LEMV First Flight
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- The U.S. Army's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) flew for the first time from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., on Aug. 7. The air vehicle was airborne for more than 90 minutes during its initial flight. LEMV is built by Northrop Grumman with major subcontractor Hybrid Air Vehicle.
Nice to finally see this take to the air....lots of hard work and hours put into this to make this a successful venture...well done HAV for getting this thing up and in the air for NG...
Vane vectoring looks sweet and gives a positive authority on the initial climb...makes the hard work of fitting them on at the test site worth it...
Nuclear blimp! This thing can probably stay up for decades...
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
No probs James - I was affiliated with the programme but no longer - my job was done when the last engine and duct was tested...although still in touch with some of the guys there...etc.....It was great fun and great lads - and we had good banter and fun with the NG guys that came to work with us at the test site.
This is a fantastic Video, have been following this project for Many years, it is the great LTA designer Roger Munks last great LTA vehicle, the guys at NG and HAV and a lot more have done a fantastic job in realising this fantastic vehicle, the only sad note is that Roger was not here to see it. well don NG HAV and all the others, amazing site, amazing Hybrid Air Vehicle.
Over 22,000, actually. There's a region of calm air there that allows it to have such a long endurance.
If you look closely, you can see the "blown vanes" direct the thrust downward for VTOL.
What an incredible machine, and what an incredible accomplishment.
I hope they make more of these for luxury travel like the Airlander 10 is basically an air cruise ship like this but it has like 5 floors built inside it with 19 hotel rooms, a full bar and seating area for eating and it has a bottom level with glass panel floors so you get amazing views of everything below it's pretty much a flying cruise ship
You can say that about the ac-130 or any fixed wing transport. This guy is good for getting out on station and staying there, as a hybrid its faster and more maneuverable than a blimp, and has way more endurance than an aircraft. Perfect for detecting incoming cruise missiles and scanning places like Afghanistan. Plus it looks like something out of star wars.
It never ceases to amaze me the crazy things we spend money on. This thing has to land and take off. It won't last a month in a war zone.
It just offers a capability that has never been used. Having a highly persistent radar at medium altitude will provide for much greater detection of low flying aircraft, cruise missiles, artillery...etc, especially if the radars on multiple blimps are multistatic.
What a great flight!
A bit of maniacal laughter feels appropriate at the moment. Have waited long to see this. YES! :-)
The skin is actually softer than you might think, you can impress it with your thumb. At the time of writing it has no defence countermeasures; it's primary advantage is that it is unmanned and so can stay in the air for ridiculous amounts of time, plus it's cheap to run.
The army might use these in the meantime but in the future a much more likely use for these Hybrid Air Vehicles is for nothing more sinister than freight transportation.
And as you say, good luck hitting it with a rocket.
now USA will occupy other countries with style
Clever.
Though it may not look any more "original" than any airship built since 1852, it's actually the first of its kind: a heavier-than-air, "hybrid" airship/airplane. The mission, however, is nowhere near new, airships had a terrific record in the Navy from World War 2 to the sixties, where they served as AEW, ASW and airborne radar systems simultaneously(although the replacement of nuclear bombers and diesel-electric subs rendered those blimps obsolete).
Beautiful - now put a 105mm and a few Bushmasters on it - you've got serious endurance for those weapons, if you use this sort of ship.
Are we there yet?
northrup should come up with bulletproof solar panels to cover the top. make it more energy efficient.
it is ... MAJESTIC
I actually saw this beast in person!
@chrisdb1000
The vector vanes are nice, but the bow thruster is conspicuously absent. I wonder if they cut it altogether or they just haven't added it yet?
@t43562
I can't wait to see them give it full throttle and thunder along at 90 mph... But not as much as I want to see the view from inside, with those huge windows, and what it looks like inside that 80-foot gondola!
I can't believe this project was cancelled today. Heartbreaking.
@Jjames763 - I can not comment on why the bow thruster was not included....the vanes though was quite genius and was fun to play with and after initial issues were amazingly reliable
I saw it at the factory - but it was only a bare shell at the time...and not much was fitted....most was done in the states...as for the fuel tanks...can't discuss that...
Now that's cool.
I heard rigid airships where going to be in the future and a generally good thing that iwll happen 10 years ago. Thought it was a nice idea that's never get developed.
Brilliant!!
@HTGtec
It would take more than one missile to sink this machine. For one, it flies too high. For another, missiles can't detonate against fabric, helium strangles out explosions, and the relatively tiny, hard-to-detect "solid" parts of the hull are all ridiculously redundant. A missile would simply lance in one end and out the other. You'd need a lot of missiles, because it has a lot of gas cells, and they leak very slowly.
andrejagreen
No. People take potshots at the Goodyear Blimp quite commonly, and the holes leak so slowly they’re usually only discovered when the hull undergoes maintenance.
Haha neat, It reminds me of those blimps in the new bioshock.. Is it possible for a bail out in that thing? or are you just stuck ha
BIG TARGET!
I guess your right. I am the son of the lead engineer!
@BlackBird7790
Clearly. Airships actually do have engines, lots of them...
Hmm.. I wonder how high it could go... probably waaaaaaay up to 100k ft? Tha'd be a good reconnaissance aircraft :) good job Northrop!
its more for defence than attack.... this wouldn't sit right up at the front lines in the first days of war.
It'll be used for a recon fence to spot anything hurtling towards rear bases. Once air superiority is gained, it could be used more forward.
I wuold say one of the requirements is that it needs to be cheap.
"Possible rival?" This thing beat out P-791 for the contract. P-791 has instead been sold to the Canadians for development into a civilian 20-ton cargo lifter.
@chrisdb1000
Please tell me, if you can, I've been wondering about this for months, does the LEMV come with self-sealing fuel tanks? And did you ever get to see what the inside of the gondola looks like?
Them looking at your Internet history is almost as old a technology as this old blimp in a new suit.
The unclassified altitude is over 20,000 ft so the altitude is probably more like 35,000. Good luck hitting that with a rocket. You don't know what defense countermeasures it has or even what the skin is made out of. Even if it was hit with something it would still be in the sky by simply continuously supplying air/and or helium through w/e hole was made.
I doubt use in a warzone will be its sole, or even main, application.
What does it do? It must be giant on a radar screen...
@chrisdb1000
Ah, I get it, you're affiliated with the program and mum's the word. That's fair. I understand the rationale of the bow thruster, at low speeds, such as landing, the fins are rendered ineffective because not enough air is passing over them. But I can also see why it would be expendable, for the vast majority of flight it would be deadweight and drag, and it could easily be compensated for by the engines.
FINALLY: prototype War Zeppelins.
Science fucking rules.
Possible rival to the P-791?
Just think of the possibilities this type of platform brings to the table with its heavy lift capability, at a fraction of the cost of current methods, try and focus on the positive, you are caught on cctv 300 times a day, i don't think the army are too interested in snooping on you. i hear the next generation they are currently working on can look at your're internet history though, which im a bit nervous about.
for Northrop Grumman
this video needs slo-mo version
Can we expect this to be an upcoming killstreak in Call of Duty? ;)
Watch out for the sonic boom.
Just went over my house cell phone went from 5 bars to 0 never seen that before.
Seems a bit noisy for a vehicle who's prime directive is intelligence, however , a very nice sleek design for a dirigible.
No need for bulletproofing , sheer altitude will do the trick.
No shoulder launched missile will go up to 7000 meters and higher.
future of air warfare post peak oil. go us
its an overlord, mayb an overseer.
Very underpowered....
There's not a lot of things that can't be destroyed by one simple missile.
Interesting...
for HAV or NG?
@Joe Dokes
Your comment would make more sense if over 200 aerostats weren't already flying at lower altitudes in Afghanistan, with none being shot down thus far. This thing is far more durable than they are. And it puts highly-vulnerable helicopters to shame, too.
Seems really vulnerable.
Look out here comes Ming
Pretty awesome: on mute. Hearing 'go babay' 20 times gets annoying after about twice.
Bruce sent me too! any one else thinking Thunderbird 2
JESUS CHRIST....WHAT IS NORTHROP WORKING ON!!!
The Future of air superiority Fighters
LOL
not impossible to detect beef - more what ya gonna do about it ;) the small arms and rpg approach of attack that the taliban have at hand cant reach it - and a SAM cant find it due to low heat signature and if got lucky and hit the hull would sail right through and due to low pressure differentials the helium would not leak out at any real hurry and the vehicle could be recovered in plenty of time and patched and sent back up...
Watching this with Ride of the Valkyries made it look way more badass. But who cares, it's badass anyway!
@Jjames763 Well excuse me,i'm not much into Hybrid Terrain Airships. Im more of an aircraft with engines person. :T
Yeah sitting duck and will have all of the militarizes comm. Smart......
Looks like a hairless chicken, may be another hairless produce can be used next time, I am not sure which one but I think you can figure it out..
Look at the " Hybrid Air Ship Crane + Helicopter = Energy Efficient & Stability & Lift, UAV Blimp - Air Vehicle " web site HybridAirCrane
@Jeremiah Pe
To the Taliban, it's less of a "sitting duck" and more of an "unreachable fortress." Remember, they don't have an air force, and most small suicide aircraft can't cone within miles of it.
Bruce sent me
и тут подул ветерок.....
its acctually impossible to detect over afganistan. The taliban dont have any anti aircraft missiles
We finnaly beat Lockheed!
It's filled with helium? That's disappointing.
You won't - do you understand the differences between H and He - obviously if you did you would make a more enlightened comment with a factual basis behind it :)
This is what they show the public to explain the bizarre shit they are really doing.
US Army just cancelled this $297 project.
it just seems way to vulnerable
Thunderbird 2? lol
Lentomovil
less then a 100 million dollar trip to africa
WE BEAT LOCKHEED MARTIN YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!
Your Wrong Man!
It had to be butt shaped.
noninflameable helium.
weeeeeeeeeeeeee
woohoo the US discovers zeppelins a century later, kudos! obviously cheaper than the F22 program ahahahaha
VeryEasyTarget
遅い気がする…。
It cost between 154 million and 517 million! Hahahahahaha what a fucking waste of your tax dollars!
mine's better . a lot better ! mine can stand still in a 80mph wind . thinking of having it made as a toy in CHINA ... .