Lofty goals for blimp-like airship
U.S. firm hopes aircraft will one day carry cargo to disaster zones
TUSTIN, Calif. • The massive aircraft flies but just barely, hovering off a military hangar floor during flight testing south of Los Angeles.
Still, the fact that the hulking, 70-metre Aeroscraft could fly for just a few minutes represents a step forward in aviation, according to the engineers who developed it. The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. space agency NASA have invested $35 million in the prototype because of its potential to one day carry more cargo than any other aircraft to disaster zones and forward military bases.
“I realized that I put a little dot in the line of aviation history. A little dot for something that has never been demonstrated before, now it’s feasible,” said flight control engineer Munir JoJoVerge.
The airship must go through several more rounds of flight testing before it could be used in a disaster zone or anywhere else. The first major test flight took place Jan. 3.
The biggest challenge for engineers is making sure the airship will be able to withstand high winds and other extreme weather conditions, JoJo-Verge said.
Worldwide Aeros, the company that developed the aircraft, said it also must secure more funding for the next round of flight testing, but is hopeful the Department of Defense and others will step in again as investors.
The company says the cargo airship’s potential to carry more cargo more efficiently than ever before would provide the U.S. military with an advantage on the battlefield and greater capacity to save more lives during natural disasters.
The lighter-than-air vehicle has a rigid structure made from ultra-light carbon fibre and aluminum underneath its high-tech Mylar skin. Inside, balloons hold the helium that gives the vehicle lift. Unlike hydrogen — the flammable gas used in the Hindenburg airship that infamously crashed in flames in 1937 — helium is not flammable.
The airship functions like a submarine, releasing air to rise and taking in air to descend, said Aeros mechanical engineer Tim Kenny. It can take off vertically, like a helicopter, then change its buoyancy to become heavier than air for landing and unloading.
Next, Aeros wants to build a vehicle that is about twice as long, which can lift nearly 60 tonnes of payload