Customer Reviews

Lightcraft Flight Handbook LTI-20: Hypersonic Flight Transport for an Era Beyond Oil

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This long overdue book finally made it to market with the help of John Lewis as a co-author. The book is about the development of a solar power satellite energized SSTO machine using ions and plasma in various propulsion modes. The book relates this in the form of a "declassified military technical manual" from the year 2025. As you can imagine, the content is nearly as fanciful as the Star Trek Technical Manual.

The road from Myrabo's 1990's demonstration of a laser powered launch of a spinning aluminum disc to the Lightcraft would be a very long one. The craft uses all sorts of technologies that work in principle ... but in practice?

We have the lightweight rectenna to convert carefully directed microwave beams from orbit. When Jerry O'Neill wanted to do this back in the 1970's for geosynchronous satellites and fixed ground antennas, that was one thing, but precisely aimed beams tracking a hypersonic vehicle with extremely high power densities, I don't know. One miss and something on the ground fries. The propulsion techniques are somewhat different from Myrabo's demonstration, which is for pulsed detonation of air. The Lightcraft allows for ion propulsion (can you get the thrust needed?), to pulsed detonation of air to MHD of using air deflected and ionized to a plasma, controlled by superconducting magnets. No demonstration of the latter technology has been made to my knowledge, so it may be totally fanciful. The craft is made as lightweight as a blimp, yet has to withstand incredible aerodynamic forces with a blunt edge using a plasma spike.

While there is some background technical information in the appendix, this is a very far cry from the technologies needed for the vehicle described.

I'm not sure who the audience for this book is. Engineering minded folks looking for some substance are going to be very disappointed, because it reads like science fiction. The book is full of sketches and center section with nice CG images, but again, very little of substance. The best analogy I can make is that it is like the fanciful ideas of rocketry in the C19th, assuming black powder propellants would be enough to launch huge iron spacecraft, simply because rockets should work in space.

The ideas are certainly ones to make you think, but I would have much preferred reading about real experiments in this direction with a lot more engineering details about possible designs. If there is further experimentation in this area, I would welcome a book about those results and the engineering possibilities based on that data.

Professor Myrabo is the lead researcher in beamed power for space propulsion. He has made tremendous advances in laser and light-based Earth to Orbit rockets. This is why I was shocked that he would publish this book. If you truly want to learn about lightcraft and beamed propulsion systems, do yourself a favor and instead of buying this book, research the literally hundreds of excellent publications (and a few review papers) that Leik Myrabo has published.

I purchased "Lightcraft Flight Handbook LTI-20: Hypersonic Flight Transport for an Era Beyond Oil" under the guise of a readable introduction and/or summary of beamed propulsion, hoping for a "comprehensive examination [which] conveys the technological possibilities for the next generation of military and commercial aviation". Instead, it is a mix of pure fiction and only-superficially explained research. With the exception of the appendix, the entire book is written as if from a 2025+ author that is detailing the `history' of lightcraft. For all of the technical requirements and challenges that face this technology, a blanket, "Revolutionary Technology Breakthrough Classified in 20XX" is given, without a serious treatment of the development (or realism) that would be required. Additionally, this book is peppered with undergraduate-level research papers on various subsystems such as crew clothing or onboard water treatment systems that serve as filler. I have great hopes for lightcraft and beamed energy propulsion, but there are much better sources of information available.

This book is excellent. Lightcraft, Flight Handbook LTI-20: Hypersonic Flight Transport for an Era Beyond Oil is based on facts, but written from a fictional future. It is a review of how the Lightcraft project might be seen from the year 2025. I am not an academic like some of the other reviewers of this book, therefore I am not encumbered by the imaginary rules they subscribe to about how books must be written.

Mr. Myrabo and Mr. Lewis have done a wonderful job of filling in the blanks on a topic that is very complicated and mind-bending. The book has beautiful color pictures, elegantly detailed drawings and a reference section, so helpful to those of us who want to know more about how we might travel in the future.

Both authors are world-class university level professors and they have extensive academic and laboratory experience in the topics covered in the book. It should be noted that a prototype Lightcraft has already flown (search YouTube). According to the authors, in 2025 the Lightcraft could take us quickly around the planet or even to an orbiting space station!

The chapter describing lung liquid ventilation of a test pilot in a High-g situation is clear, concise, and understandable. The concept may seem like science fiction to many readers, but as a respiratory therapist, I know from personal experience that this method of liquid perflourocarbon ventilation has already been successfully used in humans.

In a world distracted by news bites and trivia, this book provides grist for the mind. Lightcraft Flight Handbook LTI-20 would make a perfect gift for anyone from the science student to difficult to buy for friends who seem to have everything. Trust me, they do not have anything like this book yet.

This book is nothing short of an owners manual for a flying saucer. Leik Myrabo goes into exhaustive, thoroughly researched information on how the vehicle is built, how it systems operate and how it flies. Not only does he describe the engine and airframe, but also the means for the crew to to enter and leave the ship while it is still in the air, how to pick up extra reaction mass, i.e. water, while in enemy territory, and even a way for the crew to survive what is called a 'hyper jump', that is leaving an area at 20 times the force of gravity ( The space shuttle leaves at about 3, a high performance fighter jet maneuvers at about 9). Needless to say, someone seeing this thing arriving, or being captured by the crew would think that they were having a close encounter of the fourth kind. The resemblance between the eponymous UFO's of Gerry Anderson's series "UFO"The Complete UFO Megaset, and Dr. Myrabo's proposed craft are remarkable, right down to the fluid breathing system used for high acceleration flight.
The appendices at the back of the book provide more than ample science for this work of science fiction, as do the references. The author is currently working on building working prototypes of the craft in the book. The best way to predict the future is to build it.

The book explains clearly what Beamed energy propulsion is, how it works and how it will be used in the future in conjunction whit technologies that need to be developed.
What i found interesting is the fact it's not too technical for the Layman with a science background, it's logically developed and covers most aspects of the technology.
Of course you have to keep in mind that if everything goes well with the current developments we will get there but maybe not, it's a futuristic vision of what space and air travel will look like if we will be able to develop the technologies that are starting to grow just now. I found there is even a company called Lightcraft that is working on BEP and i wish them all the best.
As per the book i loved it, it's well explained, well documented and the diagrams, pictures, images are clear and inspiring, a compelling read for sure.
I've read some of the criticism pertaining the book on being too vague, well i guess it comes from the fact that currently Laser Beaming propulsion is under ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation) so not much can be disclosed in detail by the author without risking jailtime. BEP works already and already there have been flights (you can search on youtube) to low altitude, i just hope it will be pursued further and disclosed more.