There are engineers and dreamers all over the world working on projects to build a successful Hybrid Air Vehicle --- sorry, that's the best descriptive name until the imagination of some skilled writer-artist comes up with a clever short, less dull name for that still-developing mix of Lighter-than-Air craft and heavier-than-air plane that may prove to be the transport of the future and the solution to many of the problems raised by difficult-to-impossible terrain.
(Think Ice Road Truckers and the tundra and frozen lakes they travel over, OR think a trip through the Amazon Rain Forest OR through the Himalayas).
The --- let's see, what can we call them ? workshops ? laboratories ? corporate offices ? --- hangar-cum-work-areas of the designers, experimenters, and builders dedicating themselves to constructing workable, working prototypes of HAV's that are safe, efficient, and aerodynamically sound are located worldwide and vary enormously in size, equipment, and financial corporate backing, so it's hard to generalize, even if information on all of them were available .
One typical setting for a project of that type is a secret one in an industrial park in England, working on the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a Hybrid Air Vehicle --- that's their trade name for the expected outcome of the project that apparently looks like a spacecraft and (hopefully) will be used for air transport.
A 70-foot long gondola or cabin hangs underneath the huge envelope containing the lifting gas --- a mixture of helium and air. The HAV will be loaded with remote-sensing and photographic equipment; it is being designed and built secretly because its ultimate use is expected to be with American Defense Forces in the Middle East. Three of them will be built under the terms of a contract which serves as a sound basis for this new company's future.
The Chief Executive Officer holds a Master's degree in Business Administration, so one can be assured that they did not proceed unless they assured themselves and their financial backers that its financial underpinning is solid.
The LEMV (why do I keep reading that as "Lunar Excursion Module Vehicle"?) itself has a very low internal pressure, so that if the envelope were to be punctured by small arms fire, the vehicle would not (as we have witnessed some airship detractors theorize) go whizzing around the room like a toy helium balloon punctured by a hatpin in a similar situation. The gas mix inside the Hybrid, at 0.1 pounds per square inch, would just very slowly leak out with plenty of time for the HAV to gently and safely lower itself to the ground. Even if the non-flammable mixture of helium and air were ignited by explosive or incendiary projectiles, it would not burn.
The builders of many of these hybrids design-in an essentially flat under-surface, allowing it to land on either snow, ice, or water; the ability to hover can be conferred by ducted fan propellers that will swivel in any direction for precise control. These capabilities are essential in ny vehicle operating in the harsh conditions of the Arctic or the desert, with basically no infrastructure such as roads or runways available.
So much for the comment I saw on one forum that an airship on a battlefield was sheer nonsense, as it could be "brought down by a fat blind man with an airgun".
Lighter-than-air ships have been in essentially unbroken use by military forces from the beginning. It's easy for some critics, severely under-educated in history, to forget --- if they ever knew --- that blimps operated by the U.S. Navy in World War II proved to be very effective in anti-submarine warfare.
The specifications for these particular HAV's call for them to have the ability to hover at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters)without refueling for 21 days; their payload --- over and above crew, fuel, and weight of HAV --- is set at 2,500 pounds (1135 kilograms).
We understand that final testing and assembly is expected to take place in the United States sometime before the end of this year.
In the immortal tagline uttered by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the film "Charlie Wilson's War", ... "We'll see !".
Until that time, work on a simulator is taking place so that pilots qualified on the controls and instrumentation of this aircraft will have the basics under control in time for deployment some time after that.
You ask whether this HAV will be used solely for military purposes. We understand that Canadian interests are expected to place a substantial order for them, possibly to be used in Canada's far northland for heavy freight shipping under potentially very lucrative civilian contracts. Given the mineral wealth being discovered in the circum-polar regions, and the need to transport equipment, personnel, and all their support gear, this could satisfy a major need for safe year-round transportation when the ice roads melt.
Apparently, although intellectual property rights (legal terminology for design, patent rights and information, and copyright) will remain in England, it is expected that manufacture of the parts and actual assembly will take place in the Western Hemisphere.
My only regret, as an American, is that some entrepreneurs in the United States didn't step up and offer their facilities for this project. I do understand, of course, about multi-naional corporations and cooperation, but where are the Wright Brothers of the Hybrid?
No comments:
Post a Comment