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We know the demand for Airlander is enormous,

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Worldwide Aeros Corp (Aeros) has completed the critical design review of its 40E Sky Dragon multirole airship, marking the start of production for the lighter-than-air craft.

Derived from the company’s Sky Dragon family of airships, the 40E offers a low-cost surveillance and security capability in addition to the traditional broadcast and tourism roles typically carried out by airships.

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We're hiring! 29 new jobs up for grabs as of today (30 April): Engineering, Operations, Programme Management. If you like challenges and want to wake up excited to go to work every day, please go to:

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Great news! We've just hit our £2 million target on https://www.crowdcube.com/investm…/hybrid-air-vehicles-18450 Thanks to all who have invested and supported us in many ways in this campaign.
We will allow the campaign to overfund for a period to avoid disappointing those investors who have told us they want to participate, but we do finish for sure on the Crowdcube site at midnight on Thursday. And we may need to close even before then, depending on how much extra starts coming in.
So secure in our funding to first flight, and all systems go on that front now. Look out for some big engineering milestones coming up.
The Airlander Team ‪#‎PrepareforTakeOff‬

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The vehicle is a pressure-stabilized structure and "gets all its strength from being inflated to just above atmospheric pressure with a 4-in. water gauge pressure differential (about 0.15 psi),” says HAV Technical Director Mike Durham. Despite the relatively small amount of pressure, the strength is derived from the airship’s huge diameter. “It acts as a pressure vessel and creates a skin tension in the hull because of the internal pressure.” Skin tension is a function of pressure multiplied by radius. “We have little pressure but lots of radius. I can walk along the top of the hull and I sink in just 0.5 in., so it’s a very stiff structure,” Durham adds.

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Without an internal structural framework, how can the pressure vessel support tons of equipment and payloads of up to 7,000 lb.? “The payload module has pickup points on every single frame,” explains Durham. “We have a cable that runs up and punches into the interior of the hull, which is a figure-8 shape with a septum diaphragm in the middle. The payload sits in a cleft underneath. The cables come up on either side of the diaphragm to which large patches are bonded. All the loads are fed into that 300-ft.-long central diaphragm from where they are distributed out along the top surface,” he adds.

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LONDON — A partnership deal to demonstrate the capabilities of a hybrid airship as a maritime surveillance platform has been signed by Selex ES and HybridAir Vehicles, according to an official at the defense electronics arm of Finmeccancia.
The companies are in talks with the British Ministry of Defence and other potential customers to conduct demonstration flights with the surveillance and reconnaissance platform starting next year, the official said.
Selex ES and HAV could announce they have inked a formal memorandum of understanding in the next few days.
The deal will see the British hybrid airship builder equip its Airlander 10 platform with the Selex's SeaSpray multimode active electronically scanned array radar, electronic support measures equipment, an electro optical/imaging infrared turret, a mission management system and other equipment, said the UK-based official.
With a 10-ton payload the Airlander 10 could house an array of sensors including anti-submarine warfare systems and search-and-rescue systems, said the official.
A HAV executive revealed last October the two sides were in talks which could lead to the British MoD testing the platform.
Although it has some modest updates, the 300-foot-long Airlander 10 is essentially the same HAV vehicle used by Northrop Grumman for the Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program canceled by the US Army in 2013 in the face of technical issues and Pentagon budget problems.
HAV repurchased the airship after the collapse of the LEMV program and has been rebuilding and updating the machine ahead of it flying in early 2016.
"We have put in some modifications, and will put in some more over the course of the next few months, particularly with regards to the payload module and the fins," said a HAV spokesman
The Selex ES official said the platform, with its basic ISR fit, will undertake four months of test flying ahead of conducting trials for various interested parties.
News of the tie-up between Britain's premier defense electronics producer and HAV coincides with an announcement scheduled for June 16 at the Paris Air Show by rival hybrid airship maker Lockheed Martin on progress with its vehicle.
The machines are being touted for military roles and civil uses from surveillance to transporting heavy loads.

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Airlander 10 could house an array of sensors including anti-submarine warfare systems

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Flight Test Vacancies -
F1 Experimental Test Pilot – New!

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