The Lighter-Than-Air Society

Source: Cosmiclog on msnbc.com

By Alan Boyle

NASA is working with a little-known Oregon company on a variety of trial balloons, ranging from suborbital near-spacecraft to a probe that would float through the smoggy atmosphere of a Saturnian moon. The launching point for these trial balloons couldn’t be more bucolic. Near Space Corp. is based in a World War II-era blimp hangar, out in the countryside south of Tillamook, Ore., a locale that is better-known for cheese and ice cream than for space exploration. Continue reading →

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 →