Source: Flightglobal
The Northrop Grumman/Hybrid Air Vehicles long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV) is now scheduled to fly in November after a three-month delay. The LEMV program is now running more than a month behind its scheduled first flight, which was revealed in June at the Paris air show. The delays have not been publicly explained. Continue reading
Source: Defense Update
The 370-foot-long (123 m’), 1.4 million-cubic-foot (37,000 m3) blimp called ‘Blue devil 2′ is taking shape at a hangar in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. As the giant airship is being filled with helium, thus lighter than air, it becomes afloat inside the hangar. Once mission equipment is installed, the airship will begin its voyage to Afghanistan, where it will provide an unmanned platform for persistent surveillance and communications support assisting the ground forces. MAV-6 is the prime contractor for the $211 million ‘Blue devil 2′ program. Continue reading
Source: MailOnLine.com
By Ted Thornhill
The record for the highest altitude powered airship has just ballooned to an amazing 95,085 feet (18 miles) – the edge of space. Incredibly, the feat was achieved by volunteer space enthusiasts for the not-so-astronomical sum of $30,000.
Called Tandem and made by California-based JP Aerospace, it took off from Nevada’s Black Rock desert last Saturday and broke the airship altitude record by over 20,000 feet (four miles). Continue reading
The Navy’s new airship was unveiled to the public Wednesday at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst inside Hangar 1 in Lakehurst. / THOMAS P. COSTELLO/staff photographer
Source: Asbury Park Press
The first Navy airship commissioned in 50 years had its public presentation Wednesday inside Hangar 1 in Lakehurst, the scene of so much history in lighter-than-air flight — and a center for its potential renaissance.The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors, and won’t be deployed outside the United States. But it’s very significant as a return to an older technology, and there have been two years of testing “to prove LTA (lighter-than-air) has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold, the commanding officer of Scientific Development Squadron One.
The sight of a Navy airship again in Hangar 1 was deeply satisfying for Carl Jablonski, president of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society. Continue reading
WSGI's Argus One UAV during a tethered test flight in Easton MD
World Surveillance Group Inc, a developer of lighter-than-air unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), announced that the Company successfully completed tethered flight tests of its Argus One airship in Easton MD. The Argus One carried out aerodynamic exercises to test the newly improved and reinforced airship envelope and improvements to mechanical systems located in the airship’s pod bay unit. Continue reading