Blue Devil Set for April Compleation?

Mav6 has it's own blog that provides very transparent details into the inter-workings of the Blue Devil Airship. Just after the Wired article was released Mav6 posted this on their blog, indicating that work is still underway on Blue Devil.

Oddly this news came out a day before Wired ran it's story that I posted about before, yet the post on Mav6's blog is dated just after Wired ran it's story. Could it be that Blue Devil is going to be completed before the air force gets a chance to scrap it? It makes sense to me that when something is so close to completion, why wouldn't one just finish it. Mav6 seems to employ an Out of the Box prospective when it comes to deference work. Usually if a contractor isn't being paid, they just stop working, particularly when it comes to defense contractors. Yet this might be an episode of a company's love for a big fat blimp. How could one let something as trivial as politics stop them from achieving their dreams?

The reasoning behind the termination of the Blue Devil Block 2 comes from inflated operational cost predictions made by the Airforce's Big Safar. They believe that, because of it's slow speed, Blue Devil will come under attack often and require constant repairs to continue operation. The problem is that this is a completely assumed cost based off no real world experience flying blimps over Afghanistan.

How many weapons dose the Taliban have that can reach 20,000 feet? I can defiantly see rebel forces shooting at an enemy spy blimp all day long from their encampments as part of the evenings entertainment. But at 20,000 feet the chances of them hitting it are about as good as a rampaging drunk shooting an apple to shreds from 3000 yards away with a sniper rifle. The bullets will go subsonic before they reach the blimp, greatly decreasing accuracy. And even if they do hit, the impact force will probably be so little they might just bounce off hall.

Heat seeking missiles don't work very well, because the heat signature from the engines is too low, and radar tracking missiles, which I doubt the Taliban has more then a few of,  don't work well ether because the radar signature is too little. It seems more likely that Big Safar inflated the projected operating costs because of some type of unclear bigotry toads this particular airship program. They tried to kill Blue Devil once already, so it's clear they have a grudge.

It would be nice if both LEMV and Blue Devil reached completion at relatively the same time, that way LEMV's advantages could be exemplified as it would be directly compared to more conventional airships with the same mission.

US Airforce spends 140 million to kick rocks.

The US Airforce has just cancelled Blue Devil Block 2. I know I said I didn't care for it but, can I really say I'm happy about this? What's the possibility that LEMV gets cancelled as well thanks to budget cuts and delays? And why didn't the Pentagon get it's act together to not wast 140 million on a project that offers no new benefits over conventional airship technology in the first place? Did they not even look at our past history with airship technology to know that conventional airships are plagued with problems?

The Hybrid Airship design is the future for all airship technology. That's just simple logic. Without some system of ballast control, conventional airships just don't work. They are hard to control, they can't hover, they're giant wind sails, and worst of all they have a chance to lose ballast control and fall out of the sky like the Macron or the Akron, or they can just go flying up into the sky until their balloons pop and then they come crashing down. Hybrids solve all these problems by using the shape of the hull like an airplane to maintain ballast control, which is what gives hybrids the edge they need to bring airship technology to the next level and become a powerhouse of economic growth and market stability. 

The Navy knows all about the intrinsic difficulties with airships from experience, but perhaps that is the problem; branches of the military not sharing information as they should. The Airforce has little experience with airships, so perhaps they where looking to outshine the Navy with the largest blimp they could make. The idea that they, of course, would somehow overcome all the problems that the navy could not solve. Why? Because they are better then the Navy, in their minds. So why would they ask the Navy for help?

This lack of ability for the American military branches to work with each other is a long standing problem in the US, and very well could be the death of this nation if we don't somehow fix it. Why can't we all just get past our own egos and work together? This ego-centric-mindedness is the real killer of this Nation, as much like in public school the military is filed with the ideology that one must be better then someone else when they are right, and to be wrong is to commit the "sin" of stupidity. Yet in the end, the Airforce ends up looking the bigger fool which is regrettable because it was probably just the arrogance of one or two bullheaded generals that screwed this whole thing up in the end, and now the entire Airforce must take the blame for it.

Hopefully we will learn from this. It's time for airship technology to reach new heights, and that path is clearly laid out in the Hybrid Airship design, not in the old ways of the old world. We must work together to survive and we must work together to thrive. If we keep on trying to be better then everyone else, without realizing that we all have different skill sets and we are all individuals, we aren't gonna make it. Respect and peace is the answer.

LEMV AWOL

Here we are on the edge of a new year and still no sign of the mythical flying bewilder beast known as LEMV, the promise that LEMV would be quickly mass produced now seems like a distant fairy tail as the reality of perpetual overstatements by military contractors always live up to their routine of never living up to what is calmed.

Honestly, I have no Idea what the state of LEMV is as I write this, as everything relating to LEMV in the Google news feed is dead. Go see for yourself (Click Here)... see? Nothing. The last thing I remember reading said that LEMV was set to fly in November, after being already 3 mouths behind then. Now it's December 30th and the news feed on LEMV is dead. Nobody is talking about how far behind this airship program is, yet they are supposed to deploy the first one to Afghanistan next month! It's obvious this airship venture is behind scheduled and nobody is saying why.

What some might find annoying, I kinda do, is that Lockheed Martin had already built a working prototype that fit LEMV's specifications back in 2007, the P-791 as you may recall. Yet the military decided to go with the British company that was in it's infancy compared to where Lockheed was back in 2007.  I'm not saying it was a bad choice, I think the idea was to even out the competition. However it's clear at this point that if it was speed the military was looking for, which is something they have stated as a high priority target, Lockheed would have been more ideal to fit the task.

One can't help but wonder if their is something larger at play here. Historically, Germany has always been the nation to perfect Airship technology, and Britain was always been fallowing in their footsteps by building off German designs that would crash over Britannia during the first World War. Now however it is Britain to be leading and Germany to fallow. With these new perfected airships everyone will need to take after the Brits. Yet, I can't help but wonder if for some reason this technology is only being perfected now because it is Britannia that is doing it? Could their be a conspiracy around airships that has disallowed the development of the technology for the last century by the British elites? To put that in more detail dose the Royal Family believe in the mystical power of airships and fear it's power so much that they would kill to keep it for themselves? And only let the development go forth if it is Britannia that leads the charge? Historically the Britsh were always trying to outdo the Germans. Yet, the Germans just kept on building better and bigger airships and made the Brits look like fools with their airships that would fall apart.

Now however, times are much different. Zeppelin development in Germany is no better then any other nation with only hints of ambition to build the Hindenburg 2, or some other grand airship project, popping up every once in a great while then dwindling away. It seems like Britannia has won a long standing Invisible war with Germany, and everyone else for that matter. For as soon as LEMV fly's Britannia will be known as the nation that finally brought about practical airships... if it is even going to fly at all at this point.

SolarShip: Hybrid Ariships with unlimited range.

A key feature that makes the hybrid airship so attractive is just how little energy is actually needed to get the ship off the ground. It is so little in fact, that one Canadian company is planing to power their new line of Hybrid Airships with the power of the sun alone. Solar Ship will be a small hybrid airship ranging from ultralights to truck size cargo haulers. However, unlike the military hybrid airships coming out later this year that will be powered by diesel fuel, these things will utilize their envelope to collect solar energy to power small electric motors that will push the ship so long as the sun is shining. This gives them unlimited range, at lest during the day.

The inventor is looking to fix the economic situation in Africa. His idea is that with unlimited range, these things can be operated by volunteers who will fly them from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world that needs humanitarian aid. He also believes, and I endorse this idea fully, that Africa's stranded of living can be dramatically increased by providing supply routs that utilize airships for year round cargo delivery. With unlimited range and no need to refuel he hopes that it will be easy for Africans who don't have any money to operate supply routs if they are given one of these airship and start making money for themselves immediately.

It's a noble idea, if everything goes according to plan they will fly their first prototype from Canada to Africa in 2013. Let's wish them the best of luck.

Blue Devil is half way there. Will Congress cut LEMV? I sure hope not.

Something big happened in the world of airships today.

The Air force has just completed one of the hardest parts in bringing there big old fashioned blimp into the war in Afghanistan. As you can see, it's quit massive.

Unfortunately, I wish I could say this was good news, but thanks to budgetary concerns created by the corporate oligarchy, the government is looking to cut one of these two big blimp programs. The good news is that the Senate is intelligent enough to mention that the practical applications of LEMV out-wight the practical applications of of Blue Devil. However they are trying to migrate responsibility by appointing someone else to figure out which one of these programs to cut. I sure hope this doesn't lead to the Senate cutting LEMV to fund Blue Devil. That would again be an example of politics ruining good ideas. If any of these programs should be cut, Blue Devil is the one that should get the axe first.

However, Blue Devil is still more useful then all these pointless, stupid, irresponsible wars this country has gotten itself into. Why not cut the 2.3 billion it cost to fund these wars that only create a bigger problem in the end anyway? Or even better why not tax the federal reserve out of existence and get ride of these tyrannical bankers that think they rule the world? Call me a pessimist if you want, but I see a wave of stupidity ahead. Not only will government keep us in these pointless wars forever, but they will probably cut LEMV in favor of Blue Devil because they are ahead.

The idiocy of doing such a thing would be catastrophic to a future globule economy. If LEMV is cut it could mean that Discovery Air will pull it's deal of 3.8 billion for Hybrid Airships. The Hybrid Airship might not ever get off the ground and the idea will go nowhere. Blue Devil will probably crash, because blimps are generally unsafe, and the world will descend into tyranny and the sky will fall.

OK, it might not be that bad, but it could be! Maybe I'm wrong, I sure would like to be.

Airship-Spaceships?

High altitude airships is a concept that is only just being explored, The military is currently investing in platforms that can be taken up to 60,000ft-140,000ft. But what if we could take that even higher, say all the way to space? Sounds impossible, but one small company is looking to change our very idea of what we think is possible.

"Aerospace engineer John Powell has studied this idea since 1979, and in 2008 published floating to space , describing the paradigm in detail. In an interview with Sander Olson, Mr. Powell discusses how his company, JP Aerospace , is actively developing the technologies and capabilities to bring this concept to fruition." (Source)

The idea is to have 2 airships that run out of a station docked at 140,000ft. This station in itself would be an airship, but its only job is to remain at 140,000ft and act as a servicing station between the airships that travel to ground and the airships that travel to space.

The airships that travel to ground would be built of stronger components then the ones that travel to space. Because the airships that travel to space would be so lightweight that they would be destroyed by the winds at normal altitudes. However at post 140,000ft there is no wind to worry about.

It's an interesting concept. They hope that in 20 years they will be able to get cargo into low earth orbit for as little as a dollar a pound. Their airships don't look all that flashy, but who knows, maybe one of these airships will take us to mars in the next 30 years.

and the winner is...

Pipistrel!

Really, this was not a huge surprise after the revelations that only 3 teams had actually made it to the competition and could compete. However what is a surprise is that both of the top 2 got double the millage efficiency that was set by NASA. An unprecedented 400 passenger miles per gallon is really showing that electric flight is the way to go. Nothing we have today is that efficient, it's almost cheaper then riding a bike. If this keeps up, I can just imagine in the near future small electric airplanes that can travel all the way around the world on a single charge.

Undoubtedly, this is a huge step for NASA's Small Aircraft Transpiration System. It now makes economic sense for corporations and governments to invest in such a system. If you needed to go from San Fransisco to Los Angeles the price of taking an Air Taxi survive based on this technology would be cheaper and faster then taking a car, and more convenient then airline travel because, hopefully, there will be no TSA oversight (as it's not really needed). At the same time this type of system is applicable everywhere setting the stage for a worldwide, cheap, economically viable, environmentally friendly transportation system that anyone can afford..