DARPA, Air Force develop hydrogen-powered spy blimp
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 16th 2009 10:02PM
posted March 16th 2009 10:02PM
The Air Force has announced that it will do its part for economic stimulus by spending $400 million on a dirigible designed to float 65,000 feet above the Earth, where it will provide constant surveillance of an area (such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan border). ISIS (Integrated Sensor Is the Structure) is being billed as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane, kept aloft by helium and powered by hydrogen fuel cells that are recharged with solar panels. The thing will remain in place for up to ten years providing, as one Air Force scientist gushed, "constant surveillance, uninterrupted." If successful, the Air Force would like to see a whole fleet of these things. DARPA has signed on, agreeing to deliver a prototype by 2014.
I think Google Earth uses planes for the more detailed imagery and satellites for the higher-up imagery.
This will be used to police the "peaceful" borders of the Confederate United Magistrate, which are several countries split out of the former U.S.A.
Firstly, they are dirt cheap compared to a satellite, second, whatever detail you can see from space you can see even more from 65k feet, especially if you have a fleet of them and map everything in 3D. Thirdly, there are a ton of places these could be useful where there is very little risk of being shot down : Iraq, Afghanistan, US-Mexico border, South America, Africa. ...
The U2 was (is) sub-sonic, your thinking of the SR71 (none of these were ever shot down).
Somehow I accidently slipped from reality to some sort of urban blog site for sub 50 IQ thirteenyearolds. I do not usually read such messages but trolled through to see if even 1 of your commentators could acctually see the benefits of such a low cost large area survielance system. No one? Must be people from the "land of the free".
I feel I must explain to "coachgeorge" that a U2 could not hit Mach 1 in a dive far less Mach 3.
For the benefit of your unread masses the USSR scrambled over 200 fighters and had their entire anti aircraft system activelly trying to shoot down a U2 for over 3 years.
Gary Powers was sacrificed to allow the West to judge USSR AA capability, why else did the U2's do a regular run over the same route?
To think of 1 role for this system which would pay for itself in the first year would be to put 4 or 5 over the Indian Ocean, have a single warship responsible for cover and end piracy from Somalia. The warship role could be rotated through the maritime nations with 1 navies ship being responsible for 3 months. This would save multiple times the cost of the whole project per year.
Do you really think you can mount a SAM system to reach 65000ft on a fishing boat?
An Aegis type cruiser would have a difficult job shooting it down!
Pleeeeeese try to be realistic.
I have no axe to grind, think all US polticians are almost as bad as all our politicians, but I feel angry at this urban US anti americanism. It is no longer hip to be a rebel.
That stupidity should have ended in 1968 at the Sorborne, LSE and Grovsnor Square.
It wont replace the AWACS the amount of power required by the radar would far outstrip the solar panels/hydrogen fuel cells ability to feed the radar for more than just bursts. I promise I know better on this subject.... Oh and those ranges in the images are the unclassified range so take that for what its worth.
At 450' long, they could put a small reactor on it to power the radar. Use the power cells for the engines.
Oh yea, I still don't get it..................
i'm not saying that with other methods something similar couldn't be done but the method that they are describing here wouldn't and i doubt the reactor would work something about the nuclear material floating around in the sky would put people off. There are way to do it just this wouldn't be as good as the platforms it is trying to replace. Just like the globalhawk is unmanned and works great but if you need high quality images you still send a U2 out there it does many things well but nothing great such is the case with too many things these days.... Sorry I'll stop ranting not.
As stated before, I think the whole article is a joke. Early April Fools!
Give them AI and make a massive network of them in the sky.
SkyNet?
Sounds like a research project designed to waste our tax dollars......A bargain at $400 Million.
FYI, I like to follow some military funded projects.
this is essentially an updated version of the HAA (high Altitude Airship). Which has cancelled in 2007 because of budget problems.
So I guess a whole year and a half later were doing WAAAY better financially as a country...so why not bring on some expensive projects. *sarcasm included*
It's not like this somehow changes the ability of the government to monitor things going on on the ground. It's already possible from satellites and high altitude planes (and has been for decades) and it's not as if its limited to the government either. Anyone can hire a plane to do areal survey imaging or even a private satellite imaging company.
It would be nice if this somehow were able to reduce costs spent on spy satellites. A single satellite can cost billions when you include launch.
The world is bringing Skynet to full fruition, and we are just sitting back doing nothing. It won't be long now....
20 yrs from now when things get rough, look for a robot with Austrian accent..
Not yet, you'll surely die right after he says that he'll be back. Wait another 10 years when they finally hijack one of the T100's and send them to save . . . ah, what's that boy's name again?
LOL
Everyone here is missing the point: this isn't intended to replace spy planes, or satellites. What its intended to do is provide persistent surveillance over a border, say the US/Mexican border, or iraq/iran border (etc.) Something neither satellites nor planes can accomplish. That they will be easy to shoot down is irrelevant, as in final form they should be abundant and cheaper than the missiles required to shoot them down. Plus shooting them down in friendly airspace (the only place they would be employed) would be a very clear declaration of war.
Imagine how much coke and week the feds could bring over from Mexico with these. Thats gotta be what this is for.
Since when is the iraq/iran border or Afghanistan/Pakistan border friendly air space? Regarding being afraid of declaring war, Hello 9/11/2001. The defiance of Sadam H., The defiance of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. Do you really think they care?
No, this is an April Fools Joke article.
"Very misleading title"
my thougts exactly. this isn't a hydrogen blimp, but a fuel-cell tank powered by a form of hydrogen/oxygen mixture. come on engadget, don't scare me like that
Why would you focus it on Andrew Dice Clay?
You cant blend it, it has no lasers........ what a total bummer. For $400mill it better have a strip poll and a bar full of Cristal.
jughead! no one?
Mmmm! Can't you just TASTE the freedom??
Why is this news? I did a preliminary design for one of these in college back in 2003 when Lockheed-Martin started working on them. The biggest problem we had was the power-to-weight ratio for the solar cells.
This is a waste of money. We already have one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_Blimp
Dude, that article is speculative.
The reports in the article sound just as ridiculous as UFO sightings.
Go look at the Stephenville report. They got the craft on radar and it directly correlates to the eyewitnesses. Game over.
One bullet = loss of $400 million
Am I missing something, or does this seem like a bad idea?
I'm sure they've accounted the cost of landing it every 4th of July into the $400,000,000 budget.
Right?
This thing is so big, it has to park at over 120,000. Hard to shoot with a bullet. Here is the report for non-believers in the big black blimp:
http://www.mufon.com/documents/MUFONStephenvilleRadarReport.pdf
Green lasers anyone?
Can't someone develop better commercial air travel for a change?
This is the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever heard, and you sheep actually believe it and simply make fun of it as a silly idea.
We have these crazy new fangled things called satellites now. They can do all the round the clock surveillance we need, sans a stupid technology that died along with the Hindenburg.
I wonder where this money is really going...
One more stupped expences,one more unused shits,one more fuck'n decisions...
Little million more poor people...
WAKE UP GENTELLMAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
Great idea! At 150 ft. and at that height I don't think anyone will know its there! It also depends on the materials used in the craft. Radar might go right through it. Also I don't think 3rd World countries will have enough technology to use to detect it.
The proposal described is not a blimp. It is a rigid air-ship. A blimp is flexible -like a loose baloon. An air-ship (like the Hindenburg) had a light frame, a covering, but independent bags of flotation gas.
For this reason, there were "air-craft carriers' in which planes had "hooks" but no wheels; they would grasp a trapese bar, then be drawn to the interior of the airship. Haviong the machinery inside, implies an airship, not a blimp.