Afterburners are a way of restricting exhaust flow from jet engines to develop more thrust. Most of these systems are hydraulic and have a slight delay of a fraction of a second. This delay is not good because instant power is of course desired on many of the high performance jets, which have after burners. There may be a better way to build such units, which would be lighter in weight and more instantaneous? How so you ask? Well by using lasers in the exhaust area instead of all that mechanical apparatus you see?

How would that help restrict the flow of exhaust to get the same affect and thus increased thrust out the back of the jet engine? Well simple really you see with a high-heat, high energy laser you can thicken the air in the exhaust meaning the exhaust would be blowing against its self and thus have more to push off with and this would restrict the flow of exhaust and thus have the same affect without the extra weight of all that extra mechanism.

Also you would save on expensive alloys and parts, which so often need replacing due to their environment. Not many metals can last forever when they live in the high heat of high performance jet exhaust you see? How can we be sure that such a scheme will even work; why bother trying? Well I say to those critics how can it not work and if you never push the envelope you can never get ahead of your own game. So, consider all this in 2006.