Showing posts with label Northrop Grumman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Northrop Grumman. Show all posts

Friday, November 5, 2010

US Army Spy Blimp


So the U.S. Army is getting into the blimp business, at least according to a article posted on Wired.com.

US Army forked over $517 million to Northrop Grumman to develope the experimential airship known officially as Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicles. If successful, the blimp will have a airborne endurance of up to three weeks at a time. And it will carry lots and losts of sensors, to capture still and video images of civilians and our nation's adversaries.

Lifted up into the air by helium and propulsion will be provided by four diesel engines. One US Army official said that in Afghanistan, it would take 12 Reaper drones to duplicated the blimp's functions.

So far, the blimp has passed three tests that judge the feasibility of the airship design. Northrop Grumman stated that it will inflate the first blimp in the spring-summer of 2011. And flight testing to be completed by the end of 2010.

For more information, check out the article. The link is below.

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Ref. Wired.com. "Northrop’s Huge Army Spy Blimp Floats On" by Spencer Ackerman. November 4, 2010. (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/northrops-huge-army-spy-blimp-floats-on/).
image comes from same article,provided by Northrop Grumman.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Ongoing Saga of the Charlie-Foxtrot Tanker Deal


Well, I think after reading this article (see link below in ref section), the Great US Air Tanker saga is going to end up with a split buy between Boeing and Northrop Grumman.

Its (really) no longer about getting what the Air Force really needs. It's about politics and keep voters supplied with jobs in key states. That means both Boeing and Northrop Grumman will both win the KC-X tanker project.

The KC-135s are REALLY long in the tooth now and needs to be replaced quickly as possible. Neither company is in favor of the dual build contract. Boeing and Northrop Grumman want a winner take all approach. The USAF supply chain would prefer just a single type of aircraft to support for this mission instead of two.

By doing the split buy, the Air Force gets new tankers in the air quicker. Current projections mean that at least 15 new tankers can be built a year. It will take decades to replace ALL of the KC-135.

Image is of the Boeing offering based upon the Boeing 767 airframe.
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Ref. (http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/split-25582-aerospace-tanker.html)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Full Scale Horten 229 Flying Wing Built


Northrop Grumman Corporation and the National Geographic Channel and the San Diego Air and Space Museum teamed up to build a full scale World War Two era Horten 229 Flying Wing. One of the "wonder" weapons the Third Reich was trying to build to turn their losses into victories again. It was too little, too late for World War Two. This recreation is to be unveiled as part of the Museum's World War II Gallery on June 24th.

The Documentary entitled "Hitler's Stealth Fighter". In one of the top-secret facilities in Germany as that nation felled under the Allied advance, American troops discovered a advanced jet-propelled unlike anything ever seen before. The flying wing design now known as the Horten 229. Unknowingly, the design was what we now know as Stealth technology.

Northrop Grumman aeronautical engineers along with National Geographic Channel personnel worked from original plans and prototype to reconstruct a full-scale replica of the jet and determine what it's stealth capabilities would actually have been.

Building the Horten was a modern day challenge-even using old time-tested materials and techniques to build it. Then once it was completed, the flying wing was trucked out to the Mojave Desert and set up on top of a 5-story pylon on the Northrop Grumman test range. All sorts of radar were aimed at the Horten 229 and the test results recorded. And for more details, you will have to watch that program "Hitler's Stealth Fighter" on June 28, 9pm EST/PST.

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Ref. San Diego Air and Space Organization ( http://www.sandiegoairandspace.org/upcoming/horton_wing.html).
National Geographic.com ( http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/hitler-s-stealth-fighter-3942/Overview?source=redir_stealth).
AW&ST ( http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/hitler-s-stealth-fighter-3942/Overview?source=redir_stealth).