Lockheed Martin HALE-D Airship’s First Flight

 

HALE-D image Lockheed Martin

28/07/2011 by Armed Forces International's Aviation Expert

A Lockheed Martin-built pilotless reconnaissance airship design took to the skies for the first time on 27 July 2011.

Unfortunately, the test flight didn't quite go as planned, but it proved the type's airworthiness, paving the way for subsequent designs to equip the US Army and other operators in future years.

The HALE-D (High-Altitude Long-Endurance Demonstrator) showcased numerous technologies key to unmanned airship development. Having left the ground at 05.47hrs that morning, it was intended for HALE-D to climb to 60,000 feet. Technical issues stopped it ascending beyond 32,000 feet, however and, in response, the flight was ended, with what Lockheed Martin has termed a ‘controlled landing' on an uninhabited area, after a voyage lasting close to three hours.

HALE-D Airship First Flight

An investigation will now take place into just what happened on the HALE-D airship's first flight and why.

"While we didn't reach the target altitude, first flights of new technologies like HALE-D also afford us the ability to learn and test with a mind toward future developments", Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors' Dan Schultz explained in a company press release.

"We demonstrated a variety of advanced technologies, including launch and control of the airship, communications links, unique propulsion system, solar array electricity generation, remote piloting communications and control capability, in-flight operations, and controlled vehicle recovery to a remote un-populated area."

Lockheed Martin HALE-D

Lockheed Martin's HALE-D is a lighter-than-air vehicle controlled by operators on the ground. It's envisaged as a platform to provide military personnel engaged in frontline operations at ground level with an additional layer of security, carrying out communications sorties 12 miles above the surface of the earth.

The initial test flight was used to put a number of aspects of HALE-D's performance through their paces - its ability to capture and derive power from solar energy, its controllability and its communications abilities among them.

HALE-D is a large-scale communications demonstrator but, even though it's 240 feet long, future production variants/successors could be larger still. While it has significant military applications, it could be put to other uses include border patrol and civilian tasks.

Lockheed Martin's 80+ year heritage of lighter-than-air design production now totals over 8,000 individual airframes.