Patrol Airship Concept Evaluation (PACE) Trials, 1983, Airship Industries
The Patrol Airship Concept Evaluation (PACE) Trials in 1983 at the former Weeksville Naval Air Station (NAS) North Carolina undertaken by Airship Industries
The PACE Trials were a follow up from the joint evaluation of lighter-than-air (LTA) aircraft in 1982 conducted by the USA’s Coast Guard and Department of Defense.
The study undertaken by them was “to determine the feasibility of developing an airship to meet Navy and Coast Guard needs”.
To facilitate things, the US Navy contracted Airship Industries Ltd (AI) in the UK (headed by Roger Munk) for lease of an AI SKS500 airship for evaluation purposes; considered by them to be the same size as the Goodyear Blimp, but with a payload capacity by weight of plus 40% - enabled by vectored thrust arrangements to balance serious all-up weight change without load exchange when hovering.