Last time, I was with my list of ‘Top Ten Flying Cars.’ Let’s talk about blimps this time. Blimps are a majestic and fascinating aircraft. While the Rigid airships do not depend on internal pressure to maintain their shape, the non-rigid airships are usually different from the moored balloons and are free flying aircrafts. Normally, Blimps rely on a higher pressure of the gas (usually helium) inside the envelope.
Why the name ‘BLIMP’?
Have you ever thought why such airships were given the name BLIMP? Well, sources say that Lt. A.D. Cunningham of Great Britain’s Royal Navy Air Service playfully flipped his thumb at the envelope of His Majesty’s Airship SS-12 at a weekly inspection of the station and he cried ‘BLIMP’ and that says the rest of the story.
Usually Blimps are used as platforms to provide primarily high-definition aerial shots of sporting events. But, we are not going to discuss about all of them. Rather, I have compiled a small list of the blimps that have been employed for the national securities issues or some technological applications or are being intended to be used for the same purpose.
• USS Akron and USS Macon blimps
Goodyear is the name that anyone who has the zeal to know about the blimps should know. It’s the same company that built two giant rigid airships for the U.S. Navy with an exclusive aerial surveillance capability in the year 1930. The USS Akron and USS Macon were made as aerial aircraft carriers that were blessed with the capability to instigate and repossess expressly equipped planes during flight. Sadly, both were lost in the storms.
• Goodyear’s deadliest blimp
In the 1940s and 1950s, Goodyear rolled out a number of large supervising airships to guard mercantile fleets and to do the work of a premature warning radar station. One of such Goodyear-built ZPG-2 blimp dubbed Snow Bird made a record to remain in the air for 111 long days. One of the blimps dubbed Nan-Ship, claimed to be the world’s deadliest, was 342 feet long and was powered by two 800 horsepower gasoline radial air-cooled engines.
• Googyear’s ZPG-3W, the biggest blimp ever built
The non-rigid airship was developed by Goodyear for the U.S. navy and was powered by two Wright radial air-cooled engines. Also dubbed Reliance, the ZPG-3W was more than 400 feet long and was approximately 120 feet high. It could go on patrols for 36 hours without refueling maritime patrol missions.
• SA-60 spherical blimp for Navy
This spherical blimp was developed back in 2004 to be used by the Navy for keeping a tab on the terrorist camps, and communicating with its sailors. SA-60 could hover at an altitude of 22,000 feet. At that point of time, companies revealed plans to develop a 200-foot diameter model that would be capable of wide-area surveillance or telecommunications transmission at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. I will discuss about that later in the post.
• MARTS blimp for marines in Iraq
Back in 2005, Iraqi marines started using aerostats for transmission relay. The Marine Airborne Re-Transmission Systems (MARTS) was able to jog for two weeks before getting refueled, and could stay afloat in winds up to 50 mph. It was even resistant to small arms fire, thanks to its combination kevlar/mylar skin.
• DARPA’s U-Haul Blimp
Pentagon Research has earlier revealed it plans to develop a gigantic blimp that could tow 1,800 soldiers and their equipments 12,000 nautical miles within a week and this very project has been dubbed Walrus. For now, they are anticipating making a mock-up called “tri-phibian” Walrus with a whopping range of 6,000 nautical miles by the year 2008.
• DARPA’s all-seeing blimp ISIS
The colossal stratospheric airship is intended to be made three times bigger than that of Goodyear’s by the U.S. government. The huge blimp called the ‘Integrated Sensor is Structure” (ISIS) will be able to hover above the jet stream at 70,000 feet and could give real-time depiction of all progression on or above the battlefield, thanks to its wide flexible radar antennae. DARPA is keen to develop the all-seeing blimp anytime soon.
• Aeros-40D Sky Dragon Airship
The Aeros-40D offers a unique surveillance for use in transport operations of tactile military maneuvers. The surveillance capability of the Aeros 40D Sky Dragon Airship is improved by its ability to hang around over targeted areas. The airship also serves as retransmission station to aid the communication between security elements such as helicopters, cost guards and police ground units.
• Lockheed Martin High Altitude Airship
The unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle is in third phase of the contract with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It will need to hover at 60,000 feet and offer power to a payload for military use. Moreover, above the jet stream, HAA will run at quasi-geostationary position to study a roughly 600-mile diameter area. Unfortuinately, it is not expected to pas the tests soon unless and until some problems in fuel cells, aerodynamic controls, and flexible materials are not addressed in time.
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research have kept the dream of helium-filled dream lively by devising a blimp that could swim through the air like a fish. The yet-to-be-fully-developed six meters long blimp steered by artificial muscles is anticipated be used for sending airships far up into the stratosphere as platforms for wireless communication.
I will be back soon with another list of top ten ###### very soon.
