PPRuNe Forums - New Gen AirShips - Hybrid Air Vehicles, UK

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- - New Gen AirShips - Hybrid Air Vehicles, UK (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/463101-new-gen-airships-hybrid-air-vehicles-uk.html)

Mr B,

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I wouldn't have qualifioed to post

With spelling like that, you certainly have the right credentials for being an admin blunty!! :ooh:

PA

Oi! I told you not to be a cheeky boy:= - fat finger syndrome (always look at the keyboard when I see daft spollong misteaks to check what the adjacent key is...:O)

Now if you really want to take the poss (see above technique), I was a nav...

Mister B

Again I have no ability to verify or confirm the provenance of this snippet of discussion but it's the only thing I've ever found that seems to show the other side of the LEMV story:

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You forget Northrop had the contract, not HAV Ltd, they were just a sub contractor and spent the funds allocated to them. Which was less than 100 million usd. What did Northrop do with the rest ?? Northrop would not even pay for the various contractors involved in the sub assemblies to fly out and finish the job correctly. It's all history now and it's a good move for the US DoD folks to allow the LEMV to return to Cardington, if their experts had thought Northrop had done such a good job they would have handed the ship to them, which is probably why RZ is so peeved.

To a question about what will be different in the UK:

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because they will have the time to fit turbines and install the bow thruster which was not even delivered in time for the first flight. Also all the sub contractors are easily available in the UK for any required mods, like changing the skids for a hoverskirt. It will take time for a "New LTAV era", but the cargo LEMV will be a real good start. There are only 6 designers in the world that understand lifting body aerodynamics and flight control systems. 2 of them work for HAV Ltd, BUT none ever worked for Lockheed, which is why their P791 got binned for demonstrating hybrid dutch roll on approach and their Hale D crashed on first flight.

there are always technical issues with a prototype, particularly when forced to fly before all the systems had been fitted (No bow thruster, so out of C of G limits). The no2 LEMV would have been a lot lighter, as more time would have been available to manufacture a lighter envelope etc. No one is saying that HAV Ltd won't need more time and funding. HAV did a great job with very limited funding and did what a lot a nay sayers said they could not do, in getting a full size stable hybrid air vehicle flying in such a short time frame. What I would like to know is what Northrop did with the funds allocated to RPV flight control, surveillance and ground station equipment?

An airship has landed at Cardington Shed 1

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Spokesman for the company Chris Daniels said HAV is the offshoot of 40 years of development in Cardington and has been working on this airship with the US military for the past two years.

He said: “The ship is technically different to a blimp in that it is fractionally heavier than air, takes off in a similar way to an aeroplane but floats due to being filled with helium.

“It has four engines and can cruise at speeds of 60-75 knots, or 80 miles per hour and uses an exceptionally low amount of fuel.”

1. 40 years to develop? If you take that view you may as well sweep up the other 80 years of balloon development!

2. Technically, if the blimp is heavier than air then it cannot float! (unless it is on water something else more dense!)

3. Cruising at 60-75 Kts. I guess it will be flying backwards over the next 3 days then!!!

A warning to all would-be investors; the Snake Oil Salesman is back in the UK after a recent tour of the Wild West - lock away your wallets!

LJ :ok:

The ship is technically different to a blimp in that it is fractionally heavier than air.

As most "Blimps", in American service at least , were usually flown "heavy" using hull lift ( i.e. with a slight positive angle of attack) for handling reasons, it is a bit of a misleading statement.

HAV304 back in UK

I may be wrong but I think the 40-year development refers to the fact that the designers of the HAV304 have been designing airships for 40 years e.g.
Airship Industries Skyship 600 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.. and that they have quite a lot of experience.

Yes, it seems that the pointless windbag has indeed been unveiled to the meeja.

No doubt the snake oil salesmen will be making their usual fatuous claims about how this thing will be a green solution to everyones needs.....:rolleyes:

See BBC News - The world's longest aircraft in the making if you wish, but there's no real point....:mad:

BBC News - The world's longest aircraft in the making

It's here, it's built, it's working. Now lets find out if it's any use.

I must admit the front does remind me of Eccentrica Gallumbits.

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I must admit the front does remind me of Eccentrica Gallumbits.

Who is she?

Genstabler wrote:

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I must admit the front does remind me of Eccentrica Gallumbits.

Who is she?

Refer to your Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy under the entry for 'Eroticon Six'.....:hmm:

I can't help thinking that HAV have missed a trick by not flying the thing to Bedfordshire from the US instead of dismantling it and transporting it by boat (surely one of the mediums it's designed to replace).

Thank you BEagle. The breadth and depth of your knowledge base never ceases to amaze me!