A comeback for airships? How many times have you heard that before? However, thanks to generous funding by the Pentagon, four separate projects to develop very large buoyant air vehicles for unmanned persistent surveillance missions are under way in the U.S. Three of them are to take to the air within the next few months.
Leading the way is Northrop Grumman’s Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), which the company describes as “a revolutionary concept that will shape the future of ISR.” It’s not actually an airship, although it has a nonrigid envelope that is inflated with helium. In fact, the elliptical and cambered shape gains up to 40 percent of its forward lift through aerodynamics. This is a big beast–300 feet long, 113 feet wide and 85 feet high, with an envelope volume of 1,340,000 cu ft. That is longer than a football field and taller than a seven-story building.
