ZEPPELINS RETURN

Blimps are back — at least a lit­tle.
Later this month, the Air Force is due to test out in Texas a V-​​shaped, 175 foot-​​long, helium filled air­ship. The goal, accord­ing to Aviation Week: to put together a “near-​​space maneu­ver­ing vehi­cle,” oper­at­ing more than 100,000 feet up, that can relay mes­sages and spy on ene­mies.
It’s one for the first times since the 60’s that Americans has aggres­sive tried to exploited that region of the skies, Col. Kent Traylor, vice com­man­der of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Warfare Center, tells the mag­a­zine.
But it’s not the only lighter-​​than-​​air craft being designed by the U.S. mil­i­tary. By the end of the year, the Missile Defense Agency is sup­posed to pick a con­trac­tor for its High Altitude Airship — a solar-​​powered zep­pelin that’ll track mis­siles from 65,000 feet.
THERE’S MORE: Mirrored, laser-​​firing blimp, any­one? The Pentagon “might com­bine two of its mis­sile defense efforts the Aerospace Relay Mirror System and the High Altitude Airship to increase the range of mil­i­tary laser sys­tems,” accord­ing to a Jane’s story from over the sum­mer (via Global Security Newswire).

The Missile Defense Agency is sched­uled to begin flight tests of the air­ship in 2006, and offi­cials want to con­duct exper­i­ments that com­bine both sys­tems around that time. The air­ship is pri­mar­ily being devel­oped to track mis­siles, but it could be teamed with the mir­ror relay sys­tem to allow ground-​​based lasers to track tar­gets that are out of direct view, accord­ing to Janes. The mir­ror sys­tem would be attached to the air­ship with cables and would sit 50 meters below the aircraft.

AND MORE: Popular Science has details on the High Altitude Airship. Did we men­tion it’s 25 times the size of the Goodyear blimp?

January 26th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.