What is LEMV?

The military is good for something but when it is, it's generally by accident. In this case the notorious "war on terror" has led to the need for spy drones that can stay on location for long periods of time. In an effort to combat, whoever we're fighting, the military has reinvested it's interest in airships for the task. LEMV or Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle is the military's answer to long endurance with enough payload to have 92 cameras scouting the field at 21,000ft for insurgents for up to 21 days (Or more accurately it's scouting for people who took up arms against the U.S. because we're supporting the government that treats them like slaves, but enough about politics.)

The LEMV is not just a surveillance platform. It can easily and efficiently fulfill all the rolls a C-130 Hercules can, save top speed, for slightly less operating costs and requires quit a bit less training to fly compared to the Hercules. It achieves this by utilizing the technological innovation of Hybrid Airships: This is where the body of the envelope is shaped like a wing to give it more lift when moving forward like an airplane. The result is something massive that flies with very little effort. Up to 40% of it's lift comes from it's shape. That means that ground crews and tethers are no longer necessary. Increasing the payload just increases the stall speed. Light loads can take off at around 10kts and full loads can take off at around 40kts. This means it needs less runway then a Cessna 172, even when it has 20,000 pounds of stuff on board. Combine that with it's hovercraft landing gear, that gives it the same mobility of a hovercraft on the ground and this thing can land just about anywhere, even theoretically in mine fields.

Logically, the LEMV implications go far beyond military applications. When scaled up these can carry 50, 200 or even 1000 tons of bulk cargo. This gives them a capacity similar to small sea going freighters, except they can go much faster 100kts+, where ships travail at around 25 to 35kts, and they can also travel over land and they go in straight lines from point A to point B without interference by terrain, which ultimately decreases costs. Overall this makes them very attractive to cargo movers, because your getting something that can preform a lot of the same missions a helicopter/airplane can but for an operating price that's comparable to sea freight and trucking.

Currently the military has purchased 3 LEMV's for deployment sometime this year or the next (hopefully the country won't fall apart before then.) However the company that's making them, Hybrid Air Vehicles, just signed a deal worth a possible 3.8 billion with Discovery Air to supply up to 45 50ton capacity vehicles to handle missions in Alaska and Canada. You may have heard of the Ice Road Truckers, Iron clad men with balls of steal, that drive trucks over ice in the winter to deliver supplies to isolated areas? Well, their job security might just have been shot by these things because the LEMV can deliver supplies to these areas without the hazard of falling into the ice and they can do it all year round. These truckers might wanna consider switching to blimp pilot in the not too distant future, although that might not just be true for them but possibly the majority of long rang truckers out there who might very well be finding themselves competing with airships in the coming decade.

Truly these Hybrid Airships have overcome much or the problems with the classic airships of yesteryear. Making them not just nifty, but practical.