The Navy Rigid Airship

Abstract

Lighter-than-air (LTA) craft were used with great success by the Navy for some fifty years. Consideration of the unique capabilities of these craft, particularly rigid airships, suggests that they would be well suited to some present-day Navy missions. This memorandum presents a resume of past experience with rigid airships and outlines their performance characteristics. The most prominent of these include the ability to remain airborne for great lengths of time carrying large payloads, the ability to land and take off vertically and hover, and their apparent campatibility with nuclear propulsion. In view of the considerable technical potential, a mission-oriented systems analysis of updated rigid airship designs is recommended.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1972
Accession Number
AD0902628

Entities

People

  • E. W. Clements
  • G. J. O'hara

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Airships
  • Altimeters
  • Altitude
  • Balloons
  • Blimps
  • Composite Materials
  • Fabrication
  • Helicopters
  • Military Aircraft
  • Navy
  • Radar Altimeters
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Aerodynamics/Aeronautics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.