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Lockheed's High Altitude Airship
swordboy writes "Lockheed Martin has just awarded a contract to UniSolar Ovonic regarding development and delivery of flexible, lightweight solar cells for the U.S. government's High Altitude Airship security project. The proposed 500-foot-long dirigible is to fly at a stratospheric 70,000 foot altitude - above both jet stream and severe weather. The thin-film solar technology, although low in peak conversion efficiency, can potentially deliver a whopping 2500 watts/kilogram. This is the same technology as the previously discussed GE organic LED project - just with the physics in reverse. Broadband communication blimp, anyone?"
It's just like every alternate history novel I ever read!
...would be a tad more dramatic then wouldn't they?
Though the really great thing is that you could use the ol' tinfoil beany to actually reflect the "mind control waves" then.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
in 3, 2, 1....
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
first they put up a blimp at 70K feet then they tell us its for national security and they LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE!!!!! This "blimp" will be beaming MIND CONTROL BEAMS into the brain of every citizen of Planet EARTH!!! We will become pawns of the ILLUMINATI and sheep in their WORLD domination MACHINE!!!
Already I feel the tin foil on my head being penetrated by THEIR MIND CONTROL RAYS!!!!!
@!(#U@)#U@U#()@!U#()@#)(@!U AAAAAHHHHAAH
If your shotgun can hit something at 70,000 feet I think you may be in for a visit by Mr. Ashcroft & Co.
Trolling is a art,
it's 250 miles tall!
just with the physics in reverse
... .. like my rain coat.
Colonel Sanders: Prepare to reverse physics!
Peon: Preparing to reverse physics!
Colonel Sanders: Reverse physics!
Peon: Reversing physics, sir!
President Skroob: Oh sh*t! Quick turn it off!
Colonel Sanders: We can't, it's irreversable.
Dark Helmet:
Is it just me, or when I read this, I pictured giant Bladerunner-esque ad blimps advertising the off-world colonies!
At 70,000 ft, they might be advertising car sales or casinos on earth to passing Martians, I guess.
The above link has folding instructions and fashion advice. Just make sure your browser has cookies enabled. No real reason. Honest. Just, well, it'll enhace your AFDB experience.
Trust me on this.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Nick Fury anyone?
I had a steady B+ in my AI class until I failed the Turing test...
I want one, but only if I can have a Moogle pilot and fly around the world looking for crystals.
Otherwise I'll just stick to my Chocobo.
If your shotgun can hit something at 70,000 feet, I think you may be in for a visit from every military and weapons contractor, each with drool covered checkbooks in one hand and unsigned exclusive use contracts in the other.
Do I really need a gigantic phallus floating above the Earth at 70,000'?
This
(Cut to interior of a zeppelin. A party. Expensively dressed guests. Champagne. A palm court orchestra playing. Some guests looking out of the windows in wonderment.)
Von Bulow: (approaching Zeppelin) Herr Zeppelin - it's wonderful! It's put ballooning right back on the map.
(Zeppelin goes instantly berserk with anger.)
Zeppelin: It's not a balloon! D'you hear?... It's not a balloon... It's an airship... an airship... d'you hear?
(He hits him very hard on the top of the head with the underside of his fist.)
Von Bulow: Well, it's very nice anyway.
Tirpitz: (to Zeppelin) Tell me, what is the principle of these balloons?
Zeppelin: It's not a balloon! You stupid little thick-headed Saxon git! It's not a balloon! Balloons is for kiddy-winkies. If you want to play with balloons, get outside.
(Drags Tirpitz over to the door, opens it and flings him out into the clouds.)
Tirpitz: Aaaaaaaaaghhh!
LOOK! It's the Lockheed Martin blimp!
>
747 Captain: Commencing laser firing using floating relay mirror. Crap! Did anybody else hear a loud Pop?
On the other hand, if it gets shot down, you can be fairly certain you just detected a hostile aircraft.
What do you mean? An African or a European barrel?
Broadband communication blimp, anyone?
No thanks, I already ate.
...
so...
It uses "the same technology as the previously discussed GE organic LED project"
in a new dirigible?
Making it...
A LED Zepplin?
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
"just imagine the length of fibre you'd need to get to 70,000 ft!!!"
At least 70,000 ft, I'd say. :-)
See, I knew this as a child, a child! Why did I know this? Is it because I was a budding Isaac Newton who read Arthur C. Clarke's seminal 1945 paper on geostationary satellites? Well no, it was because I read Justice League of America and as any good comics fan knows the JLA used to have their headquarters in a satellite orbiting 22,300 miles above the Earth.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.