lighter-than-air vehicles - Defense Innovation Marketplace

PelicanTable 33: Pelican Program OverviewFigure 51: Pelican Illustration 12Vehicle Class: Hybrid Airship Program Start: 2008Mission Set: Heavy-Lift Logistics Technology Readiness Level (TRL): 5Organization(s): ASD(R&E), NASA AmesPrimary Contractor(s): Aeros Corp.Current Status: Airship integration inprogress with plans to conduct hangar test inlate 2012PM/POC: Paul Espinosa (NASA Ames)Pelican is the consolidation of three pastefforts, and its objective is to demonstratethat the technology of scalable VTOL hasmatured and these technological advancescan be combined to create a hybrid airshipsuitable for heavy-lift operations. The goalof the program is to mitigate long-termdevelopment risks by demonstrating thefundamental characteristics of the RAVBvehicle. The key technologies to bedemonstrated include: a buoyancy controlsystem enabling ballast-independentoperations; a rigid, lightweight-compositeexternal structure; a responsive lowspeed/hovercontrol system; and groundhandling capabilities to enable operationswithout a ground handling crew. 51The Pelican hybrid airship builds on threeprior DARPA efforts: Walrus, Control ofStatic Heaviness (COSH), and BuoyancyAssisted Lift Air Vehicle (BAAV). Walruswas an effort conducted by DARPA/TacticalTechnology Office to define an objectivevehicle concept and provide the technicaldata to evaluate the military utility of aglobal reach vehicle. This effort culminatedin a Technology Development andAssessment Plan submitted in 2006. TheCOSH project, completed in July 2008,provided a technology demonstration of asystem that changes the density of heliumwith a flight-qualified compression system.This effort proved the concept of the heliumpressurization envelopes (HPEs) that are55