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Aerospace

The blimp reborn

In-Depth

The future of the airship did not go down with the Hindenburg. A new generation of these magnificent flying machines is about to be used for communications, military surveillance and more. Niall Firth reports.

The residents of Akron, Ohio are very excited. As the birthplace of the blimp, the fortunes of this small town have always been inextricably linked with the airship industry and for its citizens the heady days of the airship boom must seem a long way off.

 

 

So the recent announcement that the gigantic deserted airship hangar on the outskirts of the city was to be used to build an airship again for the first time since the 1960s certainly came as welcome news.

 

In December last year Lockheed Martin received a $150m (£80m) contract from the US Missile Defence Agency to return to its historic home in Akron and construct a next-generation airship that could operate at extremely high altitudes. More than 25 times larger than the famous Goodyear blimp, the High Altitude Airship ( HAA) will provide the US military with overlapping radar coverage from far above the jet stream. It is estimated that just 11 of these giant airships could provide surveillance of the entire US coast and southern border crossings.

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