,
838
(
1980
).
16.
T.
Yabe
et. al,
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on International Fusion Sciences and Applications, Kyoto, Japan
, 9-14 September
2001
(
Elsevier
,
Paris
, in press)
17.
R.E.
Berverly
III
and
C.T.
Walters
,
J. Appl. Phys.
47
,
3485
(
1976
)
18.
B.P.
Fairaid
and
A.H.
Clauer
,
Opt. Commun.
18
,
588
(
1976
)
This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.