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Leik N. Myrabo is an Americanaerospace engineer known for pioneering research intobeamed-energy propulsion and for inventinglightcraft. A longtime professor of aerospace engineering atRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he was among the first researchers to demonstrate sustainedlaser-propelled flight, conducting more than a hundred experimental launches at theWhite Sands Missile Range between the 1990s and 2000s.
Myrabo promoted the concept of "LightPorts" andorbital power stations as a framework for low-costsatellite launches andhypersonic passenger travel. He published in both technical and popular venues and co-authored theLightcraft Flight Handbook, LTI-20 in 2009. His work also included international collaborations on laser-supported hypersonicaerodynamics with theBrazilian Air Force and theU.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
His career bridged theoretical propulsion concepts with hands-on engineering demonstrations, linking laboratory study to high-profile field tests. Myrabo also holds leadership roles in several aerospace andaviation-related organizations.
Myrabo was a professor ofaerospace engineering atRensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) prior to retirement.[1] At RPI, he collaborated with theU.S. Air Force onLightcraft experiments atWhite Sands Missile Range, work documented in trade coverage byLaser Focus World.[2] He originated the Lightcraft research program at RPI.[2] Myrabo's professorship encompassed three engineering fields: in addition to aerospace, he also taughtmechanical andnuclear engineering until his retirement.[3]
Myrabo is recognized as the inventor oflightcraft.[4][2][5] In 1983, aNASA-sponsored study authored by Myrabo at theBDM Corporation outlined his earliest propulsion concept, which proposed using beams toionize air in front of a vehicle to generatethrust.[6]Wired reported that he first developed the ideas that became the technology in 1988.[7] At the time, he was working on the"Star Wars" missile defense initiative under theBallistic Missile Defense Organization.[7] Lightcraft use a type ofbeam-powered propulsion.[8]
Through the late 1980s and 1990s, Myrabo refined these ideas, adapting them to the limitations of then-available laser systems and promoting variations such asbeamed microwave propulsion.[6] He researched the project through the first successful launch in 1997, and participated in more than 140 test flights with various prototypes.[7]
During this period, Myrabo began experimental work at theHigh Energy Laser System Test Facility atWhite Sands Missile Range, where, in collaboration with theU.S. Air Force, he conducted the first sustained outdoor Lightcraft flights.[4] Between 1996 and 2000, prototypes powered by pulsedcarbon dioxide lasers reached altitudes of up to 233 feet, milestones he compared to the modest early rockets ofRobert H. Goddard.[4][3]
Over time, he and his partners carried out more than 140 small-scale test flights, supported by funding from NASA, the Air Force, and theStrategic Defense Initiative.[7] Tests at White Sands used a 20-hertz, 9-kilowatt carbon dioxide laser, with flights reaching altitudes of 75 feet in three seconds.[2] Myrabo was later involved in further laser propulsion research atMarshall Space Flight Center.[9]
Myrabo coupled this experimental program with a broader advocacy campaign.[10] He discussed variants of the lightcraft concept withPopular Mechanics in 1995, including the notion of using pulsed microwave beams from satellites to reduce drag on and propel lightcraft.[6] In 1999, he published an article inScientific American describing his vision of ground-based "LightPorts" and orbital power stations that could beam energy to passenger-carrying spacecraft.[10]
He reiterated these claims at conferences in the 2000s, forecasting satellite launches at a thousand-fold cost reduction and predicting that by 2020 laser-powered craft could fly passengers globally in under an hour.[7][10] While his optimism drew skepticism from other aerospace engineers, he remained confident that falling laser costs and rising fuel prices would make the technology commercially viable.[3]
International collaborations expanded his work beyond theUnited States.[6] Beginning in the early 2000s, Myrabo joinedBrazilian researchers in developing theLaser-Supported Directed Energy Air Spike (DEAS) concept, which used lasers to reduce drag on hypersonic test models.[6] In 2005, their joint experiments demonstrated measurable aerodynamic benefits in wind tunnels, and by 2011 the project involved both theBrazilian Air Force and the U.S.Air Force Research Laboratory (AFOSR).[6] Reporting at the time described the program as part of a broader "Brazil–USA" beamed-energy cooperation.[6]
In 2010, theJournal of Propulsion and Power examined Myrabo's work, featuring commentary from the AFOSR,Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other academic facilities.[6]
Myrabo summarized three decades of research in the 2009 bookLightcraft Flight Handbook, LTI-20, co-authored with John Lewis.[5] He argued that the field had reached the threshold of commercial feasibility as laser costs fell to a few dollars per watt, a benchmark long considered essential for practical beamed propulsion.[5] In addition to his faculty role at RPI, Myrabo founded Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., inBennington, Vermont, to pursue experimental validation of beamed-energy flight.[5]
Later, Myrabo partnered with senior scientist Franklin Mead of theAir Force Research Laboratory's Propulsion Directorate atEdwards Air Force Base inCalifornia.[2] By the late 2000s, he had been active in laser propulsion research for more than two decades, presenting his work at international aerospace forums.[7]Wired noted that Myrabo consideredjet propulsion outdated technology and was puzzled by the lack of excitement around laser-based propulsion.[7]
In 2003, while based inBennington, Vermont, Myrabo was elected the first president of the newly createdInternational Society for Beamed Energy Propulsion (ISBEP), established to promote global collaboration onbeamed power research and applications.[9] He described beamed energy propulsion as an emerging worldwide enterprise with the potential to transform both terrestrial transportation and access to space.[9]
His election followed years of laboratory and field work, including an October 2000 test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where a Lightcraft set a world altitude record on a column of laser light, which he presented as a validation of laser-propelled flight.[9] He argued that further progress required converting large lasers andmicrowave generators already in operation into shared-user facilities for propulsion experiments.[9]
He pointed to work atNASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and proposed additional proof-of-concept efforts, such as using a small orbital laser platform to accelerate a vehicle in space.[9] He also stressed the need for improvedflight control—likening it to theWright brothers' innovations—as critical for reaching greater altitudes with power beaming.[9]
Myrabo argued that existing physics and technology could enable a step change in propulsion by moving beyondchemical fuels to much higher energy densities.[9] He predicted that future vehicles would surpass contemporaryaerospace performance and eventually permit rapid global travel, routine orbit transfers, and transportation within theEarth–Moon system.[9]
As a teenager, Myrabo developed a lifelong interest in flyingfixed-wingmodel airplanes.[1] He later expanded toquadcopter drones andfirst-person view remote flying, and as of 2016 was president of the Eagle's Eye FPV Club atWilliam H. Morse State Airport inBennington.[1]
Myrabo is a member of theExperimental Aircraft Association (EAA).[11] In 2021, theAircraft Owners and Pilots Association listed him as an active major in theVermont Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).[12] He is also an officer in theAcademy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and has testedNIST drone and aerial robotics programs in his CAP role.[12]
LTI defines a Lightcraft as any flight platform, airborne vehicle, or spacecraft designed for propulsion by a beam of light - be it microwave or laser.
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