Air Transport

A persistent surveillance strato­spheric airship is being studied by the South African government’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) with the aim of improving the nation’s maritime monitoring. The country’s coastline could be covered by seven airships carrying radars with a 600km (325nm) range.

Subject of a R5 million ($807,000) study, the maritime surveillance airship could be a 160m (525ft)-long vehicle generating more than 2kW in electrical power for a 2t sensor, communications and propulsion payload capable of operating from a week to a month.

After examining European and US projects for high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance airships, CSIR has identified common emerging technologies ranging from fuel cells through electric propulsion to solar cells. The Phase 1 study began in September and its airship technology findings will be presented in July.

“[For Phase 2] the intention is to go ahead on a much bigger scale,” says CSIR airship researcher and radar and electronic warfare fellow Francois Anderson.

The government wants to use airships for tackling crime as well as for defence.