Army Floats a Trial Balloon: Equipped Blimp Hovers Above Area In Test of Technology
By Carol Morello Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 25, 2004
In the middle of a cornfield in Maryland, a blimp glided in for a landing.
Eight men grabbed two long guide ropes that dragged them along, their heels dug in, until the blimp halted, hovering a foot off the ground. The sun momentarily dimmed as the airship's two propeller engines kicked up a swirl of dry corn husks.
The U.S. Army believes scenes such as the one that has unfolded repeatedly over the past two days near Freeway Airport in Bowie might be as much about the future as a quaint reenactment of a bygone time.
That is why the Army has leased a blimp from the nation's only airship manufacturer and outfitted it with sensors and cameras. Over the next week, the 178-foot-long lighter-than-air craft will conduct test runs over the Washington area. In the fabric gondola hanging below the envelope, a technician will aim a camera, mounted to the front of the cabin, at government buildings and military bases....
The prospect that a helium-filled blimp is an idea whose time has come again is increasingly being considered by serious people charged with defending troops overseas and the nation's borders at home....
Fewer than 30 blimps are in use, and 19 of them were made by the American Blimp Corp. in Oregon, one of only a handful of companies making modern blimps. ... American Blimp makes three sizes of blimps, which sell for $2 million to $4 million each. Most are used during sporting events.
"It's a fun business," said E. Judson Brandreth Jr., the company's vice president for marketing. "Goodyear did a study and found that universally, blimps give people a big warm fuzzy. People just like blimps."
Brandreth said American Blimp is promoting the use of airships as airborne surveillance. Many people wrongly assume blimps are vulnerable to bullets fired by, say, drug runners or terrorists.
"Almost everything people think they know about blimps is wrong," said Brandreth, citing the misconception that a bullet can bring down a blimp. The envelope is rip-proof. And many people seem to consider blimps moving targets.
"We often discover bullet holes when the airships are brought to our hangar for maintenance," he said. "People shoot at them. Particularly in the country. We think it's kids, not urban warfare. We just patch it up and go." ...
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Carl