New Designs Bring Return of the Airship

[unhappycamper]

New Designs Bring Return of the Airship
Popular Mechanics | Erik Sofge | February 12, 2008



Always on the verge of a seeming comeback, airships are back in the spotlight, touting new technologies. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency recently announced funding for an innovative, ballast-free airship technology created by Aeros Aero­nautical Systems, based outside Los Angeles. The Aeroscraft ML866's potentially revolutionary Control of Static Heaviness system compresses and decompresses helium in the 210-ft.-long envelope, changing this proposed sky yacht's buoyancy during takeoff and landings, Aeros says. It hopes to end the program with a test flight demonstrating the system. Other companies are planning their own first flights within the next few years. Each has a design that it promises will launch a new era of lighter-than-air transportation.




Description: To blanket hundreds of miles with high-resolution radar, the 450-ft.-long, unmanned High Altitude Airship will use old-fashioned lifting gas to ascend. A top-mounted solar array may enable this massive radar platform to stay aloft for up to a month.
Designer: Lockheed Martin
Operational Alt.: Up to 60,000 ft.
Speed: 28 mph (cruising)
Progress: The airship’s radar system is still being developed, but Lockheed is scheduled to fly a full-size prototype of the ship by the end of 2009. The Missile Defense Agency is a potential user.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,161863,00.html

[krispos42]

1. Just in time for the helium shortage...

Shortage of helium gas no laughing matter
By Stefanie Frith, USA TODAY

<snip>

There are 16 plants globally that extract helium from natural gas, but some are not running at full capacity, said John Van Sloun, worldwide helium general manager for Pennsylvania-based Air Products, which distributes a third of the world's helium supply.

<snip>

NASA is the top industrial user, followed by the Department of Defense, said Leslie Theiss, manager of the Federal Helium Reserve. These users are not being shorted because the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 requires, for example, that NASA receives helium before party suppliers.

<snip>

The Federal Helium Reserve, located near Amarillo, Texas, distributes another third of the world's helium supply, including 45% of the supply in the United States, said Hans Stuart of the Bureau of Land Management.

In 1996, the government decided it would get out of the helium business and the private sector would step in, Stuart said. The reserve will run out of the gas in 10 years, he added.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-02-Helium_N.htm

Oh, well, I guess we can always go back to hydrogen. After all, what's the OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!