04-10-2007, 09:19 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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Military Professional
Join Date: 09-15-06
Location: Penzance, Cornwall UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Migman
What type payload could a Blimp carry? Certainly not an heavy AEGIS, leave alone a small whether radar? Unless it is really big.
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The 'useful lift' of any airship is determined by the gas capacity. The bigger the craft (ignoring its un-gassed structure weight) the greater the gas capacity, the greater the payload that can be carried.
The US Navy employed AEW blimps, with the radar dishes inside the envelope. The ZPG-2W was 343' long, had a gas volume of 1,011,000 cubic feet of helium and had a crew of 24 with an endurance of 75 hours. The ZPG-3W was 404' long and had a gas volume of 1,516,300 cubic feet and a crew of 25 and could stay aloft for 90 hours. The rigid airship USS Macon (first flown in April 1933) had a useful lift of 160,644 lbs, a top speed of 72 knots, a crew of 60 and a range of 7,950 nautical miles.
I don't know the weight of an Aegis radar, or whether it could be made lighter so am unable to answer your question.
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