LTA - Recent developments

Abstract

NASA-sponsored studies of existing and new LTA missions showed that airships looked very promising for some two dozen civil and military applications. These include surveillance of rural and urban areas, in the form of forest and police patrols; transport of very heavy large-volume maritime, industrial, and military payloads; coastal patrol and sea control; seismographic surveys; air pollution monitoring; and moving goods to remote areas; along with a number of less important but still attractive missions. A figure of merit of productivity (payload weight, ton moles per hour) was used to compare airships of various type and size. In each case, this criterion established an index of efficiency for evaluating not only conceptual approaches but also modes of flight. Some, in part unexpected, results of these studies are described.