> Read a while ago that the RAF had to pay compensation to almost a hundred
> car owners - one of their air-defense "steerable-array" radars went 
> haywire
> and scanned over a road - they burned out almost every vehicle's ignition
> and fuel injection microprocessors with the radar beam!

Haha LOL, although not so LOL if it was your car.

> The point being an old, mechanical vehicle ignition system (carburettors, 
> a
> rotor and points) would have just driven on with no problems.

I think that's quite a specialised failure mechanism :-)  I suspect the 
point with the ignition system is that for the same amount of money you can 
make a much more reliable electrical one than purely mechanical, given how a 
car will typically be used (ie not driving in front of an uber powerful 
radar).

BTW, I wonder if the police could have a portable version of such a radar, 
which they could use to stop cars...

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