LaserMotive Unveils World’s First Aircraft System Powered by Laser Over Fiber

First Public Flight Powered by New System to Be Held at SPIE Defense, Security & Sensing

BALTIMORE, MD–(Marketwired – Apr 29, 2013) – LaserMotive, an independent company specializing in delivering electric power via lasers, today unveiled InvisiTower, the world’s first tethered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft system powered by laser over optical fiber. The new, portable system can power any multi-rotor helicopter indefinitely using laser power sent via fiber optic cable, enabling aircraft to stay in the air as long as power is available on the ground. The first public flight of an aircraft powered by the new system will take place this week at the SPIE Defense, Security & Sensing (DS&S) tradeshow at the Baltimore Convention Center in technical demonstration booth T2 and booth #1970.

InvisiTower enables any helicopter to stay in the air as long as power is available on the ground. The system is compact and portable (small enough to fit in the back of an SUV) and does not require a pilot to fly — just someone to monitor the video coming from it.

At DS&S, LaserMotive will be demonstrating InvisiTower powering a small quadrocopter, which will fly each day of the tradeshow.

“The beauty of the InvisiTower system is that it allows unlimited flight even in small systems because fiber optics are much lighter than copper wires,” said Tom Nugent, president and CEO of LaserMotive. “In addition, it is safer because the fiber cable is nonconductive — it won’t conduct lightning or short out power lines — and no high voltages are needed. The laser energy is completely contained, and interlocked in case the cable is damaged, so there are no laser safety issues.”

InvisiTower can be used for a variety of applications in both the military and civilian markets including: ISR and situational awareness, communications relay, news & sports reporters, first responders, and industrial facility security.

InvisiTower is based on LaserMotive’s Power over Fiber system announced earlier this year, which takes LaserMotive’s free-space laser power beaming systems that have set multiple records delivering power to mobile robots and UAVs and sends the laser light over optical fiber. Power over Fiber can deliver power over long distances safely and without interference in the presence of high voltages, RF fields and electromagnetic pulses, or strong magnetic fields.

Headquartered in Kent, Wash., LaserMotive is a privately-held R&D company specializing in laser power beaming for commercial applications. The company was co-founded in 2006 by Dr. Jordin Kare, one of the foremost experts on laser propulsion, and Tom Nugent, former Research Director for LiftPort Group. Its industry partners include some of the leading companies in aerospace and lasers, including Lockheed Martin, The Boeing Company (Spectrolab), DILAS, and OFS. For more information, including a video demonstrating the PoF system, please visit the company website at http://lasermotive.com/products/power-over-fiber/.

You can read more at this SF Gate story: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing exhibition, technical events will connect researchers and suppliers in Baltimore

Executives and investors might finance three types of innovations with their capital. I’ll call the first type “empowering” innovations. These transform complicated and costly products available to a few into simpler, cheaper products available to the many.
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The second type are “sustaining” innovations. These replace old products with new models.
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The third type are “efficiency” innovations. These reduce the cost of making and distributing existing products and services.
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The economic machine is out of balance and losing its horsepower. But why?

The answer is that efficiency innovations are liberating capital, and in the United States this capital is being reinvested into still more efficiency innovations. In contrast, America is generating many fewer empowering innovations than in the past. We need to reset the balance between empowering and efficiency innovations

LaserMotive’s laser power technology is a prime example of an “empowering” innovation, which is the type most sorely needed right now!

Christenson goes on to discuss how the rules of allocating capital in an economy were formulated when capital was scarce. But these days, capital is abundant and certain new skills are scarce. We at LaserMotive are doing what we can to encourage students to learn the skills they need, by mentoring high school science fair students and talking with students when we can. We all can help educate and excite kids about new technology and what they’ll need to learn to be able to work on it!

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UPDATE: A video snippet is now online, courtesy of Space Angels Network.

They also have a separate video discussing generally how our wireless power technology works: “How Does LaserMotive Power Beaming Work? – AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2012.”