# Ray guns should make noise, as Buck Rogers intended!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-guns-should-make-noise-as-buck-rogers-intended/721571>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 3, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-guns-should-make-noise-as-buck-rogers-intended/721571 "2015-06-03T20:05:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-guns-should-make-noise-as-buck-rogers-intended/721571/1 "2015-06-03T20:05:18Z")

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Boeing has decided that laser weapons shouldn’t be silent:

> [@](#):
>
> Laser weapons aren’t just for sci-fi movies anymore. Companies like Boeing have been developing real-life laser cannons for years, and they’re no joke. They’re powerful enough to shoot down a drone in mid-flight.
> 
> But unlike their movie counterparts, real world lasers aren’t brightly colored beams of light that make PEW, PEW noises; they’re invisible and silent. That can be a problem for the people using a laser, because they have to pay close attention to know when they’re firing it.
> 
> To remedy this issue, and because the world is hilariously awesome, a Boeing rep recently told Nature that, and this is totally real, the company is adding Star Trek and Star Wars sound effects to its laser weapons, so operators know they’re actively firing them.
> 
> According to Popular Science, the sound effects will be added to Boeing’s High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD). This system shot down 90 mortar rounds during a test in 2013. In other words, this thing is a beast.

> **[PEW PEW! Boeing’s Real-Life Laser Weapons Are Getting ‘Star Wars’ Sound Effects](https://www.yahoo.com/tech/pew-pew-boeings-real-life-laser-weapons-are-120614149199.html)**
>
> Companies like Boeing have been developing real-life laser cannons for years, and they’re no joke. Now they're getting sound effects.

This isn’t actually a new idea. As I pointed out in my book, Robert Sheckley saw the problems with silent beam weapons back in the 1950s. his short story _The Gun Without a Bang_ (originally in Galaxy for June 1958, reprinted in _Store of Infinity_ and lots of other places) shows what happens when there’s no dramatic sound effect to accompany the destruction. More recently, the _Rifts_ RPGs from Palladium Books have laser guns manufactured by Wilk Laser Technology (A company name I find endearing – I bought one of their T-shirts) that can be customized to have sound effects to provide that visceral “oomph”.  
Looks like the Real World has finally caught up with pulp SF and Gamers.

Philip Francis Nowlan’s 1928-9 magazine serials about Anthony (later “Buck” ) Rogers was the source of the sound “Zap!” used by ray guns. Later, in the Buck Rogers comic strips, the hand held ray guns (which this strip introduced) made the “Zap!” sound, as did real-life vtoys based on them. We owe our “Zap” to Nowlan and Buck.

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**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-guns-should-make-noise-as-buck-rogers-intended/721571/2 "2015-06-03T20:14:05Z")

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The coolest laser sound is near the end of _Serenity_, after they’ve got through the Reaver fleet except for that one last ship which cripples them before “gliding it in”. It has a nasty “cutting” edge to the sound along with the buzzing.