How did THAT get in there? That was supposed to be a no-press-allowed conference! That's what I get for not reading the Tester!
I guess The Tester's reporting staff is not too be under-estimated.
How did THAT get in there? That was supposed to be a no-press-allowed conference! That's what I get for not reading the Tester!
Why no big US Navy markings on the airbag? Because it's contractor operated?
Anyway, seems like a missed recruiting opportunity. :icon_tong
Not even a recruiting opportunity. A pride opportunity. I want a USN-stamped zeppelin!
I wish I could do that.Uncle Fester said:It'd be handy for quantifying exactly how fucked you are, I guess.
I can see the value of tethered aerostats in AEW/Surveillance. Put a nice ISAR, phased-array or FLIR on it, whatever the mission requires, let it hang up above your strike group or FOB on a long string, make that string out of fiber optic cable to overcome bandwidth issues. Reel it in when the weather gets iffy; worst case, it crashes and you're out a balloon with sensor package, nobody gets killed.
Manned free-flying blimps, though? No thanks.
A couple of years ago the (then) Outback Steakhouse blimp stayed at my airport a couple of weeks. I got a ride in it, way different from an airplane. It was more like a boat sort of rolling/swaying along. They just force it down to the ground on landing and the ground crew grabs the tether lines to keep it under control.
While on tether as we were discussing topics du jour, the ground crew of ~ 6 guys were just below us under control of their team lead who kept a keen eye on the windsock.