Military Blimps and Dirigibles Coming Back.

[stephendare]

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/17/business/fi-blimp17

It's the blimp industry's version of David and Goliath.

An obscure Tarzana firm run by Russian emigres is locked in competition with Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor, to win a Pentagon contract to build 900-foot- long, blimp-like aircraft to move cargo and troops into combat zones.

Worldwide Aeros, which makes blimps used for flying billboards, generated plenty of buzz in aerospace circles last summer when it and Lockheed each landed $3-million contracts from the Pentagon to do preliminary design work.

The Pentagon's advanced research arm expects to pick the winning design in September and award a $100-million contract for a prototype airship. The winner then has a chance to bid on a blimp production contract potentially worth $11 billion over 30 years.

"In reality we don't feel Lockheed is our technical competitor," said Igor Pasternak, 41, Worldwide Aeros' founder. "There is only one solution, and we have that one solution," the Russian-trained scientist insisted.

Pasternak's company "wrote a proposal that seemed outstanding," said Norman J. Mayer, a veteran airship designer for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Navy, who helped the Pentagon evaluate the blimp proposals. "They were very serious about what they were trying to do. Time will tell how well they do it."

Winning will not be easy.

Lockheed farmed out the blimp job to its Skunkworks unit, the legendary aircraft design house in Palmdale that has developed many of the nation's most advanced aircraft, including the SR-71 and U-2 spy planes.

By contrast, Worldwide Aeros, with 40 employees, expects $10 million in revenue this year from selling blimps for advertising, including promoting MasterCard and Spalding sporting goods.

Pasternak has built about 30 blimps in the U.S. His blimps cost about $3 million each; components are made in Tarzana, then assembled in hangars in San Bernardino or Palmdale.

But Pasternak said he had faced bigger challenges than outwitting Lockheed, including persuading six of his employees and their families to flee Russia with him in 1993.

Pasternak grew up in Lviv, a Ukrainian city of 700,000 near the Polish border.

After getting a degree in civil engineering, he formed his own company in 1988 and began working on a Soviet project to develop mammoth airships to transport cargo to the remote Siberian oil fields. It was one of the first private aeronautics ventures permitted under Mikhail S. Gorbachev's perestroika reforms, Pasternak said.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Pasternak's investment capital dried up. With growing anti-Semitism in his country, Pasternak said, he and his colleagues fled Russia and emigrated to the U.S.

Eventually, he was able to persuade several investors to fund his aerospace company based on his experience making blimps in Russia.

The Pentagon hopes that these new airships can help move U.S. troops more quickly. Currently, personnel and equipment travel separately; heavy weapons, such as tanks, are transported by ship, which can take more than a month.

Ultimately, the Pentagon envisions buying 14 to 16 heavy-lift airships, each capable of carrying 500 tons of cargo and passengers.

The airships would travel up to 138 mph, with a range of more than 10,000 miles.

In addition to increased cargo capacity, the airships would give the U.S. military additional flexibility in moving troops closer to the battlefield because in theory the craft could bypass ports and runways. The airships would have only one requirement: an open landing field about two to three times their size.

"It can totally change how you conduct warfare," Pasternak said of the concept.

He envisions the aircraft as not a blimp or an airplane but as a hybrid of the two. The vehicle would rise into the air thanks to nonflammable helium, much as a blimp does, but the bottom of its hull would act like a wing to give it additional lift and control, he said. The craft would be powered by propellers.

Pasternak contends that this new design would be easier to handle and that it could land under a pilot's control, without ground handlers having to pull on tethers as with conventional blimps. But the concept still faces several hurdles, analysts said.

Although engineers have decades of knowledge in developing airships, none has been built to carry the tonnage the Pentagon envisions for its project.

Moreover, the airships would be vulnerable to antiaircraft fire, not only because of their size but also because they would be flying at relatively low altitude of about 10,000 feet, bringing them within range of shoulder-fired missiles.

The challenges for the prevailing bidder will be immense. But win or lose, Pasternak sees the project as a means to a different end: to build commercial versions for carrying business cargo or even paying passengers.

His "cruise ship in the sky" would have hotel-like rooms, vast lobbies with viewing areas, a restaurant and space for about 180 passengers. It would fly from Los Angeles to New York in about 18 hours.

"You can have dinner, go to sleep and wake up in the morning in New York," Pasternak said.

He said the craft would cost about $46 million to build -- about the same as the 150-seat Boeing Co. 737 passenger jet but half as expensive to operate.

Businessmen have talked up grand plans for passenger blimps for decades, and none has taken hold. Ever since the hydrogen-filled passenger dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937, lighter-than-air ships have been little more than a footnote in history.

Pasternak, who doesn't shrink from taking on a behemoth like Lockheed, brushes aside any qualms.

"It'll be a completely different approach to moving things," he said.

[A-Finnius]

This is quite an interesting article.  I like the idea having commuter blimps for travel but I have my reservations about using them for wartime transports.

[urbanlibertarian]

I looked for but could not find a good image of the RAF "flying aircraft carrier" that Angelina Jolie's character commanded in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

[Overstreet]

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/17/business/fi-blimp17

Ultimately, the Pentagon envisions buying 14 to 16 heavy-lift airships, each capable of carrying 500 tons of cargo and passengers…………The airships would travel up to 138 mph, with a range of more than 10,000 miles.…………. The airships would have only one requirement: an open landing field about two to three times their size.........not a blimp or an airplane but as a hybrid of the two. The vehicle would rise .......... nonflammable helium, ...........but the bottom of its hull would act like a wing to give it additional lift and control............... to build commercial versions ..... It would fly from Los Angeles to New York in about 18 hours.

It would be interesting to see how they overcome  the technical challenges. For example, 500 ton payload is 1,000,000 pounds the helium would have to lift plus the weight of the structure, engines, etc.  A cruise altitude of 10,000 ft at 138 mph would make them a target for just about any propeller or jet aircraft.  A trip from LA to NY is around 2800 miles. At a straight average that is 155 mph. I guess the jet stream would help them along. However whatever they gained on the east bound trip would be lost going west bound. 
The mode for landing without mast and crew means they have to go from positive buoyancy to negative buoyancy.  They are not going to get that much lift from the lifting body effect at a max speed of 138 mph, plus a hover landing.
Do you think the flying public will really want to fly across country in 18 hours when you can get there in  six hours?

[Sportmotor]

I dont think this will go forward, if you were fighting a country with ANY type of airpower they are big slower targets .
If it where my boys in there being transported to go fight, I would not allow them to be transported that way untill the speed picks up to atleast keep up greatly

[Sportmotor]

Helos are better at danger aviodance. (small arms and rpgs and anti-aircraft measures)
I would still jump out of a blackhawk into a hotzone and feel safer then a military dirigible in a safer zone.

[Sportmotor]

Now I will say this, the Dirigibles would probley be more usefull in a very safe area for a build up, but if there is a chance of enemy you would see me swiming or walking before getting into one of those, the survial rate would probley be higher lol

[Ocklawaha]

Now I will say this, the Dirigibles would probley be more usefull in a very safe area for a build up, but if there is a chance of enemy you would see me swiming or walking before getting into one of those, the survial rate would probley be higher lol

The hole in your theory is that your Helios probably traveled 3,000+ miles to the battlefield on board an assault ship. The "enemy" knows it can only cruise at 40 knots m/l, and it HAS to be in the Ocean. Any  country with a "reach out and touch them military," is going to have subs and aircraft that can turn that ship into razor blades, and you into shark chum in a couple of seconds.

That being the case, there is no reason the "Sea of Air" around the earth couldn't provide an even bigger ocean, with even faster craft, that don't need a port, so nobody knows where they are going. A bit of stealth, some fighter cover, and the fact that these baby's will have hundreds of gas pods on board, makes it unlikely that a single hit will take it down. We might even see a "Yamato Effect," which happened in the battle of Leyte Gulf. The American jeep carriers were caught flat footed by the largest battleship ever built, the massive shells were striking and passing through the thin tin foil hulls. At a distance the Japanese thought they must be front line carriers with top of the line armour, and after being completely being duped by a few heroic DD's and DE's, they withdrew. Japan thus snatched certain defeat from the jaws of victory. (see the book Fading Victory)


OCKLAWAHA

[Sportmotor]

Iv trained and jumped from a helo, Id stick to that over a blimp thank you lol and most my friends would tend to agree. Im sticking to a mindset that most service people would look at you like your F-ing nuts and would stick helo happly then a blimp and if your goin to war its usally best to keep moral up even if it means a helo to keep em happy.

[Sportmotor]

besides that would be alot of new training bases and money that would go into bringing blimpys back, and retraining and new tacktics

This reminds me of the M8 rifle. That didnt come into service becuase of cost efficancy although(and I have been a lucky few to shoot one) its a suprior weapon over the standard M4 used by our current service, but the Training, and cost to retrain and mass produce into a level that would make it worth was not in the budget and a bit of political bs as well.

I would put money that blimps will not be brough back. Its a nice thought, but Id put my savings that it wont come back.

[Ocklawaha]

Oh, their already back, even if not military...yet.

I had a hard time hearing what you were saying, huh? what? I got to use the M-14.

OCKLAWAHA

[BridgeTroll]

A dirigible or blimp would not be used in any "hotzone".  It would be sent into secured areas with heavy airsupport for resupply and troop transport.  In the "Desert storm" type scenario using heavy lift dirigibles to transport equipment to Saudi Arabia in preparation for the attack would have been much quicker than trans oceanic container ships.  In a Korean war scenario they would be used to transport supplies from Japan or Okinawa to the southern Korean peninsula for traditional transport to the front.

[Sportmotor]

I got to use the M-14.[/color][/b]

OCKLAWAHA

Ok but I was talking about the M8 the rife they wanted to replace the M4 with, with an example
pretty sure it was designated that, I forget I know it was the XM8 or somethin of that nature. Very plasticy feel to it

[Ocklawaha]

Yes, and I was just poking at you for fun... The M-14 that I had could blow out the ear drums of an elephant at 21 miles!

OCKLAWAHA

[Sportmotor]

Yes, and I was just poking at you for fun... The M-14 that I had could blow out the ear drums of an elephant at 21 miles!

OCKLAWAHA

I am decent with the M107. Thats a fun plunker