Aztruck - top tip for you buddy, is don't start your posts with "I'm one of the shareholders". Don't you think you might be indicating a slight financial bias??
Had a look at the wind data for Afghanistan from one of my flight planning guides and it shows that the FL240 winds are less than 40kts for only 4 months a year - they are also averages, so there must be days at 75kts+ and days of 10kts or less.
Also had a look at this video from Lockheed Martin, who have built a full-sized air vehicle compared to the small scale model of Hybrid Air Vehicles:
YouTube - Lockheed-Martin "Skunk Works" P791 LTA ACLS dynmicpara
It looks pretty unsteady on its feet doesn't it? Also, because it is "heavier than air" (about 80% is lifted by gas and the rest by aerodynamic lift) take a look at the runway it needs. Also, without propulsion its going to crash like any other "heavier than air" aircraft!
Here is the UK's Hybrid Air Vehicle's website with a video of a model of what they
might produce if they manage to get money out of the cash-strapped MoD:
Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd, SkyCat
When you take a look at the company's heritage, it has been trying to peddle the "snake oil" of airships for the past 35 years (Airship Industries via Westinghouse Airships Inc via Advanced Technology Group (ATG) to Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV)). I'm sorry to say, that I believe Mr John Wood; at least he had the sense to call it a day after so many companies have gone into recievership over this continuing debacle.
If you need persistence and want to buy British then let's fork out for satellites. Surrey Satellite Technology are building 14 GALILEO GPS space vehicles for £510M - that's about £36M a copy. Halve the order to cover the launch costs (about £10M per shot), infrastructure and operations and now you're talking!
If we're going to invest in this folly, then please make it another Army folly - just like the Phoenix UAV.
