Lighter Than Air
The stripping down of Moffett Field Hangar One is nearly complete. The 79-year-old hangar’s walls and roof contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos and lead paint. In 2003 NASA determined that the hangar was leaking PCBs into storm drains and a nearby storm-water basin. While NASA now owns Hangar One,
Lighter Than Air
MAV6 just published these most recent M1400 photos. No additional progress has been made subsequent to these photos as a result of the Air Force direction to suspend development activities. As of this writing, the airship is still inflated, and the company still holds out some hope of transitioning the
Lighter Than Air
The $211 million Blue Devil 2 airship, built for the Air Force by the tiny, Virginia-based company Mav6, is slated for dismantling and storage, bringing to an ignominious end a two-year saga of technological ambition, bureaucratic waffling and vicious politicking. The Air Force no longer wants Blue Devil 2 or
Lighter Than Air
A delayed recovery caused a tethered aerostat radar system (TARS) to break away and crash during high winds Feb. 14 in Marfa, Texas, according to an accident investigation board report released by Air Combat Command May 29, 2012. The aerostat was assigned to and operated by ACC at the Marfa
Lighter Than Air
The U.S. military is testing high-tech “battle kites” as a method of lifting communications and surveillance equipment above isolated bases in Afghanistan. The battle kites aren’t designed to get involved in dog fights. They are built to fly over forward operating bases that are too small to support
Military
An Israel Defence Forces observation airship crashed on May 4, on the Israeli side of the Gaza border. The airship was performing a routine surveillance deployment in the Gaza sector when a civilian crop duster flying by hit its cable. As a consequence of the incident, the balloon crashed whereas
Lighter Than Air
Mav6 filed another progress report on assembly of the M1400 Blue Devil 2 at airship maker TCOM‘s hangar in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The above photo shows the M1400 airship control car wrapped in vinyl, whilst engineers continue to make significant progress installing avionics integration, electrical wiring, etc.... Source:
Lighter Than Air
Interesting 20-minute video from 1965 of the San Francisco Bay Area shot from the Goodyear Blimp.Connoisseurs of the region will be amused to notice the changes that have taken place since then. Source: YouTube
Lighter Than Air
[gallery orderby="rand"] Logos Technologies successfully showcased its Kestrel day/night wide-area persistent surveillance system at a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demonstration in Nogales, Arizona. Funded by DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, the week-long test allowed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to evaluate the already
VTOL
Mav6 continues to progress on assembly of the M1400 Blue Devil 2 at airship maker TCOM‘s hangar in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The latest pictures show mounting of the engines. The VTOL engines are Honeywell TPE331-12 vectorable turboprops driving MT MTV-27 props. To provide a sense of scale, the
Lighter Than Air
Altaeros Energies, a wind energy company formed out of MIT, announced that it has demonstrated high altitude power production from an automated prototype of its airborne wind turbine. The company recently completed testing of a 35-foot scale prototype of the Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) at the Loring Commerce Center
Lighter Than Air
Mav6 reported making further progress last week by installing main assemblies on the M1400 airship hull. The M1400 has both internal and external fuel tanks. The external tanks do increase drag, but the designers want to take advantage of the full lift of the airship to carry as much fuel