February 2012

Dirigibles - The Future ?  - Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd of Cranfield (Bedfordshire) have produced a design for a Long Endurance Multi-Intelligent Vehicle, based on an airship with a 60% helium/40% air mixture (the Zeppelin’s  of the past were filled with hydrogen), and a 50 tonne payload.     With a speed of 90 knots it can be flown remotely and in a civil passenger configuration some 200 passengers could be taken across the Atlantic in 36 hours, or indeed  the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligent Vehicle could perform persistent surveillance and reconnaissance for a “patrol” of up to three weeks duration.    The quoted price per basic vehicle is in the region of £ 60 million which make them a very cost effective solution to ocean patrolling in distant areas such as the South Atlantic or just drifting over the waters of the North Sea.   The possible use of these Long Endurance Multi-Intelligent Vehicles would seem to be endless – taking heavy lifts to vessels at some distance offshore, ISTAR (Intelligence, targeting, surveillance, reconnaissance) services, not to mention anti-piracy duties.    It is stated that these airships are far less vulnerable than their predecessors with bullets and even missiles being able to pass through the balloon without igniting the gas mixture.   How daft is this idea ??      Three have been sold to the US Army for service in Afghanistan at a cost of £ 315 million.