Lockheed Martin Turbo Super Blimp

VIDEO: Lockheed Martin Turbo Super Blimp

Check this thing out. Imagine the possibilities for logistics. Heavy Lift. Airborne Command Post. Surveillance.

Ah, when I read the thread title, I instantly thought "Homeland Air Defense". Floating observation station monitoring areas, looking through walls etc. It seems you know it to. Interesting, but a bit foreboding if you think about it.

lol yeah that was in the thread about buying some of the largest planes in the world for the us. I posted that link to that flying website. Did you see the video where the guy tests out that model?
And the problem is defence dude no decent defence

If you're inclined to use a blimp for long-term (defense) surveillence, I'd suggest going to extreme high-altitude. Say 80,000-100,00 FT.

Not only would your spy platform be well above most air-born threats, even if they could locate yoy, but you'd also be well above most of the atmosphere; much easier to "station-keep" if you don't have to deal with winds.

And you would have a much broader coverage area than at lower altitudes.

Big Brother's new toy: Another bloated gas bag watching you from the sky

athensnews.com...

Isn't the phrase "Turbo Blimp" an oxymoron? It looks cool and moves pretty well but as depth om said, I thought of Homeland Security immediately. I still question what is more efficient, these blimps or the UAV's.

Hey look it's a UFO, no thats just P-791. But does anyone know what the dimensions are?

I noticed that one of the decals on the Blimp is 'TCOM'.

I googled TCOM and found out that: "Over the past 30 years, TCOM has been at the forefront of innovative developments in tethered aerostat systems. TCOM, LP - The Surveillance Solution."

TCOM Homepage (Main Page Features A Blimp)

Seems like this is a surveillance focused project.

Imagine knowing that big brother blimpy is up there watching all the time.

[edit on (1/10/08) by AllSeeingI]

Alright gang I found a great webpage with a ton of new info about this project.

HAC News Page

External Content:
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 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.

The P-791 uses four air cushions as landing gear, located on the outer lobes. Taxiing the vehicle could be like flying a hovercraft, except one with greater exposure to winds. An advantage of the air cushions is they could be reversed to suck the aircraft onto the ground to resist winds for cargo operations. Air pressure may also be the best way to spread landing loads into the inflatable structure. It's not clear if there are any devices, such as wheels, to keep the airship from sliding sideways when taxiing in crosswinds. The craft has a special towing system.

The P-791 appears to have four propellers--two at the tail and two on the sides. The tail units appear to be able to pivot for yaw vectoring, and it's unclear if the ones on the sides can move. One knowledgeable individual says there are four vectored propulsors used for ground handling, but it's not clear if these are the main propellers, or separate units perhaps connected with the air cushion system. The rings around the motors may be shrouds for the propellers and/or gimbal rings for vectoring. Vectored thrust can be useful for lighter-than-air blimps, which lose conventional control authority as they approach zero airspeed while landing, but a hybrid airship lands with some airspeed that may keep the tail control surfaces effective. But for control during low-speed air cushion taxiing, vectoring would seem essential.

The P-791 appears similar to the proposed full-scale version of the British SkyKitten, called the SkyCat. They have similar overall shapes--though the Skunk Works design is wider--and similar propulsion layouts, and both use air cushion landing gear. Perhaps the two programs have people in common.

One of the partner names on the side is TCOM, which makes aerostats and envelopes for airships.
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[edit on (1/10/08) by AllSeeingI]

Heavy lift airships have been worked on for many years. There is a canadian co that has one that uses the coriallis effect for propulsion. Its a delta config too, more like a manta ray shpe with a large rotateable sphere between the wings. As the sphere rotates it causes the airship to move.
Survailance air ships, so called "stealth blimps" are already in service in the US southwest as static observation platforms, of the US-Mexican border.
The have been in use since at least 1991, I know cause ive seen them on the gound at a sw texas facility.
There is a so cal company working on a station keeping airship for digital PCS relays.
Most people dont realized that what is currently called a "cell phone" is not a cell phone at all, but is a digital personal comunication system(PCS). Even though digital PCS was hailed as a breakthrough, it actually shortened the range of a "cell phone" from up to 40 miles in some cases to a mere 12 for the digital signal. That is the reason for the explosion of "cell towers" since 2000. The digital PCS signal is line of sight and has an effective range of around 12-17 miles depending on terrain and atmospheric conditions.
Around 12-15 years ago a company proposed to use a station keeping air ship at high altitudes to relay power from a ground generator to a whole community, the air ship would act as a reflector for the microwave transmissions used to carry power.
It never wet further than a conceptual idea, then another company took that idea and applied it to communications. The idea is simple, lets say you have a city of 500,000 people,in a standard american pattern this city would be roughly 30 miles across, based on the 500k pop city i live in, it might take 15? ground towers to provide complete signal relay coverage.
Or just one air ship at hovering 80,000' can provide complete coverage, for the entire city. At an altitude of 80K the vehicle would be in the sun something like 21 hrs a day, making solar power a realistic alternative, it could remain aloft for months at a time, without a tether. And for more than just telephone service but the same airship could carry TV and radio relays as well.
In fact as originaly envisioned it would never come down, a maintenance ship would go up to meet it, to service batteries and propulsion systems.
I have long been a proponent of heavy lift airships, for civllian uses like logging and other industries that require heavy slow lift capabilities.
As a military vehicle they are of limited effectiveness, very vunerable to attack, they could only be used in areas where friendly control of the air is certain. Even still they are slow and more suceptable to bad weather than heavier than air craft.
A GEV (ground effects vehicle) like the monster of the caspian or hover craft offer much higher speeds while still offering a comperable lift capacity.

Aside from the surveillance angle, these things have potentially major uses in terms of bringing heavy freight to previously inaccessible locations. Not to mention the possibility of bringing back the flying liners of the Zeppelin era.

I remember seeing a version of this craft when a smaller remote-piloted version was being flown. It seems like the Skunkworks bought in to the program, good move on their part IMHO.