Small Company Aims to
Soar Above Lockheed to Win Blimp Contract
·The firm is confident the Pentagon will pick its design for a craft to
move troops and cargo.
By Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
It's
the blimp industry's version of David and Goliath.
An
obscure Tarzana firm run by Russian émigrés is locked in competition with
Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor, to win a
Pentagon contract to build 900-foot- long, blimp-like aircraft to move
cargo and troops into combat zones.
Worldwide Aeros, which
makes blimps used for flying billboards, generated plenty of buzz in
aerospace circles last summer when it and Lockheed each landed $3-million
contracts from the Pentagon to do preliminary design work.
The Pentagon's advanced research arm expects to pick the winning design in
September and award a $100-million contract for a prototype airship. The
winner then has a chance to bid on a blimp production contract potentially
worth $11 billion over 30 years.
"In reality we don't feel Lockheed is our technical competitor," said Igor
Pasternak, 41, Worldwide Aeros' founder. "There is only one solution, and
we have that one solution," the Russian-trained scientist insisted.
Pasternak's company "wrote
a proposal that seemed outstanding," said Norman J. Mayer, a veteran
airship designer for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Navy, who helped
the Pentagon evaluate the blimp proposals. "They were very serious about
what they were trying to do. Time will tell how well they do it."
Winning will not be easy.
Lockheed farmed out the blimp job to its Skunkworks unit, the legendary
aircraft design house in Palmdale that has developed many of the nation's
most advanced aircraft, including the SR-71 and U-2 spy planes.
By contrast, Worldwide Aeros, with 40 employees, expects $10 million in
revenue this year from selling blimps for advertising, including promoting
MasterCard and Spalding sporting goods.
Pasternak has built about 30 blimps in the U.S. His blimps cost about $3
million each; components are made in Tarzana, then assembled in hangars in
San Bernardino or Palmdale.
But Pasternak said he had faced bigger challenges than outwitting
Lockheed, including persuading six of his employees and their families to
flee Russia with him in 1993.
Pasternak grew up in Lviv, a Ukrainian city of 700,000 near the Polish
border.
After getting a degree in civil engineering, he formed his own company in
1988 and began working on a Soviet project to develop mammoth airships to
transport cargo to the remote Siberian oil fields. It was one of the first
private aeronautics ventures permitted under Mikhail S. Gorbachev's
perestroika reforms, Pasternak said.
When the Soviet Union
collapsed, Pasternak's investment capital dried up. With growing
anti-Semitism in his country, Pasternak said, he and his colleagues fled
Russia and emigrated to the U.S.
Eventually, he was able to persuade several investors to fund his
aerospace company based on his experience making blimps in Russia.
The Pentagon hopes that these new airships can help move U.S. troops more
quickly. Currently, personnel and equipment travel separately; heavy
weapons, such as tanks, are transported by ship, which can take more than
a month.
Ultimately, the Pentagon envisions buying 14 to 16 heavy-lift airships,
each capable of carrying 500 tons of cargo and passengers.
The airships would travel up to 138 mph, with a range of more than 10,000
miles.
In addition to increased cargo capacity, the airships would give the U.S.
military additional flexibility in moving troops closer to the battlefield
because in theory the craft could bypass ports and runways. The airships
would have only one requirement: an open landing field about two to three
times their size.
"It can totally change how you conduct warfare," Pasternak said of the
concept.
He envisions the aircraft as not a blimp or an airplane but as a hybrid of
the two. The vehicle would rise into the air thanks to nonflammable
helium, much as a blimp does, but the bottom of its hull would act like a
wing to give it additional lift and control, he said. The craft would be
powered by propellers.
Pasternak contends that this new design would be easier to handle and that
it could land under a pilot's control, without ground handlers having to
pull on tethers as with conventional blimps. But the concept still faces
several hurdles, analysts said.
Although engineers have decades of knowledge in developing airships, none
has been built to carry the tonnage the Pentagon envisions for its
project.
Moreover, the airships would be vulnerable to antiaircraft fire, not only
because of their size but also because they would be flying at relatively
low altitude of about 10,000 feet, bringing them within range of
shoulder-fired missiles.
The challenges for the prevailing bidder will be immense. But win or lose,
Pasternak sees the project as a means to a different end: to build
commercial versions for carrying business cargo or even paying passengers.
His "cruise ship in the sky" would have hotel-like rooms, vast lobbies
with viewing areas, a restaurant and space for about 180 passengers. It
would fly from
Los Angeles to
New York in about 18 hours.
"You can have dinner, go to sleep and wake up in the morning in New York,"
Pasternak said.
He said the craft would cost about $46 million to build — about the same
as the 150-seat Boeing Co. 737 passenger jet but half as expensive to
operate.
Businessmen have talked up grand plans for passenger blimps for decades,
and none has taken hold. Ever since the hydrogen-filled passenger
dirigible Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937, lighter-than-air ships
have been little more than a footnote in history.
Pasternak, who doesn't shrink from taking on a behemoth like Lockheed,
brushes aside any qualms.
"It'll be a completely different approach to moving things," he said.
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
Pasternak's company "wrote
a proposal that seemed outstanding," said Norman J. Mayer, a veteran
airship designer for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Navy, who helped
the Pentagon evaluate the blimp proposals. "They were very serious about
what they were trying to do. Time will tell how well they do it."
When the Soviet Union
collapsed, Pasternak's investment capital dried up. With growing
anti-Semitism in his country, Pasternak said, he and his colleagues fled
Russia and emigrated to the U.S.
