Message posted by PaulReinman on December 21, 2001 at 5:23:16 PST:
A bit off subject but maybe still connected to the "area". I found this article about Lockheed crashing a blimp in the Akron area a couple of years ago. It seems as if the blimp was not unlike any Goodyear blimp you'd see at a sporting event and it even had a sign, but the fact it had a FBW system and was turbine powered was interesting to me. Has anyone ever seen a lighter than air aircraft in the Groom area? Would a Goodyear size vehicle fit in Hangar 18? From the article..... "In a telephone interview, the manager of airship operations stated N4A was a "one-of-a-kind, turbine-powered, fly-by-wire airship." He said the engine power and thrust vectoring controls were completely independent of the flight controls." " The airship manager said because of the uniqueness and the high cost of this one-of-a-kind airship, there were no plans to rebuild the airship." Why would you build a FBW airship? That's kinda like making a FBW Piper Cub in my book....unless it was a testbed control system for something different ;). Also, I have always been interested in "other" special flight test areas. Is there any evidence San Nicolas Island serves that purpose? It seems like the perfect place to me. It's offshore, any viewers would stand out like a sore thumb. Also it has a 10K' runway or so... Any comments? Paul PS. I admit, there maybe nothing "black" about the blimp program at all, but I haven't found any other information on it.
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