Really?! I didn't know that. I was so impressed with that plane's hovering ability and maneuverability.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxt...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 6:12:54 AM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] US Army Orders Lockheed-Martin’s Mystery Airship I saw the same program, Keith, and a few others, famously including a segment of "Heavy Metal" on the History Channel. The pilot they interviewed was talking up the ship so lovingly that I recall thinking that he and it needed to get a room together somewhere. A few months later, as I was logging out of one of my Warmmail accounts, a story on the MSN homepage drew my eye. "Pilot Stuck in Cockpit" The F-22's canopy had a problem deploying (which later records showed to be a fairly endemic issue throughout the F-22 fleet), and the pilot inside, stuck for over two hours, was wearing a murderous look on his face. As I chuckled, I noted his name. It was the same pilot from the "Heavy Metal" segment. On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:27 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: I only know about the F-22 through the PBS special that details the competition between Lockheed and Boeing for that Joint Strikeforce Fighter. The program's pretty cool, and the plane seemed impressed. Give us the skinny, please... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < martinbaxt...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 12:19:48 PM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] US Army Orders Lockheed-Martin’s Mystery Airship Mr Worf, you know what the best job on the planet is right now? A Lockheed-Martin lobbyist. They manage to wrangle corporate welfare for their company without fail, no matter how magnificently L-M's projects may fail. (I refer you all to the F-22 debacle, because it was as hush-hush as this seems to be.) On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 7:54 AM, Mr. Worf < hellomahog...@gmail.com > wrote: http://realitypod.com/2010/05/mystery-plane-order/ Read more: http://realitypod.com/2010/05/mystery-plane-order/#ixzz0wftfWvom Home » Military Tech , Science & Tech » US Army Orders Lockheed-Martin’s Mystery Airship US Army Orders Lockheed-Martin’s Mystery Airship Posted by admin on May 2nd, 2010 // 3 Comments Advertise Here Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Projects is making perhaps the first realistic tests of a hybrid airship–a concept that dates back many decades but that is just now being tried at a significant scale. The Skunk Works had secretly built the craft and hoped for a quiet first flight at its Palmdale, Calif., facility, but a few passers-by noticed the strange object in the sky. The Defense Dept. is showing interest in two categories of airships–those that can carry large cargo at low altitude, exemplified by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) Walrus program, and those that can operate in high-altitude low-wind conditions and remain on station for long periods of time. The configuration of the Skunks Works ship indicates it is the former–a hybrid heavy-load carrier. The interest is across the services and the notional applications are diverse, ranging from logistics–delivery of an integrated fighting unit within theater, for example–to sensor, communications and even laser-weapon relay platforms. But airships aren’t there yet. Major unresolved issues could derail the airship dream, such as their traditional delicate ground handling, and possibly prohibitive economics and vulnerability. These issues have been debated endlessly on paper, and now Lockheed Martin, a prime airship proponent, is investing to seek real answers. Recentlys! U.S. Army LEMV Program ordered this 21-day endurance, 20K Altitude Hybrid LTA for AFPAK: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportuni… A hybrid airship derives most of its lift by being filled with a lighter-than-air gas such as helium. Overall, it is heavier than air and gains the final 20% or so of lift by flying like an aircraft, but with slow takeoff and landing speeds that allow operations from short unprepared strips. The Skunk Works made the first flight of its “P-791″ testbed on Jan. 31 at its facility on the Palmdale Air Force Plant 42 airport. The manned flight was about a 5-min. circuit around the airport in the morning and appeared to be successful. The company did not announce or want to discuss the flight. The P-791 is not part of a government contract, but rather an independent research and development project by the Skunk Works to better understand airship capabilities and technologies, such as materials, a company official says. However, it may also be a quarter-scale prototype of a heavy-lifter. TO GAIN MORE SPAN TO ACT LIKE a wing, the P-791 is three pressurized lobes joined together. An observer of the first flight says it was about the size of three Fuji blimps blended together. The Fuji blimp, a Skyship 600 model, is 206 ft. long. That suggests the P-791 would have a gross lift of roughly 3-5 tons. The observer saw the craft performing very tight 360-deg. turns while taxiing. It made a brief takeoff roll, climbed to a low altitude, made a few banks–including a long sweeping turn–then came back and landed. The landing approach had a nose-down body attitude that levelled for the flare. The flight was very smooth, the observer says. The craft was flown by P-791 Chief Test Pilot Eric P. Hansen. The speed of the testbed was estimated at about 20 kt. A full-scale version would be able to go much faster, over 100 kt. Lockheed Martin has long proposed a large transport airship, at one time called the Aerocraft, which was halted around 2000 (AW&ST Feb. 22, 1999, p. 26). That design was about 800 ft. long and was to carry 1-1.2 million lb. at 125 kt. The Skunk Works was one of two contractors to receive one-year, $3-million Darpa contracts in August 2005 to study Walrus. The second Walrus phase would be a three-year demonstration effort. Share 85 Read more: http://realitypod.com/2010/05/mystery-plane-order/#ixzz0wfu2JUTa -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
