
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 6, 1990                   TAG: 9005060304
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STEALTH BLIMP SNEAKING UP ON CONGRESS

Should Congress balk at financing the half-billion-dollar-each Stealth bomber, maybe lawmakers will look more kindly at the Stealth blimp.

No joke. The Stealth blimp is a real, $195,000, lighter-than-air craft being developed in Southern California by Carter Ward, an engineer, for the United States Army's Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Center.

The Army is interested in the blimp as a remote-piloted surveillance vehicle for spotting, say, guerrilla camps or suspected drug smugglers.

Radio-controlled from as far as 100 miles away, the blimp could send back still pictures or video images without exposing a pilot to enemy fire.

A 69-foot prototype, which is roughly a third the size of the Goodyear blimp, is currently being tested at an airfield in Elizabeth City, N.C.

The prototype is built with radar-absorbing materials.

But blimps are actually inherently stealthy because a fabric bag filled with gas does not show up well on most radar systems.

Blimps are quiet too, because the engine propelling a lighter-than-air craft need not be very powerful.

One drawback: with a speed of just 28 mph, the vehicle would be a sitting duck to enemy gunfire.

by CNB