Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Jim Logajan wrote in
:
Airships. JMHO.

Yes, and a cheap suborbital launch system when you relelase the water!

WWI Zeppelins dropped tons of bombs on England and I'm pretty sure none
went suborbital. I'm sure the crews would have loved to gain the altitude
to get clear of anti-aircraft fire! ;-)

Hard to think of anything better to get near a turbulent fire as well.

I presume they would drop from a higher altitude when turbulence got too
strong. I suspect lower airspeed would translate to better drop control -
it's not like they have to worry about AA fire ;-). If needed I suppose
they could even use tethers to help maintain station in high winds (maybe
even use a long hose to a source of water on the ground?). Though I admit
tethers can cause more control problems than expected for LTA craft.

On the other hand, here's a video someone took of a Goodyear blimp caught
in a thunderstorm trying to make headway in turbulent conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERI8_cprgMo

It ended in a crash, but no fatalities according to the NTSB report:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...06X00943&key=1