 I had a Daisy Buck Rogers ‘Zap
Gun’. I don’t remember how it came along. I
guess I wanted it and my Mom probably came up with it.
I loved it. I was 8. You aimed it at something, pulled
the trigger and the thing went “ZAP”. At the
same time, a reassuring flash of red appeared in a little
windows surrounding the turret above the grip. You just
knew nothing could survive your high energy blast.
And it was big; really big; for an 8 year old.
But not so big that I wasn’t able to sneak it in
to the Saturday afternoon movie. Gene Autry was there,
staring in a serial “The Phantom Empire”, a
female dominated robot empire. The Thunder Riders from
the underground city of Murania had captured him, and at
the close of last Saturday’s episode, he had met
his demise at the hands of Queen Tika (Dorothy Christy).
Little did she realize that this week the tables would
be turned. I had arrived, and hidden beneath my jacket,
the all concurring Daisy Buck Rogers Zap Gun with which
I intended to wreaking revenge on the Queen and her cohorts
for having done Gene in last week.
To my amazement Gene wasn’t dead after all. In fact,
the whole scene involving his disintegration had changed.
It turned out he had somehow survived electrocution in
the evil queens ‘Death Chamber’. No Matter.
I whipped out the Daisy and was happily Zapping away at
the evil Muranians, when a young man with a flashlight
showed up and impounded it.
I recall departing the theater
without it, then not relating the story until my Mom asked.
Amazingly the thing showed up some time later and I still
have it.
It was not just I, we have all been fantasizing
about ray guns for more than a century. Buck Rodgers certainly
didn’t provide our first exposure to the wonders
of futuristic weaponry. Sci Fi writers earn all the credit
there.
Every kid used a ray gun at one time or another;
fending of his demons. And we all grew up knowing that
one day, in the unforeseeable future, ray guns would be
the weapons of choice.
Guess what?
The ‘unforeseeable
future’ has arrived, and those kids now are scientists,
engineers, industrialists and visionaries. Many have found
their way into weapons technology, employed by companies
such as Lockheed Martin, Textron Defense Systems, Raytheon
and Boeing.
They’re
working for Northrop Grumman where there shooting down
incoming missiles with high energy beam weapons, and they’re
over at General Atomics developing light weight, 150-kilowatt
chemical lasers for installation in fighter aircraft.
High
energy beam weapons. Ray guns. “Zap Guns”.
No question, they’re here, and they work. But your
basic trooper may not be whipping one out to disintegrate
the oncoming” Thunder Riders” any time soon.
Nor is it likely that the next time a fighter pilot finds
an advisory ‘in his six’ that he will be using
some high energy beam to blast his attacker out of the
sky. These advanced programs have a way of stalling out
along the way. Somewhere between promising laboratory technology
and actual weapons deployment there lies a vast minefield
of funding, politics, user requirements and competition,
not to mention more promising technologies.
This photo published in The
Register shows we’re
not the only country interested in Airborne Lasers.
Still. Ray Guns! Buck Rogers! They’ve lived in our
imaginations too long for us to see them languish and wither
in development. My money says we’ll see them in the
field sooner than you’d think.
 Already
in the field is THOR – RAFAEL’S high-energy
beam weapon, developed in Israel to deal with improvised
explosive charges, roadside bombs and unexploded ordnance.
The larger weapons will come first; carried aboard and
defending ships from whatever threat.
 Then
the smaller defensive units will show up on helicopters and
smaller boats; next, offensive weapons will be deployed.
But not only do ships and especially aircraft gain great
power and accuracy, they gain nearly unlimited firepower.
No restrictions on how many rounds of ammo you have room
for, or how many missiles you can carry. Just ‘charge ‘er
up’ and shoot. Over, and over, and over.
It’s
a whole new world out there Mom. Thanks for arming me with
the Daisy when Gene needed me.
If
you happen to be unaware of ‘The Phantom Empire” you
owe it to yourself to see this 1930’s fantasy from
Mascot Pictures. Very futuristic for the ‘30’s,
you will see they had moving sidewalks, vacuum tube elevators,
the electrocution ‘Death
Chamber’ of the vengeful queen; and of course ray
guns that melt solid stone. The Phantom Empire is now available
on DVD – Or you may also wish to view all twelve
chapters here:
http://www.archive.org/details/phantom_empire_chapter_1
General Atomics Aeronautical laser products
http://www.ga-asi.com/products/lasers/hellads.php
Lockeed Martin Airborne Laser Test Bed
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/AirborneLaser/
http://www.wired.com/table_of_malcontents/2006/11/the_singing_cow/
You’ve just missed owning your own Daisy, Buck Rogers
U-238 Atomic Pistol – sold 3/11
http://www.grandoldtoys.com/toy/1946-daisy-buck-rogers-u-238-atomic-pistol-holster-set-with-original-box/ |
