They’re “aerostats” technically. They are shaped like blimps, but they can’t actually be flown around.
They’re called aerostats and they are tethered (most of the time…) balloons the length of two football fields. As I understand it from the reporting they contain radar units to watch for things like cruise missiles which can come in very low and very fast and could therefore remain undetected without some kind of high altitude platform watching for them.
This brings up an interesting question: why are they designed in a blimplike shape, with tail fins on one end?
“The mother ship the mother ship
The brothers hid under their hood
From the blimp the blimp
Children stop yer nursin’ unless yer renderin’ fun
The mother ship
The mother ship’s the one
The blimp the blimp”
To keep them pointed into the wind, so the radar can keep a reasonably steady orientation.
WAG, To act like a weather vane and always be pointing into the wind?
I assume to keep them always facing in one direction rather than spinning around. Although it seems like you could do that more reliably by anchoring them with two cables, one on each end, but maybe there are problems with doing that (other than knocking down twice as many electrical pylons).
To answer my own question, trying to stabilize them with two cables (or even more than two) would present a problem when the wind is blowing directly against the side of the aerostat. That would tend to displace it horizontally or at least put a lot of stress on both the balloon and the cables. Letting it turn to face the wind (but not continuously spin) would cut down on the stresses. That would mean that it wasn’t always facing the same direction, but there are certainly ways for the instrumentation to detect current orientation and compensate for it.
They were ready to call Tom Brady to bring it down.
They might want to consider some sort of remote cable release in case of future runaway aerostats.
Blimps vs tethered instrument balloons really isn’t an either/or question. “Blimp” came from “B Limp”, the second in a series of non-rigid airships. Non-rigid as in no internal frame, or at least, not nearly as much as a zeppelin had. This particular one has no means of propulsion and was tethered.
I think they’re more likely to go with some sort of remotely controlled valve to vent the helium to the atmosphere to deal with future runaway aerostats. This one ascended to 16,000 ft before it started losing altitude. It’s operational altitude was 10,000 ft. My guess is at 16K, the gas expanded enough to blow a seam or tear a hole in a gasbag.
There are a few different theories about the word origin.
So you could drop two miles of cable onto the ground from a great height all at once? Excellent idea.
I live close enough to APG. My newsfeed is full of blimp memes. This is the most newsiest thing to happen around these parts in a long while.
Probably the biggest (and strangest) story since Cal Ripken’s mother got kidnapped.
Oh yeah. That sure was something.
Manned helium balloons will use a heavy drag rope to slow them down before landing. Of course it’s not 2 miles long & they intentionally try to avoid power lines.
Well they can, IF someone lets go of the kite string. :smack:
Whew, that’s a relief. I was certain you were its first victim.
My son trains on the pair south of Aberdeen. The escaped aerostat was not one of his; the escapee was in actual service doing it’s “protect America” mission. They have radar, optical, IR sensors. Lots of use in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some ships are equipped with an aerostat as well.
I couldn’t resist riddling him with updates and casualty figures throughout the day.