Paris Air Show 2015: Lockheed Martin unveils new heavy-lift hybrid airship

Lockheed Martin unveiled the  LMH-1  (LockMart Hybrid)slightly-heavier-than-air airship, derived from their prior P-791 prototype. It requires either active vertical thrust or aerodynamic lift to fly; turn the engines off and it’ll sink to the ground. But it’s still pretty much a big ol’ blimp… though one of multi-lobe configuration. It uses air cushion landing gear so it can float around like a hovercraft on water or mud or concrete, and can go into reverse and use suction to lock itself down, thus not needing mooring masts and the like. Speeds up to 60 knots, payloads up to 21,000 kg and range up to 1,400 n.mi., all in a package that looks like this:

UPDATE: Mea Culpa

Turns out I snagged the wrong photo… this is *not* the LockMart design, but the British “Airlander 10.” I apologize for the implication that Lockheed engineers are a bunch of pervs, when I should have known that it was in fact those dirty, dirty Brits.

The LockMart LMH-1 design looks like this:

Not dual-lobed, but triple-lobed. So, y’know, an entirely different set of references to be made.