Hidden Nature?

I was sitting here minding my own business when something slowly moving through the sky attracted my attention.  Bird?  Plane?  No, a blimp, an airship, a Zeppelin, heaven forbid a barrage balloon.  What IS the hidden nature of this object?

Closer examination reveals what?  Navy markings, a new weapon?

Slow, noisy, radar signature larger than a battleship.  I know things are  a little tight in the military budgets these days but have we resorted to century old technology for our defense?

Just a reminder that only hours remain for you to enter the latest photo competition, and reveal your hidden nature to the world.

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Author: Low Wattage

Expat Welshman, educated (somewhat) in UK, left before it became fashionable to do so. Now a U.S. Citizen, and recent widower, playing with retirement and house remodeling, living in Delaware and rural Maryland (weekends).

8 thoughts on “Hidden Nature?”

  3. I read an article recently about an appeal by the current owners of the Cardington Airship Hangars against planning permission for more houses close to their land. Apparently work is in progress to develop a new type of airship, called a Hybrid Air Vehicle. So someone must have discovered a new use for these beasts.

  4. Hello All: I did not know anything about this object so I Googled it. It is only one year old and is the first new US Navy airship in 50 years. It is based at Fort Dix in Lakehurst NJ (remember the Hindenburg?) which is quite close to us as the crow (or the airship) flies. It was probably headed South towards the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River MD on the Chesapeake Bay.

    http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/10/gannett-navy-after-50-years-airship-program-resumes-102711/

    From that link:
    The airship is a modified A-170 built by the American Blimp Corp., capable of flying at up to 10,000 feet and cruising at around 50 mph. The Navy began the project in 2006 “to use it as a flying laboratory. The airship is a good platform because it’s very stable, and easy to take things on and off,” Huett said. “A lot of times you want to go slow.”

    They do not say what “the platform” may be used for. Not a weather station or anything else they wish to discuss in public obviously.

  7. sheona :

    I read an article recently about an appeal by the current owners of the Cardington Airship Hangars against planning permission for more houses close to their land. Apparently work is in progress to develop a new type of airship, called a Hybrid Air Vehicle. So someone must have discovered a new use for these beasts.

    Hybrid Air Vehicles are sort of airships but with a lifting body as well as natural buoyancy. More about them here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Air_Vehicles

    BTW, LW, I think that airships normally have a fairly low radar signature which makes them useful for long term surveillance. I tried to find a suitable subject for your comp, but the only natural things I could find were very much in yer face! 😦

  8. Morning Soutie: It was going the wrong way for Dover, but I’m not sure how good Naval navigation is these days. We do see the Goodyear and Met Life blimps heading East for Dover occasionally (identical design)

    Yes, it’s NASCAR weekend at the Monster Mile, curiously enough the fabric envelope for these airships is made in Dover Delaware at the ILC plant there, they also make all the astronaut suits for NASA..

    FEEG: Yes, the radar signature was a bit of humour, These blimps have no internal frame so there is not much metal in them.

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