More LEMV and no internet

 

This will probably be my last post for awhile. I have lost my internet connection and I do not know when I'm going to get it back. But hopefully it will be before the next big thing in airships happens... 

which might be real soon:

Army High Res Photos

The Army has some high resolution shots of LEMV in this article they did about the first flight.

Is this LEMV?

It's hard to determine if this is LEMV or an earlier prototype. Anyone have a clue?
My guess is that the Army would be unwilling to do test of this nature on it's first flight.

First Photo but from where?

Al.com has the first photo of LEMV from the army, but I can't find the source

First Footage of LEMV

LEMV is just too big not to be noticed and a family in New Jersey caught the thing on tape during it's first flight.

LEMV Flies! Will the Revolution Begin?

Aviation Week reported yesterday night, that on August 7th 2000 and 12 LEMV underwent it's madden flight out of Lakehurst New Jersey. No pictures or video as of yet, but this is the big moment we have all been waiting for. Finally the United States Military has a vehicle to prove of disprove airship technology in the 21st century, and on top of that, it's the worlds largest flying object.

Strangely enough this happened on the same day that Discovery Air ended it's deal with Hybrid Air Vehicles to build a fleet of 50 ton cargo variants of these airships. Discovery Air said in a statement "we remain excited about this technology's potential and intend to continue working with HAV to promote the commercialization of heavy lift hybrid air vehicles," So perhaps they are waiting to see what the Army dose with LEMV before they buy, all the more reason for us to show our support of LEMV.

LEMV really couldn't have picked a better time (save last year) to take it's madden flight, as NASA had just completed one the most crazy and intense rover landings on the planet mars in human history. On top of that, American's are winning at the Olympics not only in terms of total gold medal count, but in producing the best Olympic athlete in known human history; Micheal Phelps. With all these reasons to be prideful to be an American it is likely that the US Economy will see a measure of rebound, which in turn is good for the Airship business as investors will be more likely to invest in airship technology. Blue Devil Block 2 recently got caned by the Airforce when it was only 95% complete. With LEMV coming out at such an opportune time, maybe the Airforce will consider spending the last 5 million needed to finish the 148 million dollar airship.

But even if that doesn't happen, LEMV is the flagship for proving or disproving the hybrid airship concept that the military will use to judge all future efforts that it invests in airship technology. If LEMV should explode in a ball of fire for no good reason, then the airship industry will most likely never recover, and it will mark the true death for airships as we will be more likely to see anti-gravity technology take hold before anyone is willing to invest in airship technology, and by then it will be too late.

On the other hand, if LEMV should happen to be so lucky as to be used in combat for extracting troops form a hostile environment, and happens to prove it is well suited for combat extraction missions because of it's near invonrability to bullets and Rocket Propeller Grenades. Hybrid Airships could quickly become the military's new best friend complementing or replacing helicopters for the same roles.

Given what good things have happened to us Amaricans in the last few weeks, I feel very optimistic about the future. These big old blimps will revolutionize the way we get around. And although things might seem grim now for the people of earth, the cavalry is coming. Airships have the power to revolutionize the cargo industry, and in-turn, raise the stranded of living for everyone on the planet. Just imagine this scenario, the United States could solves it's economic problems by building cargo hybrid airships for a new globule cargo transportation industry. Not only would it create high-tech good paying jobs, but it would help everyone on the planet get the supplies they desperately need.

This is indeed a great day for airship fans, but it just might be a great day for the world.

Airship Update

It seems things are going well in the airship world. LEMV is scheduled for first flight on the 5th or 7th of June. After that it will fly to Florida to pick up it's surveillance gondola and then head out to some Theater after that (hopefully not Occupy.)  Blue Devil is close to completion and it's first flight will probably take place around the same time. In a recent blog post the head of Mav6 vented his frustration with the Airforce on the continual snowballing of the Blue Devil Block 2 program and their resilience despite said fact. It appears that Blue Devil has come in about 40 million under budget, which when we take into consideration that most military contractors never live up to their promises and almost always go over budget, is no small feat.

Aeros is also getting Congressional funding and plans to have their prototype ML866 Aeroscraft ready by December. As you can see from the picture above they are on their way to reaching that goal.

If this pace keeps up Airships will be here sooner rather then later. Lets hope for the best!