Lockheed has liftoff: Sells new airships in $480M deal

[Buster's Uncle]

Lockheed has liftoff: Sells new airships in $480M deal
CNBC.com
Jane Wells   | @janewells  3 Hours Ago




Lockheed Martin's new LMH1 airship to hit the market in late 2018.    Source: Lockheed Martin.



Lockheed Martin has landed its first contract for the hybrid airship it created inside its top secret Skunk Works division. In a deal valued at $480 million, Straightline Aviation (SLA) has signed a letter of intent to purchase 12 of the heavier-than-air airships that measure nearly a football field long. First delivery is scheduled for 2018, with the final airship expected no later than 2021.

The helium-filled airships will be able to carry 20 tons of cargo to remote places without roads. They will even be able to hover over open water. Lockheed has been pitching the airships as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly way to deliver supplies and equipment.

"There is a real need for this," said SLA CEO Mike Kendrick. "It can cost up to $1 billion to put all the infrastructure in for an oil well." He said falling commodity prices have not hurt interest in the airships — quite the opposite, given the cost savings — and U.K.-based SLA has four or five customers ready to try out the airships whenever they're finally ready.

Kendrick used to run Richard Branson's Virgin Airship and Balloon Company, which had 19 blimps around the globe used for advertising or camera work. He was also flight director for Branson's balloon flights. He and his team formed Straightline to focus initially on delivering cargo.

What attracted SLA to the Lockheed Martin product is that the hybrid airship is heavier than air, even though it is filled with helium. Its skin and airframe weigh it down, it doesn't need mooring like a traditional blimp. Engines guide the airship into position, and on its belly are wheel-like structures that spin to let it either hover or "grip" a surface. Lockheed said this provides stability in windy conditions for loading and unloading supplies, making it much easier to operate than a lighter-than-air machine.

"The difference between lighter-than-air and hybrid airships is quite profound," said SLA's CEO. "It may seem small but it is a spectacular development."

Lockheed proved the concept a decade ago with a one-third size prototype, and it has spent years figuring out the right size and the right markets, spending more than $100 million on the project. This is also the first time that Skunk Works, a division of Lockheed Martin more famous for creating legendary military aircraft like the SR-71 and Stealth fighter, has developed something for the commercial market. The company even created a special sales and marketing arm, called Hybrid Enterprises.

There are competitors, most notably the Airlander 10 being built by U.K.-based Hybrid Air Vehicles. The Airlander was unveiled last week and labeled the world's largest aircraft, a lighter-than-air hybrid that may focus more on the tourism market.

Straightline COO Mark Dory said his company has also been talking to HAV about a potential deal in the future and is "very hopeful" the Airlander will be a success. However, he added, "at the moment, our focus is in cargo rather than the the passenger side."

But the passenger side is on the horizon, along with other potential markets in disaster relief, communications, agriculture and renewable energy.

SLA's Kendrick said oil, gas and mining are the "low hanging fruit," to start with, whether it's delivering cargo by air to the "soft sands" of the Middle East, or removing the need to build annual ice roads in northern Canada. "Some ice roads can cost $20 million a year to construct," said Rob Binns, CEO of Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Enterprises. That is one market SLA hopes to target. "You don't have to build ice roads ... and wait for the environmentalists to give you permission," said CEO Kendrick. "You can just land on ice."

[ColdWizard]

Everything old is new again.

[Buster's Uncle]

Air cruise ships, man...

[ColdWizard]

Cruise ships aren't my thing. Packed to the scuppers to maximize profitability.

[Buster's Uncle]

Not mine, either, but there'd be money in doing it...

[Unorthodox]

That's some hefty lift capability there, if these are fuel efficient, I could see a lot of use as a cargo fleet. 

[Rusty Edge]

I love the idea of airships, always have. The trouble is that they tend not to survive wind shear. Large size and light construction are requirements, and that makes them vulnerable.

Perhaps this heavier than air, air ship has overcome that.  I sure hope so, because those ice roads are subject to severe weather.

Well, I guess they'll get guinea pigged on cargo. I'd love a ride one day.

[Buster's Uncle]

Airlander 10 Dirigible Wants to Bring Back the Blimp in a Huge Way
The Drive
By Jonathon Ramsey  March 31, 2016 10:45 AM






The new age of the airship is placing its tiny hopes on the ample roundness of the Airlander 10, the largest aircraft in the world. At 143 feet wide, 85 feet tall, and 320 feet long it is six feet taller and 64 feet longer than an Airbus A380 (as large as that is, the English and German blimps from the early 1900s were two and three times larger). After a failed attempt at military service the airship’s designer, UK company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), has been reengineering it for commercial use with help from UK and EU research grants, a crowdfunding campaign that raised $890,000, and $360,000 from Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson.

The bladders are made of composites like Vectran, Kevlar, and Mylar and don’t contain any internal structure – filling them with helium makes them rigid. Their total volume of 1.34 million cubic feet is broken into chambers that transfer helium to maintain shape as the inert gas changes volume at different altitudes. Additional air bags called ballonets can be filled or emptied as ballast. Able to haul 10 metric tons at a max altitude of 20,000 feet for five days at a time, there’s already an Airlander 50 being planned that can haul 50 tons.





The “hybrid” part is that the Airlander 10 employs flight aspects of a dirigible, an airplane, and a helicopter. Being lighter-than-air provides 60 percent of its lift, its airfoil shape provides 40 percent of lift when it’s flying, the thrust of its four engines can be vectored for steering and vertical takeoff and landing.





Four propellers driven by 325-horsepower turbocharged V-8 diesel engines can get it up to 92 miles per hour, swift enough to carry 48 passengers from London to Paris in under 2.5 hours at its top speed of 92 miles per hour. Each engine operates independently, so if they all failed the Airlander 10 would gently descend to the ground and be able to land anywhere thanks to its retractable pneumatic skids. Even with a ten-percent loss of helium annually, its builder estimates operating costs that are one-fifth those of a helicopter.





The airship can even take small arms fire and stay airborne because it began life in 2010 as a $297-million US Army project. Back then it was meant to stay aloft for up to three weeks without a crew, serving as an aerial surveillance and reconnaissance platform, and communications relay in Afghanistan.

Flight tests are scheduled imminently, if they go well then HAV wants to make proper flights for investors later this year and be building 12 Airlanders annually by 2018. They won’t come cheap, with an estimated price of $35 million. Not bad considering an Airbus A380 runs $414 million before goodies, but there is the ginormous matter of parking…

http://news.yahoo.com/airlander-10-dirigible-wants-bring-144500922.html

[Rusty Edge]

Cool!

[Buster's Uncle]

I think so.  There's something really awesome about dirigibles...