A $150million U.S. Army airship crash landed in woods today after it could only reach half of its expected altitude on a test flight. The unmanned solar-powered airship was only in the air for less than three hours after it launched in Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday morning. It ascended as planned up to 32,000ft but the Lockheed Martin airship then encountered problems and was not able to get up to 60,000ft.A hundred and fifty million for a solar powered blimp? I guess all those years of subsidizing the strategic helium reserves has finally paid off!
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Saw this last night at SYLG. Solar powered - fly by night? Yes and no.
ReplyDelete60,000 ft. is eleven miles up. The solar cells should be more efficient at that altitude. It's like they say, "Getting there is half the fun!"
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