Monday, May 24, 2010 Largest Inflatable Airship - The
Bullet 580 sets world record
MONTGOMERY,Ala.,USA--E-Green Technologies-21st
Century Airships, based in Alabama, announced its 235-foot
long airship (as long as a 23-floor skyscraper) which can
reach top speeds of 80mph and capable of cruising 20,000 feet
in the air at 80 MPH while carrying a 2,000-pound payload,
has completed its inflation test , setting the world record for the Largest
Inflatable Airship. Photo: The World's
Largest Inflatable Airship is a creation of
Canadian company 21st Century Airships. (enlarge
photo)
Chief Executive of E-Green Technologies,
Mike Lawson, said: 'It's slow enough to be used for sightseeing,
large enough to carry heavy cargo and enough volume of lifting
capability to be flied 20,000ft unmanned. So you have a gift
of all different technologies.'
Lift is provided by a system of seven bags
filled with helium, while the inner hull is full of ambient
air. Hydrogen was used in the 1920s and 1930s because helium
was considered too expensive at the time.
The
Bullet 580 is so large the creators had to go to the
Garret Coliseum in Alabama for its maiden takeoff. It took
five hours to fill with helium.
The Largest
Inflatable Airship in The World is designed to provide
homeland security, military and other government authorities
with communications, missile defense warning and surveillance
and intelligence among other monitoring capabilities.
E-Green Technologies-21st Century Airships officials
said the Bullet 580 is also designed to support civilian applications
and is the "first of the company's airships in production
for commercial use," a release said.
A maiden flight scheduled for
later this year would carry an experimental payload jointly
developed by NASA and Old Dominion University in Norfolk,
Va. The agricultural and geophysical experiment is designed
to measure moisture content in the soil.
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