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From: edat!brian@uunet.UU.NET (brian douglass personal account)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Airships?
Message-ID: <1991Jun5.064738.26002@amd.com>
Date: 4 Jun 91 15:56:39 GMT
References: <1991May31.061011.12752@amd.com>
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From: edat!brian@uunet.UU.NET (brian douglass personal account)


[11 lines of unnecesary quote deleted --CDR]

NOVA on PBS recently aired an episode on modern air ships, the
various designs in use, and the exploration of heavy lift designs.
In a word, no, no one has been able to build a modern air ship with
a super heavy lift capability.  But not from a lack of trying.  It
actually looked more like a lack of funding.  Many different
solutions were jury-rigged together more as proof of concept, and
tended to end in disaster.  One attempt by the US Forestry Service
ended in the death of a test pilot.

Given sufficient funding, long term committment, a proper design 
obviously could be achieved with say a 1 Million lb lifting
capacity or more (3+ C-5 loads).  But the biggest problem as shown
in the NOVA show is mooring.  Most air ship accidents happen while
moored at unimproved facilities.

I suggest waiting for the repeat episode (if this wasn't already
the repeat) for more complete info.

-- 
Brian Douglass			brian@edat.uucp