ISIS (Concept: Lockheed Martin
(Bad) timing is everything in aerospace. At the height of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, airships looked to be the answer to demands for persistent, “staring-eye” surveillance. Continue reading
Category Archives: Lighter Than Air
Blue Devil Builder Mav6 Divests Airship Operations
Mav6 has announced that it has divested its airship business. The Vicksburg, Mississippi-based defence technology company leveraged this capability to execute work on the Blue Devil Block 2 system — a long endurance airship integrated with advanced sensor payloads built for the US Air Force. Continue reading
Raytheon’s JLENS Defeats Anti-Ship Cruise Missile in Tests
A recent U.S. Army and Navy test demonstrated that the Raytheon Co. JLENS radar system can integrate with defensive systems that are currently in the U.S. Navy’s inventory to provide overland cruise missile defence from the sea. Continue reading
Logos Gets $28M Kestrel Persistent Stare Contract from US Navy
Kestrel
U.S. Navy persistent-surveillance experts are awarding a $28 million contract to Logos Technologies Inc. in Fairfax, Va., for three Kestrel surveillance and reconnaissance systems for deployment on aerostats and airships operating at altitudes between 1,000 and 5,000 feet off the ground. Continue reading
Aeroscraft Zeppelin Combines Aircraft and Airship Technologies
Inside the 17-story mammoth wooden blimp hangars at the former military base in Tustin that rise above southern Orange County, Worldwide Aeros Corp. is building a blimp-like airship designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world. Continue reading
Project Moby Dick – Cold War Spy Balloon from 1952
“Project 119L” was a Cold War reconnaissance operation by the U.S. Air Force in which large balloons floated cameras over the Soviet Union. Continue reading
Graf Zeppelin Arrives in USA After 93-hour Dash from Germany
From the Prelinger Archives, this Kinograms Newsreel shot at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1928, shows the Graf Zeppelin reaching the United States after 93 hours of flight. Continue reading
Aerostats to Monitor Mexican Border
TCOM Aerostat
The U.S. military is joining with border-patrol officials in a new initiative that could bring dozens of surveillance aerostats from the battlefields of Afghanistan to America’s border with Mexico. Continue reading