Message posted by Alex on March 14, 2006 at 11:13:03 PST:
After Plan8 said the real name for military airships is dirigibles, i decided to do some more research. Searching for dirigibles on wikipedia, i found a section on the use of them today. Here is what it had to say: The US government is funding two major projects in the high altitude arena. The first is sponsored by U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and is called the Composite Hull High Altitude Powered Platform (CHHAPP). This aircraft is also sometimes referred to as the HiSentinel High-Altitude Airship. The second project is being sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is called the high-altitude airship (HAA). In 2005, DARPA awarded a contract for nearly $150 million to Lockheed-Martin for prototype development. First flight of the HAA is planned for 2008 It gives some idea as to why the military would want to use them, but the idea still doesnt seem right to me somehow. Like i said before, the idea has its weaknesses and the idea of the government pouring money into military blimps is a little strange to me. And also i would guess that before the dirigible to work well in modern combat, air superiority would have had to be gained first?
There are two primary focuses of current research on airships: 1) high altitude, long duration, sensor and/or communications platforms and 2) long distance transport of very large payloads.
If anyone has any ideas (or tell me if ive gone wrong :)then i would like to hear from u.
In Reply to: Re: Stealth Blimp posted by Alex on March 14, 2006 at 10:19:37 PST:
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