New photos: Airborne Laser ... one step closer to showtime

Boeing has confirmed to me that first light of the 1MW-class Airborne Laser is due by the end of August. The long-awaited first shoot-down test has been scheduled for August 2009, but now Boeing says "late-summer 2009", which presumably can mean up to September 21. In the meantime, here's a link to yesterday's news release about a key test event and another pretty photo of the Lockheed Martin laser turret from Boeing.