Biplanes and Triplanes were the best !

"M. J. Powell" wrote in message
...


Seconded all opinions. I have a few books on airships. Fancy crossing
the Atlantic by air, getting out of your seat, walking to a window,
opening it and learning out looking at the view! Or a dining room with
proper tables, white tablecloths and proper cutlery!


Which was fine if you were one of the 1% of the population
who could afford the fare. That same 1% today travels in
pretty good style up in first class.

In the 30's we mere mortals would have been fortunate
to travel in steerage class packed like sardines for 6 days
instead of 6 hours.

Keith

In message , Keith Willshaw
writes

"M. J. Powell" wrote in message
...


Seconded all opinions. I have a few books on airships. Fancy crossing
the Atlantic by air, getting out of your seat, walking to a window,
opening it and learning out looking at the view! Or a dining room with
proper tables, white tablecloths and proper cutlery!


Which was fine if you were one of the 1% of the population
who could afford the fare. That same 1% today travels in
pretty good style up in first class.

In the 30's we mere mortals would have been fortunate
to travel in steerage class packed like sardines for 6 days
instead of 6 hours.

Spoilsport. One can always hope.

Mike
--
M.J.Powell

The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.


SMH

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.


Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Keith

Keith Willshaw wrote:

Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Cool!

When I become incredibly, fabulously wealthy, I may opt
for a 6-8 passenger personal airship rather than attempt
to convert a Global Hawk as my private aircraft.


SMH

Stephen Harding wrote:

Keith Willshaw wrote:

Airship Industries were trying to sell their products
for the AEW role. The platform was based on their
Sentinel 5000 product fitted with the radar system
from the E2-C Hawkeye .

http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/Sentinel_5000/

Cool!

When I become incredibly, fabulously wealthy, I may opt
for a 6-8 passenger personal airship rather than attempt
to convert a Global Hawk as my private aircraft.

SMH

I have come into this thread late ............

Has anyone mentioned why they are called blimps????

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++
Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast
Flankers Website - http://www.flankers.co.uk/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++

From: Ken Duffey

I have come into this thread late ............

Has anyone mentioned why they are called blimps????

Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast

The two most popular theories a

1) some British officer thumped one and the sound returned was "blimp."

2) one of the early designations was "balloon, class B, limp" which was
shortened to blimp in conversation.

An interesting aside is the term "dirigible" which some people use to
differentiate between blimps and rigid airships. The term "dirigible" is from
Latin which means give direction to. In other words it's steerable which both
blimps and rigid airships are.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.

As Keith has already noted, they have been proposed for the AEW role with no
success to date, at least as far as free-flying blimps go--unpowered
aerostats are however used for the air surveillance role (ISTR we recently
sold Pakistan some AEW aerostats to assuage their concerns over the recent
purscahse of the Il-76/Phalcon AWACS from Russia/Israel, and they have
served this role in the drug war along the southern US approaches for many
years). I wonder if there are not further roles for aerostats--such as their
use for area security surveillance in an environment like we now find in
Iraq. As to blimps, you really have to have air superiority (or outright air
dominance) in order to make them viable; in such conditions, I'd think they
might be a decent platform for battlefield surveillance using a MTI radar
(sort of a long duration mini-JSTARS, more comparable to the current ARL-M)
or in the SIGINT role, where they can conduct their missions from a position
a few klicks to the rear of the FLOT.

Brooks


SMH

In article ,
"Kevin Brooks" wrote:

As to blimps, you really have to have air superiority (or outright
air dominance) in order to make them viable; in such conditions, I'd
think they might be a decent platform for battlefield surveillance
using a MTI radar (sort of a long duration mini-JSTARS, more
comparable to the current ARL-M) or in the SIGINT role, where they
can conduct their missions from a position a few klicks to the rear
of the FLOT.

With modern construction techniques, a stealthy, ultra-lightweight blimp
with a sensor package should be able to perch up at 120,000 feet or
higher, be hard to find, harder to reach, and useful for direct ground
observation for hundreds of miles in any direction, reporting back with
a highly directional laser-based commlink.

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

Stephen Harding wrote:

The comments concerning possible return of the commercial
airship makes me wonder about military uses of such an
air vehicle.

Are there any for today's military mission and needs?

The only thing that really comes to mind is possibly an
airship as a heavy lift vehicle (a really big Chinook?)
in support operations well behind battle lines or areas
of contention (if helicopters are vulnerable, think how
bad it would be for airships!).

I vaguely recall some not too distant, military driven
experiments in the use of airships, but now have no clue
as to what they could possibly have been.

SMH


It was only a few years ago that concerted efforts failed to destroy a
large ballon which managed to drift clear across the Atlantic despite
numerous holes being shot in it. I wonder if they really are all that
vulnerable?

Dave