Re: Air Force Turns 747 Into Holster for Giant Laser (washingtonpost.com)

[David Honig]

>On Sun, 22 Jul 2001, Steve Schear wrote:
>
>> I wonder what the destructive mechanism is for this system?
>
>There was an article in IEEE Spectrum last year (I think) on one of the
>systems. The main failure mechanism is weakening of the aeroshell and due
>to increased loading the missile comes apart. 

Many missile (propellants) are pressurized; weakening a bit of the skin
will cause
it to burst.