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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 3457.PDF
LIGHTER TimrJ A J Si Burning ambition A towering inferno and pending Pentagon funding decisions place airship production on an uncertain course. RAMON LOPEZ/WASHINGTON DC OFFICIALS AT US lighter-than-air-dirigible manufacturer Westinghouse Airships hope to establish before the end of me year a firm flight-plan for future airship production. The previous business strategy went up in smoke, literally, when a devastating fire on 2 August destroyed the only existing Westing house Sentinel 1000 non-rigid airship and its hangar, at the firm's Airship Flight Center at Weeksville, North Carolina. Over the next few months, company officials will decide whether to replace the Sentinel 1000 or build an improved model instead. They must also determine where to re-establish the com pany's airship production and support services. Meanwhile, they await a clear signal from the US Department of Defense and US lawmakers on the future of the US Navy's large-airship programme, which has moved at a snail's pace over the past decade. The company believes that the fire was acci dentally started by a welding firm hired to repair the doors of the leased hangar — one of the largest wooden structures in die world before it was consumed by fire. The hangar was one of six built by the US Navy to house ZPG-3W air ships during and after the Second World War. The factory was used by Westinghouse Airships for Skyship 500/600 and Sentinel 1000 manufacturing, repair and support. The loss in lighter-than-air vehicles, property, equipment and spares will total millions of dollars. The Weeksville plant handled regularly sched uled maintenance for the six Skyship 500s and 600s in North America. The US firm has set up a temporary support base in the Baltimore, Maryland, area and customers have suffered no break in service, says William Adams, Westing house Airships chairman and chief executive. OPEN OPTIONS "We are still planning our future. All kinds of options are on the table," says Adams. A survey is being conducted of the remaining airship sites in the USA, and the firm is evaluating overtures from state and local governments for construc tion of a new manufacturing and support site. The 67m (220ft)-long helium-filled Sentinel 1000 was claimed to be the largest non-rigid air ship built and was certificated by die US Federal Aviation Administration in November 1993. It was a one-half-scale model of the YEZ-2A which Westinghouse wanted to build for the Pentagon. A decision on whether to replace the Sentinel 1000 remains to be made. Westinghouse Electric, the parent of the airship manufacturer, has yet to approve production funds for a replacement, or for an improved airship which exists on the drawing board. The firm is seeking new customers which might contribute to air ship construction. In the interim, Westinghouse Airships will be unable to undertake an airship demonstration to the USN which had been scheduled for late 1995 Despite the setback, Adams is buoyant about the prospects for selling modern airships to the US military, other US Government organisa tions and commercial customers such as FedEx, which has explored using airships for overseas package shipment. Adams says that senior USN officials and US lawmakers continue to support planned opera tional trials in 1998 of the YEZ-2A, first pro posed in the mid-1980s. They want to see whether an airship can provide continuous and extended surveillance for low-flying cruise mis siles targeted at USN warships. Earlier in the programme it was estimated that the YEZ-2 A would cost $440 million to build. It is believed that a major redesign of the propul sion system and gondola will allow Westing house to build the giant non-rigid airship for $275 million. The mission-avionics suite would be extra, estimated to cost $120 million. A USN request for $60 million in initial air ship production funding is before the US Congress. Adams says that "...the redesign al lowed us to reduce the gondolas complexity and take a lot of cost out of the programme". 36 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 29 November - 5 December 1995
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