- The Israel Aircraft Industries is developing a craft
200 meters long and 60 meters wide that will be geostatically positioned
21 kilometers in the air to photograph objects as far away as 1,000 kilometers,
sending the images back to a ground station.
-
- "It will be an airship the size of a football field,
nothing like it in the world," says engineer Avi Baum, head of the
R&D department at Malam in the IAI. "The quality of the photographs
will be very high, with optimum resolution. The quality will be good enough
to read the license plates on moving cars on highways."
-
- Meanwhile, the first two out of 100 F-16I fighter jets
purchased from the United States are due to arrive at an Israel Air Force
base in the south of the country Thursday, Israel Radio reported.
-
- The airship will be able to carry a variety of payloads
for both civilian and military purposes. The platform could serve as a
communications transponder between planes, satellites and the ground, capable
of intelligence gathering and other purposes. The plane could provide broadband
Internet, relay TV and radio signals, monitor air, land
- and naval traffic, as well as provide weather forecasting
services.
-
- The development plan, which is still only in the feasibility
study stage, is under the supervision of the defense establishment's weapons
development administration and has received the blessings of the Defense
Ministry's top management. Current calculations say a prototype could be
operationally ready within four years.
-
- The idea was born at Malam in the mid-1990s. Baum says
it was "a brainstorm by a team of engineers. We looked at the space
between the atmosphere and space where planes, whether manned or not, or
satellites don't go. We thought about how to develop something that would
be less expensive than satellites."
-
- They were not the first to think about such airships.
But they decided to deal with a technological challenge so far unsolved,
of- how to give an airplane the ability to remain geostatic, meaning remaining
stationary above a specific place on the earth, to serve a as a kind of
airborne watchtower over a given area. Theoretically, says Baum, the plane
could be unmanned and remain aloft for as long as three years, changing
its position on the order of ground stations. And unlike satellites, it
could be brought back to earth safely and refitted, upgraded and reused.
-
- Part of the challenge is to devise solar panels that
would collect solar energy, which could be converted into electricity for
operating the plane's systems.
-
- Malam is considered a pioneer in breakthrough technologies.
It developed and manufactures the Arrow missile and the Shavit missile
launcher, which foreign sources say is an offshoot of the Jericho intercontinental
ballistic missile. In the mid-1990s, Yair Ramati was head of future developments
at the company and gave his approval. "We tried pushing the plan with
the American administration and domestic defense agencies," says Baum.
"But nobody listened. We reached the conclusion we were ahead of the
time with the idea. And Yair made the courageous decision to do what engineers
don't like to do, and put the project on hold."
-
- But about 18 months ago, a new engineering team, headed
by Baum reexamined the problem. This time, the team was able to prove the
potential for the solar-powered airplane. Ramati, now CEO at the company,
was persuaded the idea was possible and that Malam had the engineering
capability to develop it.
-
- The plan calls for the plane to be divided into two separate
compartments, one containing air and the other helium. On the ground, most
of the plane would be full of air. The helium would be compressed, making
it heavier than air. But to lift off, the helium would gradually by released
and fill the air pockets. "It is similar to what happens in a submarine,
in reverse," said Baum, "with water filling the air compartments,
but to rise, the water is pumped out and the air pumped in."
-
- To keep the plane in geostationary position, a steering
mechanism would be needed, based on a large rear propeller controlled by
an electric motor. Since the idea is for the plane to remain aloft for
a very long time, there would be a need for a continual supply of energy.
That leads to the need for solar panels on the upper surface of the plane,
collecting energy during the day and storing it in fuel cells.
-
- No runway is necessary for launching the plane, and it
could be made of very flexible lightweight polymers. The current specifications
say the plane would weigh only 10 tons and carry payloads of about 1.9
tons.
-
- With the feasibility study competed, the IAI now faces
the challenge of finding the estimated $100-150 million to build it. Malam,
says Baum, is seeking an international partner for the project, while also
considering industrial partners. Lockheed Martin is also at work on a similar
concept, and the Israeli project has been presented to it. One
- possibility is for the two companies to join forces.
-
- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/395921.html
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