lighter than air

Those who tought, like me, that all the German engineering expertise on hardware airships ended with the Hindenburg, are wrong. The BA/MA in Freiburg has a file (included in RM 7/2382), dated 12.2.1938,and stemming from the Kriegsmarine, refering to a proposal, serious enough to the point of...

Some interesting news regarding systems similar to JLENS (and other options) https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/army-taking-wide-open-approach-to-high-altitude-platforms-smdc-chief/ https://www.twz.com/air/polands-plan-to-deploy-early-warning-radar-blimps-moves-forward 7 years after the...

Not a journalist I place a lot of credence with so take with pinch of salt: Satellite photos reveal colossal airship hangar in Chinese desert Keen to know if other sources on this.

I went deep down the rabbit hole today and stumbled into these two Aerostat vids from sometime in the 90s. First one up is the classic JLENS missile defense role for both cruise and ballistic missiles in conjunction with Patriot, THAAD, etc The second one I found more interesting as it was a...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/26/google-sergey-brin-building-largest-aircraft

Hello folks, Hope this is not old news or wrongly placed – if so, many apologies: for all that the illustration below is an artist's impression, I decided to try this in 'Early Aircraft' (as opposed to ‘Theoretical and Speculative’) because there were at least scale-model versions of this idea...

Try as I might, I can find very few inventors, enthusiasts, engineers who were experimenting with light-than-air flight in America. Solomon Andrews seems to be the only name I can find. Did American have enough interest to develop airships in this nation, or were we more focused of the...

"Paris Air Show 2015: Lockheed Martin unveils new heavy-lift hybrid airship" Gareth Jennings, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly 17 June 2015 Source: http://www.janes.com/article/52319/paris-air-show-2015-lockheed-martin-unveils-new-heavy-lift-hybrid-airship

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28674654

Hello, I know we have some brilliant and experienced engineers here on the forum. I was wondering if you guys could advise me about solutions to a problem. The goal is a nuclear powered airship. The reactor is on a separate balloon so that distance can act as shielding. The problem is that the...

Hi, The idea of a supersonic lighter than air aircraft or aerostat came to me years ago, since it was something never done or even thought before, at least that's according to what i know. the first design was quite similar to lifting bodies and was manned, after a while i reshaped it to what...

At some point during the late 1960s, the Goodyear company studied the possibility of a new giant rectangular transport airship category which they called "Dynastat". Source: AERIAL VERY HEAVY LIFT CONCEPTS FOR THE 1990 ARMY VOLUME III - ACADEMIC & INDUSTRIAL PRESENTATIONS (U.S. Army, November...

Rethinking Heavy Lift May 6, 2011 By Bill Sweetman Washington Under a little-publicized program sponsored by the Pentagon, a small Southern California company is working on a design that is radical even by the quirky standards of buoyancy-aided aircraft: a rigid-hulled aircraft that...

Coopership Industries was a company founded in 1996 to design and build (very) large rigid hull airships. The website at www.coopership.com appears to have disappeared in the early 2000s, but included this info on the proposed airship: The attached picture comes from a January 2001 article in...

Giant...V-shaped...blimp... (who said Phoenix Lights?) Seems topical at the moment: (aka 'Ascender') Lowering the High Ground: Using Near-Space Vehicles for Persistent ISR (a Thesis): www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/bugs_ch04.pdf TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF LOITERING LIGHTER-THAN-AIR...

Dear All I know this isn't really a Secret Projects type of question, but are there any French or Italian folks out there who are interested in, or who have friends and colleagues who are interested in history of airships? I am trying to find out more about the Zeppelins which were given to...

When was the technology available for the introduction of SkyCats should a demand for their capability arise earlier?

Overscan, is it allowed to create a thread regarding airships ;) ? Around 1964 the US company Aereon built an interesting nameless(?) airship. 1. Did it ever fly? 2. Is the marked area (see arrow) the cabin for pilot and second person? 3. Has it a name/designation? 4. I'm still looking for...