Monday, May 24, 2010
  Largest Inflatable Airship  - The Bullet 580 sets world record
  MONTGOMERY,Ala.,USA--E-Green Technologies-21st Century Airships, based in Alabama, announced its 235-foot long airship (as long as a 23-floor skyscraper) which can reach top speeds of 80mph and capable of cruising 20,000 feet in the air at 80 MPH while carrying a 2,000-pound payload, has completed its inflation test , setting the world record for the Largest Inflatable Airship .
 Photo: The World's Largest Inflatable Airship is a creation of Canadian company 21st Century Airships.
(enlarge photo )

    Chief Executive of E-Green Technologies, Mike Lawson, said: 'It's slow enough to be used for sightseeing, large enough to carry heavy cargo and enough volume of lifting capability to be flied 20,000ft unmanned. So you have a gift of all different technologies.'

    Lift is provided by a system of seven bags filled with helium, while the inner hull is full of ambient air. Hydrogen was used in the 1920s and 1930s because helium was considered too expensive at the time.

The Bullet 580 is so large the creators had to go to the Garret Coliseum in Alabama for its maiden takeoff. It took five hours to fill with helium.

  The Largest Inflatable Airship in The World is designed to provide homeland security, military and other government authorities with communications, missile defense warning and surveillance and intelligence among other monitoring capabilities.

  E-Green Technologies-21st Century Airships officials said the Bullet 580 is also designed to support civilian applications and is the "first of the company's airships in production for commercial use," a release said.

   A maiden flight scheduled for later this year would carry an experimental payload jointly developed by NASA and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. The agricultural and geophysical experiment is designed to measure moisture content in the soil.

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