Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Return Of The Dirigible

The STS-111/Argus One/Sperm Blimp in Flight via The Register

The German-American Tadpole Blimp Re-Emerges on the Way to Army Flight Testing -- Popular Science

The tadpole-shaped airship formerly known as STS-111, currently known as Argus One, and commonly referred to as the sperm blimp, has completed initial flight tests and is on its way to the U.S. Army’s Yuma proving ground to undergo military testing.

The drone dirigible’s segmented design, crafted by Germany’s TAO Technologies, is aimed at resisting the push, pull, and twist of air currents. It also boasts a unique “Fuelgas” system that runs the blimp’s engines on a fuel mixture with the same density as atmospheric air, keeping the aircraft’s buoyancy the same as it burns off its fuel supply (this trick is actually not new, but was devised in the 1930s during the golden age of airships).

Read more ....

My Comment: Looking at the above picture, I can now understand why they call it the sperm blimp.

No comments: