New blimp being tested at Hindenburg crash site

• Though the airship had a test flight, some worry that the project could be canceled in budget cuts
• Backers say it is less expensive to operate for surveillance than mid-sized military helicopters
• It's a cross between flying a Cessna and sailing a boat, one blimp pilot says

LAKEHURST, N.J. — Seventy-five years after the world's most infamous blimp caught fire while docking here, the Army is planning new surveillance airship to operate at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet.

Called the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, the airship is designed to keep constant watch for roving gunmen and roadside bomb-planters, far out of range of Taliban guns.

"We believe it will be a game-changer for the Army once we get it deployed," said Kevin Creekmore, chief engineer of the 302-foot hybrid airship designed to provide soldiers with complete battlefield views from cameras, radars and infrared imaging.

The Hindenburg, a German passenger airship, was destroyed May 6, 1937, as it tried to dock at what was then Lakehurst Naval Air Station, now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

The base here, once the center of U.S. military airship development, has one of the largest surviving collections of World War II airship hangars, and it's attracted new airship research focused on giving soldiers more early warning of enemy movements. The last Cold War blimps were grounded a half century ago.

"This is one of the few places remaining in the country that has hangars the size we need," said Bert Race, manager of the military's only operational airship, the Navy's MZ-3A. Based on a commercial airship design, the 178-foot blimp was nearly grounded in March when the program ran out of military research customers who pay to test equipment in the air.

So it is a question whether the $517 million project to build the Army blimp will come into the sights of domestic military budget cutters. A similar Air Force project for a long-endurance surveillance airship was canceled in June.

Race landed a new contract with the Army to test surveillance, communication and other equipment for Army aircraft — including the blimp, which had its first 90-minute test flight Aug. 7.

The Army airship's builders, Northrop Grumman and British-based Hybrid Air Vehicles, had aimed for a July 2011 test flight date, but that was pushed back as engineers dealt with software and control issues.

"We had a close call with running out of funds," but the Army is committed to testing through March 2013 and the program is pursuing more future customers, Race said.

"If there's no customers, " he said. "We'd put the airship into long-term storage."

Both the Army and Navy airship projects were born out of the battlefield tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the need for what Race called "seamless intelligence" — constant monitoring beyond the comings and goings of conventional aircraft.

"There's a tremendous demand for persistent surveillance" to help protect troops in Afghanistan from insurgent bands and bomb-makers on the move, Race said.

The Army airship can be operated by pilots or as an unmanned sentry post in the sky with a flight duration up to 21 days, according to Northrop Grumman. Other experts have challenged that assumption, saying it will burn too much fuel, according to Defense Weekly.

For testing the new generation of sensors, the Navy's airship already in operation offers a simple ride in the sky at low cost.

Compared to costs of at least $10,000 an hour for mid-sized military helicopters, the airship's operating budget of 5 to 10 gallons of fuel a day and roomy, vibration-free cargo space is an attractive bargain, said Mark Kynett, chief pilot of the Navy airship.

"The only thing you're not going to do is go anywhere fast," said Kynett because the MZ-3A clocks 45 mph at most.

In the long run, the $517 million spent for Army blimp will yield airships that are very inexpensive to fly compared to fixed wing and rotorcraft, said Ward Shaklee, director of business development for the program.

"It's a cross between flying a Cessna and sailing a boat," said Race, a former Marine helicopter pilot.

The blimp is highly maneuverable and capable of high-angle takeoffs — the pilots demonstrated that to visitors by climbing to 3,000 feet altitude before they even crossed the base fence.