Laser laser devices. The question of just how to assign credit for inventing the laser remains unresolved by historians. On May 16, 1960, Theodore H. Maiman operated the first functioning laser at Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California, ahead of several research teams, including those of Townes, at Columbia University, Arthur Schawlow, at Bell Labs, and Gould, at the TRG (Technical Research Group) company. Maiman's functional laser used a solid-state flashlamp-pumped synthetic ruby crystal to produce red laser light, at 694 nanometers wavelength; however, the device only was capable of pulsed operation, because of its three-level pumping design scheme. Later that year,
OMAC Laser 300 been tested on the second machine. This machine was being constructed alongside three other Laser 300s, together representing the first four of thirty aircraft that Omac hoped to build by the end of 1987. The third prototype (and first production machine) flew on 29 July 1987 and certification was now expected by May 1988. By now, production of the redesigned Laser 300 was running one year behind schedule, and the projected cost of the airplane had risen from $US 550,000 to $875,000, albeit for a more capable aircraft. The aircraft was displayed at the NBAA show in Dallas, Texas in