By Howard Slutsken | September 22, 2017 Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 13 seconds.
Originally planned for next year, the first flight of Lockheed Martin’s LMH-1 hybrid airship is now expected in 2019, according to Dr. Bob Boyd, program manager, LMH-1.
“What we’re really doing is aligning the product with the market. It takes a while for a new product like this to get introduced, and we’ve got to go through a lot of different issues on everything from regulatory to financial, to getting everybody aligned to where it’s going to go, and how it’s going to operate,” said Boyd in a conversation with Skies.
Lockheed Martin has Letters of Intent (LOI) for 24 of the 85-metre-long airships, split evenly between Straight Line Aviation and Hybrid Air Freighters. Straight Line has already announced plans to operate LMH-1s in Canada’s Arctic.
Boyd explained that Lockheed Martin is working to convert the LOIs to firm orders, but the unique nature of the aircraft presents a challenge.
“No one is used to buying a cargo airship. That always throws everyone for a little bit of a loop, and they have to think about it and do some assessments, so it just takes time.”
While the business side of the equation has delayed the LMH-1, construction of the hybrid airship continues at the OEM’s Palmdale, Calif., facility.
The first LMH-1 to “float out” on its air cushion landing system (ACLS) will be the first serial production unit, given that the concept’s technologies were tested on the P-791 prototype, which flew 10 years ago.
To help potential clients grasp the operational capabilities of the hybrid airship, Lockheed Martin has built a full-scale mockup of the gondola in Palmdale.
The spacious flight deck and 19-seat passenger cabin sit atop the forward ACLS pad, which dictated the large size of that section of the gondola.
The LMH-1’s fuel and equipment bay is directly behind the cabin, and the cavernous cargo bay is at the rear of the gondola. The 18 x 3.2 x 3-metre compartment can hold up to 21,000 kilograms (21 tonnes) of payload, and is a little bigger than the cargo box of Lockheed Martin’s venerable C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
“Essentially, if you build a machine that carries everything that you could put in a C-130, then you’ve captured the vast majority of the loads that are going out to these remote areas,” said Boyd.
The manufacturer has been working with both the FAA and Transport Canada to develop regulations for what Boyd said “is going to be the safest machine in the sky.”
With four thrusters, each with four different angles of attitude and blade pitches, and four independent aerodynamic controls, the heavy lifting is done by a sophisticated fly-by-wire system.
“It’s actually a piece of cake to fly. What you’re doing as a pilot, you’re defining intent–I want to go there, I want to go up, down, left, right, faster or slower. Then the computer and all the effectors make that happen.
“Even the failure modes result in a very low rate of descent, slower than parachute speeds. So you’re just floating down to the ground and you can still steer it and get it to a safe place. It’s not anything like a typical aircraft.”
Why is the cabin not located behind a locked door ??? Just wondering …
Because you can’t fly a balloon into a building and not bounce off. The building windows may break, but it won’t be a twin towers scenario. Also, Cargo Flights. Terrorists/hijackers take over passenger flights, because that’s the only flights you can buy tickets for.
This product seems geared towards large multi-national companies that need to get product to an out of the way location with a team of experts to get things properly installed.
Probably because there is yet no hijacked flying balloons in the records so, knowing the species, it will happen somehow.
In Manitoba, the railway to Churchill is not operating due to flooding. The Lmh-1 seems to be the perfect solution to the problem. There’s is money available from the various government an non government participants. Rather than waste precious funds on ground access, It may the ideal place to showcase the Lmh-1’s capabilities. I’m sure you’re aware of the problems, but time is of the essence. Time to do some serious sales work…
will Lockheed flight conduct arctic flight testing in Alaska? I would very much like to see the hybrid airship in action.
How much would the list price be, and how would that compare to an aircraft that has a similar cargo capacity?
This military Veteran is70 years old, a life member of the American Legion and the USPA sees his dream coming true.
I want my company, Solomon’s Airships, LLC to furnish educational excursions to all students in the metro-east of St. louis, which encompasses 20-30 cities in Illinois, east of the Mississippi River. I plan to offer rides of 1/2 hour to groups of 19 students. I plan to furnish these rides every day that weather permits.
Do you do your own financing, keeping the title? I saw today where one can buy a 2 year old Lamborghini for “only” $207,000. You ought to be selling these, by the dozens.
Why is it called a “hybrid” airship?
Chris Niemann: It’s called a “hybrid” airship because some of the lift required to fly comes from aerodynamic lift, not buoyancy.
How will LMH-1 perform in high wind?
Hello Jim.
Did you ever get a response to your question?
is there a way to use the LMH-1 for fire suppression