Anything with the words “airborne missile destroying laser jet” sounds like weapon ripped from a James Bond movie or Real Genius. Nevertheless, this laser firing Boeing 747 defense weapon is not only real, but after 12 years of development and $5 billion dollars, its set to take its maiden voyage during summer 2009.

From Popsci.com

The ABL uses a chemical reaction to generate a megawatt of infrared laser light. When a missile’s smoke trail from burning propellant sets off the 747’s sensors, a tracking laser locks onto the target’s most vulnerable spot, usually its fuel tank. Then the main laser fires away.

It’s no simple feat: Robert McMurry, Jr., the ABL program director for the Missile Defense Agency, compares the challenge to “flying over the Washington Monument while shooting through a basketball hoop in Central Park.” If this summer’s demonstration is successful, further flight tests will help refine the technology for use in a second, more powerful and smaller prototype, expected in 2013.