S
sublight
Guest
Anytime somebody says "higher and longer" they should be talking LTA. Winged lift designs cant even come close.
Well that would certainly fall in line with the mythic "stealth blimp's" gigantic size wouldn't it?AeroFranz said:unless you are flying below 60,000', the winds will kill the lighter than air idea. Above 60,000', for any reasonable payload weight, you need, oh, about a million (yes, 10^6) cubic feet of helium in your envelope.
AeroFranz said:unless you are flying below 60,000', the winds will kill the lighter than air idea. Above 60,000', for any reasonable payload weight, you need, oh, about a million (yes, 10^6) cubic feet of helium in your envelope.
LTA platforms are much better suited for this role. The only reason the Air Force keeps asking for high altitude winged systems is because they are deathly afraid the LTA craft will siphon off the satellite budget. Because LTA is that damn good...flateric said:
AeroFranz said:This whole concept of backtracking enemies on the ground from very high altitude works well...when there is no cloud cover.
sublight said:"the highly classified Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) that produced near-photographic quality ground images through the clouds at considerable standoff ranges"
You were saying??? B)
sublight said:AeroFranz said:This whole concept of backtracking enemies on the ground from very high altitude works well...when there is no cloud cover.
"the highly classified Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) that produced near-photographic quality ground images through the clouds at considerable standoff ranges"
You were saying??? B)
So you are saying a fleet of predators would offer more efficient coverage than an LTA?Orionblamblam said:sublight said:"the highly classified Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) that produced near-photographic quality ground images through the clouds at considerable standoff ranges"
You were saying??? B)
I was saying...
A) What are the power requirements?
B) How much ground does it cover in a single "frame"
C) How easy is it to track (does it look like a searchlight to a radar-seeking missile)
D) How many images per second
Or in other words... how many hugenormous blimps requiring how many gigawatts of power would be needed to provide complete coverage to something the size of a city with "photographic" quality imagery captured at a rate no slower than a standcard CC security camera?
sublight said:So you are saying a fleet of predators would offer more efficient coverage than an LTA?
sublight said:So you are saying a fleet of predators would offer more efficient coverage than an LTA?
Since you're Jesus, you are supposed to tell me what the power requirements of the ASARS-2 is.....Orionblamblam said:sublight said:So you are saying a fleet of predators would offer more efficient coverage than an LTA?
You know, that didn't seem to answer any of the questions I asked. Or is that some cryptic cypher that if I only knew the key would crank out numbers of gigawatts?
sublight said:Since you're Jesus...
sublight said:Since you're Jesus, you are supposed to tell me what the power requirements of the ASARS-2 is.....
Jesus, I will never get tired of your pithy quips.... You are better than that first cup of coffee in the morning. ;DOrionblamblam said:sublight said:Since you're Jesus...
Sigh.
You continue your slide into utter irrelevancy.
Someday you might want to consider thinking about things *critically,* rather than simply lashing out emotionally whenever someone asks you a valid question. Until then...
saintkatanalegacy said:a (REALLY) large aircraft that's suppose to observe stuff defeats the idea of reconnaissance and covert surveillance IMHO
A British-made solar powered aircraft has been airborne above a US military test range in Arizona for more than seven days continuously, it has been announced.
The "Zephyr", made by controversial MoD boffinry selloff bonanza firm Qinetiq, is still in flight above the US Army Yuma Proving Ground as of publication, having taken off last Friday. At 168 hours as of just before 3pm UK time, this far outstrips the official world record for longest duration unmanned flight (30 hours 24 minutes, set by the RQ-4A Global Hawk in 2001).
In order to make the Zephyr's new record official, a representative of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) is present at Yuma. The books will be amended once the aircraft is safely down: however Qinetiq intends to keep it airborne for another week if possible before that.
The Zephyr uses electricity from its solar cells to recharge its batteries during the daytime and runs off the stored power at night. It is intended to carry out surveillance and communications-relay tasks above the battlefield, where it would offer a long-endurance alternative to normal aircraft or satellites.
According to Qinetiq, the goal of the current flight is to show that Zephyr is the world's first "truly eternal plane", capable of staying up for months.
“The team has worked tirelessly over the past few years, making truly significant leaps forward in overall design and construction - and to see it successfully soar into the sky was fantastic,” gushes Jon Saltmarsh, Zephyr chief at Qinetiq. “By being able to remain over a location for weeks or months at a time, it can usefully deliver a host of practical and more affordable solutions to both civil and military customers.”
The new and upgraded Zephyr has been enlarged from previous versions and features a new power-management system and T-tail for reduced drag.
There's no doubt that the current flight is a significant achievement for Qinetiq. However, as with Zephyr's previous unofficially record-breaking flight one can't help noticing that the firm has chosen to make the attempt in uniquely favourable circumstances.
Yuma Proving Ground lies in the Sonoran Desert just 32 degrees north of the Equator, and the northern-hemisphere summer solstice is only just past. The sun is tracking as nearly dead overhead as it ever does over US territory just now, meaning that the Zephyr is getting far more energy from its cells than it would farther north or at other times of year.
One should note that in operational use the Zephyr will have to power a payload as well as itself - and for much of the year in many locations it will have to do this with less output from its cells than it is getting now.
If the sun-plane is generating a large surplus above what it needs to stay airborne, well and good: Qinetiq are offering no details at this point. If it isn't, though, its claim to be the first useful "eternal plane" will look rather unfounded. ®
ouroboros said:Lasers would imply a thin film solar cell skin. Efficiencies are still hovering a little over 10% in that category...
AeroFranz said:I believe the pictures depict an earlier incarnation of Zephyr. The new one has a T-tail and downturned wingtips. Flightglobal might have pictures.
Funny thing about solar aircraft is that their performance characteristics vary with location and time of year. It is no accident that the mission is being flown at ~20 deg latitude in summer....
Try this stunt in winter and you probably wouldn't be able to close the daily energy cycle.