U.K.'s Hybrid Air Vehicles Begins Re-assembling Large Airship

The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. (HAV) has begun reassembling a large airship acquired from the U.S. Army, following cancellation of the Northrop Grumman-led Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program.
Cardington-based HAV plans to use the HAV304 hybrid airship, as a prototype and demonstrator for its planned Airlander 50 commercial heavy-lift airship. The first U.K. flight is expected by year’s end.
aviationweek

Giant Airship Could Move Huge Amounts of Cargo

A huge helium-filled airship with military and commercial uses has been unveiled near Los Angeles. It is still experimental, but a full-sized working model should be finished in a few years.
The prototype unveiled in this immense World War II hangar near Los Angeles is just half the size of the final working model. But the prototype is massive, at 75-meters-long. It is wide, flattened on the top, and covered with silver-colored Mylar, a tough kind of polyester.
The craft was built with $35 million in funding from the Pentagon and the U.S. space agency, NASA. The final version will double the length and provide eight times the cargo space, carrying up to 60 metric tons, all without ground support, says Shenny Yao of the company Aeros.
defencetalk

Northrop Grumman airship programme cancelled

The Northrop Grumman Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), a lighter-than-air vehicle meant to keep sophisticated sensors airborne for weeks at a time, has been canceled by the US Army.

"This project was initially designed to support operational needs in Afghanistan in Spring 2012; it will not provide a capability in the timeframe required," says the Army. "Due to technical and performance challenges, and the limitations imposed by constrained resources, the Army has determined to discontinue the LEMV development effort."

The LEMV programme, more than a year behind schedule and far over budget, was meant to deploy to Afghanistan to support intelligence collection efforts. The Army is in the midst of withdrawing from Afghanistan after 12 years of war there.

Airships, which use very little gas and maintain more-or-less neutral buoyancy, are ideally suited for intelligence missions that require targeting a single area for long periods of time. Conventional unmanned air vehicles (UAV) can fly over 24h, which is not long enough for some applications.

Northrop declined to comment, directing questions to the Army.

flightglobal

US Army recibirá dirigibles para misiones de vigilancia en Afganistán/ Northrop Grumman wins race to revive hybrid airships with $517 million order

Northrop Grumman y la compañía británica Hybrid Air Vehicles, han recibido un contrato por parte del US Army, para la construcción de tres dirigibles para misiones de vigilancia en Afganistán. En su día los dirigibles fueron considerados plataformas muy útiles para este tipo de misiones, hasta que la US Navy retíró el último de los que disponía a finales de los años cicuenta.
El programa recibe el nombre de LEMV, y el vehículo debe ser capaz de permanecer a una altura de 20.000 pies durante tres semanas sin aterrizar, y debe poder operar con numerosos equipos de vigilancia, con un peso total de 1.134kg, alcanzando una velocidad máxima de 80 nudos (148km/h)
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Northrop Grumman Partnering with UK-based Hybrid Air Vehicles, intends to spark a hybrid airship revival with a $517 million contract awarded to deliver three slightly heavier-than-air aircraft to the US Army for deployment to Afghanistan.
Once popular as military surveillance and cargo aircraft, the US Navy retired its last hybrid airships in the 1950s.
LEMV requirements call for an aircraft that can remain aloft at 20,000ft for three weeks without landing. Each aircraft also must carry multiple intelligence payloads weighing up to 1,134kg (2,500lb), provide up to 16kW power and achieve a maximum speed of 80kt (148km/h).
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