lighter-than-air vehicles - Defense Innovation Marketplace

it is currently disassembled and in storage. The goal of low-altitude airships is to provide longerendurance and ISR persistence over a target area at reduced operational costs compared to HTAvehicles. The Air Force has a low-altitude conventional airship in development (Blue Devil 2),and the Army is developing a low-altitude hybrid airship (LEMV).Heavy-airlift airships are still early in the development stages. Currently, ASD(R&E) and NASAare developing the Pelican as a sub-scale hybrid airship to demonstrate several key technologicaladvancements required to produce a full-scale heavy-airlift airship. The Pelican programhighlights the focus on overcoming technical challenges in new airship technology with respectto the heavy logistics mission. For example, this program is focusing on the development of avariable buoyancy control system, testing new rigid lightweight-composite internal structures,ballast controls, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), forward/aft motion controls, and groundhandling technologies.Figure 29: Altitude (MSL), Endurance, and Payload Size Specification Comparison for ISR AirshipsAlthough the current LEMV airship is intended for ISR applications, design studies on a largerheavy-lift version have recently been completed, though this airlift version is not yet underdevelopment. Numerous other studies have been conducted to assess the requirements andfeasibility of such airships. Estimates have been provided for airships as large as 1,000 ft. inlength by 450 ft. wide to carry payloads up to 1,000 tons; however, nothing to this scale iscurrently in development. Airlift applications can be categorized by the size of the payload andtransport distance required primarily for comparison with traditional aircraft and maritime ships.For example, tactical airlift refers to intra-theater operations carrying 20–30 tons (about thepayload of a C-130 aircraft). Strategic airlift refers to inter-theater airships carrying 50–100 tons(about the average payload of a C-17 inter-theater airlift aircraft). Very large cargo airshipscapable of carrying a few hundred tons would offer greater payloads but have lower speed thanconventional cargo aircraft and lesser payloads but greater speed than cargo ships 238