The concept is illustrated at left. The focused laser beam is absorbed by the air inside the engine, creating a laser supported detonation. The high pressure, high temperature plasma created by the laser absorption cools and expands out the rear of the vehicle, producing the thrust which propels the lightcraft into the sky. Besides flight tests, the laser powerd vehicles were placed on a thrust stand to determine engine performance. Valuable thrust levels and pressure distributions obtained from these experiments will enable engineers to improve and optimize the Lightcraft performance.
Additional photographs are available.
Read the USAF press release .