Remember the Walrus? That’s the Darpa project to build a humongous blimp that can haul 500-1000 tons’ worth of soldiers and gear halfway across the world in less than a week.
The L.A. Times today profiles Worldwide Aeros, the small firm run by ex-Soviet engineers, which is going toe-to-toe with Lockheed Martin for the $100-million contract to build a Walrus prototype. “The winner then has a chance to bid on a blimp production contract potentially worth $11 billion over 30 years.”
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
(Big ups: Umansky)
You people are all retarded. Find something else to do.
Hey, what if you construct an “aerogel” type material, which is something like 99% air, and replace that air with helium, or if it is compartmentalized enough, hydrogen! that would be safer, and if skinned with some exotic carbonfiber/aramid/spidersilk/kevlar type of material, it can bear a substantial amount of weight without failure. just a thought.
Perfect use of our defensed budget. Designate billions of dollars to creating and building large and slow method of transportation for the military. I don’t see any red flags fo rthis project. I guess they took into account the airship’s incredible manuverablilty and speed for its defense form shoulder launched missles.
I am dismayed by the number of naive, puerile and even lunatic comments on this subject. But for those of you that have shown you have more than two functional neurons, my greetings, my compliments and my rant:
A modern army depends on vehicles — LOTS of vehicles. Humvees, 6×6’s, fuel trucks, ambulances, etc. Currently, these are usually flown where needed by such as the C-141, C-17, C-130 and the C-5A, (which requires 14 hours of maintenance for every hour of operation, even when it hasn’t been shot at).
And these enormous lumbering hulks are, indeed, shot at and hit. There used to be a Victor Charley in a spider hole at the end of the runway at Ton Son Hut, Republic of Vietnam, who shot at all aircraft coming and going. He was killed and another sniper took his place, who was killed and replaced and so on. Then came the replacement who couldn’t shoot straight. He was left alone, and our rescue and maintenance, (and graves registration), people finally got to relax a bit.
And therein lies the key: All these cargo ships had to land and take off from runways! The snipers and sappers covered these runways like wool on a sheep. Blimps can land in any big, flat, empty spot. All the airship would need do is deliver its troops and vehicles in-country — somewhere… quiet:) The unit could then use its own vehicles to proceed to its designated area of operations.
Cargo aircraft will always be shot up and shot down. As a former pilot, I can say that I would rather be hit in a heavily compartmentalized lighter-than-air blimp that could be *settled* to the ground rather than crashing into it. I see that as a far more survivable senario than than having my wing shot off, my aircraft disintegrating around me, or just augering in, (there are no ejection seats in cargo planes).
There are ways of rendering RPG’s useless (from a distance), though, maddeningly, these methods are not often employed, and I will not discuss them for obvious reasons, though their use has saved countless lives; in paticular during the Yom Kippur War. There are good counter-measures for shoulder-launched SAM’s as well. Again, when these are not employed, you see the results on the news.
Along with these techniques, the proper deployment of helicopter gunships would help assure a safe landing and off-loading, just as it can for the other humongous cargo planes.
And if such a blimp could carry 1000 tons, why, that would be the equivalent of over 30 C-130 flights! An entire unit, with humvees, artillery, etc could be deployed shortly after landing. Hours instead of days or weeks.
This is certainly an idea worthy of consideration.
I see it as a way to relieve the tsunami survivors, or katrina survivors in one transport, instead of a slow trickle of aid. bam! 100 tons of food, and 100 tons of water and red cross personell all in one shot! Or an entire brigade dropped off in a neighboring friendly country…kuait? japan? australia?
I suggest some of you take a look at the Feb. issue of Pop Sci. It explains that this craft is not a “big balloon” like a blimp or derigible. It is a composit-based solid structure craft which uses small wings, six jet engines, three turbo props, and its own body’s shape to creat lift. It will more likely carry 400 tons of payload and travel at a speed of 174 mph with a range of 6,000 miles. Also, its naturally bouyant so it can land on water also.
A cheaper more effective machine of war whether it’s weapons systems or blimps is critical for our evolving military. Military Sealift Command can then free up a vast majority of its cargo ships for profit transport and help offset the costs of research and development. Yes that’s right, the US Navy does make money too. Ever see a pirate ship go after a US Naval vessel? N O P E This is why companies pay the higher transport prices of MSC ships… instant insurance.
Hope you learned something today.
First and formost let us assume that our military arm isn’t a bunch of idiots. They have technology, manpower, and brains enough to determine whether or not it is safe to fly a blimp in. I doubt the goliath would be used in an aggressive stance unless in a well guarded corridor. Most likely beyond the transport of humanitarian aid and resupply to established stronghold locations, its primary mission would be to move vehicles, ammunition and artilary. Which most people who have read a history book around here would agree is far from the nitty gritty and would be relatively safe travel, especially with gunships running interferance with any ground retaliation. I say ground because the airforce is second to none and would be responsible for keeping the air passage clear. But if you want to say that our military hierarchy is going to put an expensive and highly useful piece of hardware in to harms way, I believe the only appropriate response would be to say, sit down, be quiet, and read a book.
Would it be possible to have a strato-cam, a high res video camera mounted on a High Altitude Platform, cabable of recording the goings on of a city using many recording cells with the purpose of watching the tape “backwards” when situations such as car bombs, IED’s, or what ever should happen? Every time something happens, somebody did it, but know body seems to know where “they” came from. Now the “eye-in-the-sky” so to speak has recorded the whole thing and all that is needed is for intel to watch the tape backwards and track the bad guys to their holes. This idea won’t stop an IED but it can place where the folks that did it came from and that could stop others.
Real quick, has any one heard of Skystation International? They were working on a HAP for communications and I haven’t heard from them for a while. Their founder is Gen Alex Haig.
Actually, Roger, that’s not a bad idea. You could park over a city and scan troublespot areas with your cameras. Any explosion would trigger the camera to “zoom in” and record the area.
I’m sure that some of you must know about Nikola Tesla and his ideas regarding Zepplins, as well as Particle Beam Weapons. I guess his ideas were not as eccentric as once thought..or perportedly thought. In 1990, I was walking home and I thought I heard the faint sound of a jet engine of some type. I looked up and to my suprise I saw the Infamous Cigar Shaped UFO! It was on an easterly track towards Omaha. I was in the Ralston/La Vista area, not too far from the Air Base there (SAC HQ). It had the bright firey tail eminating from the back…it also had at least 2 fighter escorts. Must have either have been the actuall Tesla invention reported to have touched down several times in the 1890’s in Iowa and places or it was a prototype for the refueling platform we saw in the movie Stealth. Interesting to say the least. I’m guessing Tesla had a lighter than air drive of some sort. Maybe not true Anti-Gravity but something no doubt.
Sorry to pour very cold water on you pessimist’s but the British Millitary has been using an airship on counter insurgency operations for many years, having the ability to move silently above a battle field, be it Urban or Rural, equiped with a number of hightec survalance devises, day or night it can track possible targets and relay that info to ground troops.
If you cant hear it & you cant see it why would you think you can shoot it down? But then America dident invent it so it probably dosent even exist does it! best we keep it that way.
I can’t see that it would be any bigger on radar than a C-5. After all, the gasbag probably wouldn’t show up on radar.
Probably we should be comparing this with Cargo ships and C-5 rather than a tactical transport.