Lockheed Martin P-791

The P-791 is an experimental hybrid airship developed by Lockheed Martin . The maiden flight took place on January 31, 2006 at the company's own test facility at Palmdale Air Force Plant 42.

The design of the hybrid airship

P-791 is an example of a hybrid airship. In such constructions the weight of the airship and its payload are borne together by static and dynamic buoyancy. This is an attempt to achieve "the best of both worlds" combination.

Critics have described this design as "the worst of both worlds" because a runway is required for take-off and landing, which would not be required with purely static lift. Proponents believe that the use of new technologies could remove previous barriers.

The fact is that by then only a few hybrid airships have made it from the drawing board into the experimental phase. One of the few vehicles that rose into the air was the Aereon 26 . The development of this aircraft was documented in the book The Deltoid Pumpkinseed by John McPhee .

Lockheed-Martin developed a proposal for the DARPA project WALRUS , which probably incorporated experience with the construction of the P-791. This enabled the company to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. In 2010 the WALRUS project was discontinued after the first project definition phase. Observers noted that the design of the P-791 was very similar to the earlier SkyCat , which was developed by the British company Advanced Technologies Group (ATG). Indeed, former ATG employees were involved in the P-791 project.

See also

• Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle , a similar project by Northrop Grumman
• Aeroscraft

Web links

• P-791 in Aviation Week published on February 5, 2006 (English) ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Airliners.net article
• Video of test flight