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Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 09:39 pm: | 
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damnit, you're right, I was looking right at it SA-2 Guideline.... reading the S-72 Dvina
stats and muddled em both.
sumna biatch. In anycase, yes, its bringing down Stay Puff well and quickly. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 09:46 pm: |
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http://www.amazon.com/Deltoid-Pumpkin-Seed-John-Mc Phee/dp/0374516359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid= 1300929432&sr=1-1
Not a new idea. A pretty good one actually. By using helium to lift part of the load, and aerodynamics to lift the rest, you can lift real heavy stuff and carry it cheaper, to smaller landing strips, than a regular plane. Slower, though.
The Helium reserve was defunded by Bill Clinton, along with the Mohair subsidy. It was done, like cutting a major chink of the defense budget, to give the illusion of "cutting government" while actually making it bigger. Worked, too. Like the "balanced budget" that didn't actually happen. ( but got closer than we have in a long long time. Perhaps a D prez and R congress is the way to go? ) For the record, I agreed with the Mohair bit. We no longer need it for Jeep seats. The helium Reserve I wanted kept. Bill didn't ask me.
For Recon, airships are best used for things like drug runner interdiction, border control, ( and we could use them! we have border problems in multiple locations. ) and low threat environs. Remember, most of a phased array radar can be empty space. You can build a huge one into an airship with great range because of the altitude. It could pick up stealth planes with some offset transmitters.
We are using airship drones today, and tethered blimps with built in radar.
Looking at the video, though, Hmm.
The hovercraft landing gear is great, ( though crappy for braking ) since you can have huge crab angles, etc. Also, the hovercraft gear can act as direct lift fans to aid in takeoffs and carry of heavy loads.
But the overall shape seems to block flow over the tail, and it seems iffy in roll control. A deltoid would be better, it seems to me. Like to see the wind tunnel tests. ( or tuft testing vids ) |
Doerman
| | Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 01:25 am: |
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So.. Do tell. What's hybrid about it? Does it mean lithium batteries type of hybrid? |
Mr_grumpy
| | Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 06:17 am: |
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What's hybrid about is the 4 hovercraft it lands on.
The dirigble had it's day with the Zeppelins & the R100 & R101.
But every 20 odd years somebody comes up with a new twist &, Hey, dirigibles are back, again!
Several millions of the currency of your choice will be invested in the research & prototypes to "Herald in a new era of air travel" & in the end it'll all fade away amidst recriminations & bankruptcies.
The weather on our little blue planet is far from stable & these things just won't cut it in poor conditions.
Don't get me wrong I think they're impressive as hell, in fact I used to deliver into Airship Industries who were based in the old airship hangar at Cardington, but they just don't have the allround capability needed.
Other than for very limited uses I don't see the idea getting off the ground. (pun intended) |
Slaughter
| | Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 11:31 am: |
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Hybrid in that it is partially buoyant. It REQUIRES aerodynamic lift to fly - it is a lifting body. With cargo, it MUST move forward to develop lift, to "fly"
"Hybrid" is NOT restricted to discussions on the Prius - there ARE other things that are hybrids.
The fact that the hybrid is capable of cruising at aircraft-like speeds and not the 60-70 is speeds of a buoyant lift vehicle makes it a bit more practical as a cargo bird.
The new concept purely buoyant vehicles are extremely high altitude, unmanned. You get well above airline altitudes and the weather is very stable, very predictable as compared to "down here." |
Cityxslicker
| | Posted on Friday, March 25, 2011 - 02:48 pm: |
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doing some research and checking, the shoulder fired Stinger has a range anywhere between 4.5km to 8km..... unclassified wiki.
seems that if you could target it and paint it, it could reach that 20, 000 ft.
of couse Stinger being heat guided, I dont know what kind of signature that thing puts out.... But we were handing out Stingers like candy back in the 80s to Afghanistan... do you really think they used them all ?..... (yes the landing airliner off the end of the civilian runway is a much more palatable target for the terrorists; I dont think they would bother much with Stay Puff as it doesnt make a tactical media impression that they seem to love) |
Sifo
| | Posted on Friday, March 25, 2011 - 06:25 pm: |
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The idea of the "hovercraft" landing gear is interesting. As was pointed out it does allow for extreme crab angles on touchdown. The downside of that same effect is that hovercraft tend to slide off the side of any runway that is crowned to get water to run off. They are also a real handful to precisely steer in crosswinds.
As far as shooting it down and air to air missile would make easy work of that. I guess you could provide 24/7 CAP coverage, but that seems to take away from the idea of extended loitering in an area very advantageous. It would be just as easy to send in standard recon flights. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Friday, March 25, 2011 - 07:13 pm: |
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http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.his tory.navy.mil/photos/images/h77000/h77428.jpg&imgr efurl=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/ac-usn22/ f-types/f9c.htm&h=585&w=740&sz=105&tbnid=-vVWL7nAH w0LFM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcurtis s%2Bsparrowhawk&zoom=1&q=curtiss+sparrowhawk&hl=en &usg=__87XQLbZ2QfQfKp0Bm4OIEC9o2Qk=&sa=X&ei=nB-NTY -nIaqO0QHL-e2zCw&ved=0CCYQ9QEwAg |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Friday, March 25, 2011 - 07:17 pm: |
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http://davidszondy.com/future/Thunderbirds/thunder bird2.htm |
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