Going up, up and away
Tarzana firm part of project
By Jim Skeen, Staff Writer
PALMDALE -
Lockheed Martin and a Tarzana company have been hired by the Pentagon to
study possible designs for a giant airship capable of transporting
soldiers and gear around the world to battle areas.
Code-named
"Walrus," this wouldn't be your great-grandfather's zeppelin.
"In
distinct contrast to earlier-generation airships, the Walrus aircraft will
be a heavier-than-air vehicle and will generate lift through a combination
of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas-buoyancy generation and
management," the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said in a
statement announcing the contract awards.
DARPA, the
Pentagon agency that financed the early development of the stealth
fighter, awarded a $2.9 million contract to Lockheed Martin in Palmdale
and a $3.2 million contract to Aeros Aeronautical Systems Corp. of Tarzana
for the first phase of work on Walrus.
Airships
have a military history dating back more than two centuries.
Hot-air
balloons were used to watch enemy forces for Napoleon's armies and served
both the North and the South during the U.S. Civil War. Germany sent
airships with rigid frames - the zeppelins - to bomb London and Paris
during World War I.
The United
States had rigid-frame airships after World War I, but they crashed and
burned. During World War II, the U.S. Navy hunted Nazi submarines with
frameless blimps. Through the first years of the Cold War, blimps with
radar watched for Soviet bombers.
The new
type of operational airship is envisioned to be capable of carrying more
than 500 tons of personnel and equipment
around the
world to battle areas. Able to travel nearly 14,000 miles in seven days,
the airship would also be able to operate from unimproved landing areas
and with little in the way of support equipment or facilities, DARPA said.
Aeros,
based in Tarzana, has done work in Palmdale recently. The company
conducted flight tests and pilot training for one of its airships out of
the former B-1B bomber assembly site during the spring.
Aeros
officials said the Palmdale site would be an ideal location to conduct
flights with a Walrus technology demonstrator airship.
Lockheed
Martin said the contract award will not result in any perceptible change
in employment numbers at the company's Palmdale plant.
During the
program's first phase, the two teams will look at design concepts and come
with a technology development plan to reduce technical risks.
DARPA will
then select one contractor to continue the program's research, which will
include building a technology demonstrator airship.
About
Worldwide Aeros Corp:
Worldwide Aeros Corp. is
the world's leading lighter-than-air, FAA-certified aircraft manufacturing
company. The company's operations involve the research, development, and
marketing of a complete family of Aeros-branded air vehicles used in
military and civilian applications. These include
rigid aeroscrafts, commercial
non-rigid airships, and advanced tethered
aerostatic systems.
The Aeros airships serve both government agencies
and private corporations and are available for a wide variety of platform
missions including advertising, touring, surveillance and broadcasting.
Worldwide Aeros Corp. has a presence across three continents and has
affiliates in eight European and Asian countries. The company's
industry-leading expertise is based on more than 20 years of operations
and advanced research in lighter-than-air technologies. Please visit us at
www.aerosml.com for more information and news about Worldwide Aeros
Corp. Contact:
Edward
Pevzner
Business Development Manager
Tel. 818 344-3999 x 106
Edward@AerosML.com
