Biplanes and Triplanes were the best !

The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.


SMH

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.


Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Keith

Keith Willshaw wrote:

Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Cool!

When I become incredibly, fabulously wealthy, I may opt
for a 6-8 passenger personal airship rather than attempt
to convert a Global Hawk as my private aircraft.


SMH

Stephen Harding wrote:

Keith Willshaw wrote:

Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Cool!

When I become incredibly, fabulously wealthy, I may opt
for a 6-8 passenger personal airship rather than attempt
to convert a Global Hawk as my private aircraft.

SMH

I have come into this thread late ............

Has anyone mentioned why they are called blimps????

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++
Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast
Flankers Website - http://www.flankers.co.uk/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++

From: Ken Duffey

I have come into this thread late ............

Has anyone mentioned why they are called blimps????

Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast

The two most popular theories a

1) some British officer thumped one and the sound returned was "blimp."

2) one of the early designations was "balloon, class B, limp" which was
shortened to blimp in conversation.

An interesting aside is the term "dirigible" which some people use to
differentiate between blimps and rigid airships. The term "dirigible" is from
Latin which means give direction to. In other words it's steerable which both
blimps and rigid airships are.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

"B2431" wrote in message
...

The two most popular theories a

1) some British officer thumped one and the sound returned was
"blimp."

2) one of the early designations was "balloon, class B, limp"
which was
shortened to blimp in conversation.

An interesting aside is the term "dirigible" which some people use to
differentiate between blimps and rigid airships. The term "dirigible"
is from
Latin which means give direction to. In other words it's steerable
which both
blimps and rigid airships are.

From the OED:
blimp, n. [Of uncertain origin. Said to have been coined by the aviator
Horace Shortt (see quot. 1918) or by Lieut. A. D. Cunningham (1951
Aeroplane 5 Oct.), and to have been based on the adj. LIMP.]

1. A small non-rigid airship orig. consisting of a gas-bag with the
fuselage of an aeroplane slung underneath; in the war of 1939-45 the name
was sometimes applied to a barrage balloon.

1916 ROSHER In R.N.A.S. 11 Feb. 146 Visited the Blimps..this afternoon at
Capel. 1918 Illustr. Lond. News 27 July 96 Nobody in the R.N.A.S. ever
called them anything but 'Blimps', an onomatopic name invented by that
genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Shortt. 1926 J. R. R.
TOLKIEN in Year's Wk. Eng. Stud. 1924 52 It is perhaps more in accordance
with their looks, history, and the way in which words are built out of
the suggestions of others in the mind, if we guess that blimp was the
progeny of blister + lump, and that the vowel i not u was chosen because
of its diminutive significancetypical of war-humour. 1928 GAMBLE North
Sea Air Station x. 149 The Submarine Scout non-rigid type. The name was
abbreviated to S.S. airships, but they were generally known as 'Blimps'.
1934 Discovery Jan. 14/2 Excellent photographs..could probably be secured
next summer from a small 'blimp' carrying a pilot and a photographer and
directed by wireless telephony. 1939 War Illustr. 29 Dec. 538/1 The term
'blimp' originated in the last war, when British lighter-than-air
aircraft were divided into A-rigid, and B-limp (i.e. without rigid
internal framework). The modern barrage balloon may therefore be classed
as a blimp. 1940 HARRISSON & MADGE War begins at Home v. 125 The
[barrage] balloons, so suitably called blimps, became a major symbol in
the first three months of the war.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

Airships have also been used for testing Hyperspectral Imaging systems. See:

http://www.airship.flyer.co.uk/NewsA...ews19dec02.htm

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.

As Keith has already noted, they have been proposed for the AEW role with no
success to date, at least as far as free-flying blimps go--unpowered
aerostats are however used for the air surveillance role (ISTR we recently
sold Pakistan some AEW aerostats to assuage their concerns over the recent
purscahse of the Il-76/Phalcon AWACS from Russia/Israel, and they have
served this role in the drug war along the southern US approaches for many
years). I wonder if there are not further roles for aerostats--such as their
use for area security surveillance in an environment like we now find in
Iraq. As to blimps, you really have to have air superiority (or outright air
dominance) in order to make them viable; in such conditions, I'd think they
might be a decent platform for battlefield surveillance using a MTI radar
(sort of a long duration mini-JSTARS, more comparable to the current ARL-M)
or in the SIGINT role, where they can conduct their missions from a position
a few klicks to the rear of the FLOT.

Brooks


SMH

In article ,
"Kevin Brooks" wrote:

As to blimps, you really have to have air superiority (or outright
air dominance) in order to make them viable; in such conditions, I'd
think they might be a decent platform for battlefield surveillance
using a MTI radar (sort of a long duration mini-JSTARS, more
comparable to the current ARL-M) or in the SIGINT role, where they
can conduct their missions from a position a few klicks to the rear
of the FLOT.

With modern construction techniques, a stealthy, ultra-lightweight blimp
with a sensor package should be able to perch up at 120,000 feet or
higher, be hard to find, harder to reach, and useful for direct ground
observation for hundreds of miles in any direction, reporting back with
a highly directional laser-based commlink.

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

Stephen Harding wrote:

The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.

SMH


It was only a few years ago that concerted efforts failed to destroy a
large ballon which managed to drift clear across the Atlantic despite
numerous holes being shot in it. I wonder if they really are all that
vulnerable?

Dave