Laser Powered Flight

In 1997 a laser propulsion model tested successfully in free flight for the first time, a small, laser-powered launch vehicle was successfully tested in free flight at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The advanced laser propulsion system operates by shining a laser beam on a reflector -- located at the rear of the vehicle -- which acts as a concentrator. Air is heated rapidly and blasted out the back of the nozzle to propel the vehicle. The tiny, 20 centimeter vehicle had been suspended on a wire for previous testing. In its maiden free flight demonstration, the research model reached its designated altitude of 2 meters. The project is a joint effort by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the Air Force’s Phillips Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

A ship with laser propulsion would not make radio noise or magnetic fields. It would make noise from the rapid motion of the hot air and the jets of hot air should give off light.
Laser Propulsion. (Link to RPI College)

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