Legislature(2017 - 2018)BARNES 124
04/04/2017 01:00 PM House TRANSPORTATION
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| Presentation: Hybrid Airships: Opening New Frontiers by Skunk Works, a Division of Lockheed Martin | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION STANDING COMMITTEE
April 4, 2017
1:08 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Adam Wool, Co-Chair
Representative Matt Claman
Representative Harriet Drummond
Representative Chuck Kopp
Representative Mark Neuman
Representative Colleen Sullivan-Leonard
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Louise Stutes, Co-Chair
Representative David Eastman (alternate)
Representative Gabrielle LeDoux (alternate)
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: HYBRID AIRSHIPS: OPENING NEW FRONTIERS BY SKUNK
WORKS ~ A DIVISION OF LOCKHEED MARTIN
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
CRAIG JOHNSTON, Business Director
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
Palmdale, California
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered a PowerPoint presentation titled
"Hybrid Airships: Opening New Frontiers".
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:08:02 PM
CO-CHAIR ADAM WOOL called the House Transportation Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:08 p.m. Representatives Wool,
Drummond, Neuman, Sullivan-Leonard, and Claman were present at
the call to order. Representative Kopp arrived as the meeting
was in progress.
^PRESENTATION: HYBRID AIRSHIPS: Opening New Frontiers by Skunk
Works, a Division of Lockheed Martin
PRESENTATION: HYBRID AIRSHIPS: Opening New Frontiers by Skunk
Works, a Division of Lockheed Martin
1:08:45 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL announced that the only order of business would be
the presentation by Craig Johnston, entitled "HYBRID AIRSHIPS:
Opening New Frontiers by Skunk Works, a Division of Lockheed
Martin."
1:09:09 PM
CRAIG JOHNSTON, Business Director, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works,
advised that the corporation is over 100 years old, and Skunk
Works has almost 75 years' worth of history, primarily in
aviation and innovation. It's landmark products include as
follows: introduction of the first jet fighter toward the end
of World War II; development of some of the early spy plane
technology, such as the Lockheed U-2, ultra-high altitude
reconnaissance aircraft "Dragon Lady" and the Lockheed SR-71
"Blackbird"; involvement in advances in combat capability
represented by the Lockheed F-117 Stealth Fighter "Nighthawk";
design for the Lockheed Martin YF-22 and the X-35, frontline
fighters of today's United States Air Force; and the Lockheed
Martin F-35 of the United States Marine Corp, Navy, and Air
Force. Traditionally, he said, Skunk Works has been motivated
by solving tough problems for the nation primarily in the realm
of the military. Of late, it expanded to look at civil and
commercial missions and, for Skunk Works this is a bit of a
"back to the future" because the last big commercial project was
the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, which ceased production in the
1980s. Skunk Works, he related, is moving back into the
commercial world with the introduction of the hybrid airship.
1:11:55 PM
MR. JOHNSTON said that primarily, he would like to discuss these
hybrid airships in the transportation realm as Lockheed Martin
considers itself a transportation company first and foremost.
Its roots originated in carrying people and cargo and,
ultimately, moving into elements of the far reaches of the deep
sea and deep space. The hybrid airship represents direct
evolvement into the cargo market space, he said, and it has been
a two-decade adventure.
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 1 and pointed out that both the
Lockheed Martin and the Hybrid Enterprises logo appear because
approximately 2.5 years ago Lockheed Martin decided that it was
"good at doing things within the governmental sectors," but not
so much in the commercial sector. Therefore, it brought onboard
Hybrid Enterprises as a partner, with the entity selling the
hybrid airships, he explained.
1:13:14 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 2, "Why Airships?" and referred to
the centuries known fact that the natural buoyancy of ships on
the water allows a ship to hold cargo, and noted it was
relatively inexpensive to push the ship through the water with
sails. Except, he commented, ships are relegated to the water
with inherent limitations as to where they can operate. The
concept of an airship was introduced many years ago using
buoyant gas to lift it in the air, and the challenge was making
it operable enough to control it and take advantage of that
fact. He suggested that when thinking of airships, to think
ship first and air second because much of the operation has a
stronger heritage to ships in terms of how it moves through the
surface.
1:14:39 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 3, "Airship Types" and explained
that the airships in California are non-rigid airships, also
known as blimps, and are filled with helium used to pressurize
the envelope. Generally, he explained, they concentrate all the
load into one single structure that is "hung below that one" so
the compulsion system, pilot, and limited crews "all ride in
there." Semi-rigid airships are a bit larger and distribute
loads into other areas of the structure, he advised that the
airship depicted on the slide is the "Norge Airship of the
1920s." Interesting, he noted, this airship has a bit of Alaska
history, wherein it was an airship built by the Italians, flown
out of Norway with the design mission to fly over the North Pole
and drop flags to declare America as being "the first here." He
said that he read this morning that there was controversy as to
whose flag was the largest when they dropped it over the North
Pole. That airship recovered into the Arctic Region in Alaska,
it had a not so successful landing, and it was decided to just
take it apart. There may be remnants of the Norge airship in
some of Alaska's museums, he offered.
1:16:06 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL noted that he read about an airship that carried
airplanes during World War I and asked whether it would have
been a rigid airship.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that originally, those were the "Graf
Zeppelin" rigid airships that were large to enough to attach a
piece of structure to it and tether the airplane. He said that
they were used somewhat successful and were recovered on and
off, but the utility ended up not being that high. Those were
the large rigid airships of the 1920s and 1930s, he said.
MR. JOHNSTON, in response to Co-Chair Wool, agreed that they
were the first aircraft carriers. He referred to the massive
scale of those rigid airships and advised that the LZ 129
Hindenburg was of that class. He described that it was an
aluminum structure covered with a fabric impregnated surface to
hold the hydrogen in at that time, the vehicles were over 900
feet long, and he commented that airships have been in operation
since the mid-1800s.
1:17:21 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 4, "Concepts & Prototypes" and said
there are concepts for "modern ways of going about it." He
advised that with regard to the Boeing-USA and Piasecki-US
concepts, Lockheed is trying to capitalize on putting together
the best of a helicopter and an airship, using the helicopter
for precision as to how to move things around, and the balloon
to augment the lift and offset some of the weight, and it would
be a precision hybrid airship that was part helicopter and part
blimp. Except, he advised, the concept turned out to be the
worst of both cases because it did not solve enough of the
problem of what happens when trying to tie four large
helicopters together and hang a large balloon above them.
1:18:31 PM
MR. JOHNSTON pointed to the Aeorscraft-USA and the Varialift-UK
and advised that they are similar in concept because both are
semi-rigid to rigid airships and employ the concept of how to
control the buoyancy of the airship. He related that one of the
benefits and challenges of an airship is that the lift cannot be
turned off because when there is a lighter than air gas, such as
helium, the lift cannot be turned off. Therefore, he said, both
the Aeroscraft and the Varialift concepts employ a mechanism
whereby it tries to control the buoyancy by the compression and
expansion of the helium gas, but it tends to be a fairly
expensive way to think about operations. The RosAeros Systems-
RU is a Russian concept and not a lot has been portrayed, but it
does appear to bring on both rigid structures and some amount of
air dynamic lift, and from that standpoint it would be called a
hybrid airship concept. He opined that probably the most mature
of the concepts and prototypes is the Hybrid Air Vehicles, out
of the United Kingdom, originally designed as part of a United
States Army contract for a surveillance platform designed to fly
at 20,000 feet and stay there for a certain amount of time. The
United States Army cancelled the concept and the contract.
Hybrid vehicles in the United Kingdom have continued to move
forward in terms of a platform that could be employed for future
commercial use, whether it be cargo, surveillance, or sight-
seeing activities.
1:20:37 PM
[MR. JOHNSTON played a video from 1:20 p.m. to 1:21 p.m.]
1:21:08 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slides 5-6, "What is Hybrid Lift?" and
advised that, importantly, with hybrid lift the big payoff is
that 80 percent of it comes from the buoyant helium gas, which
is as close as they can get to anti-gravity in terms of the
ability to lift. That is where a lot of the economics come in,
he said, and with economics come operational challenges
addressed by the two other components of lift. The aerodynamic
lift employed by the forward motion of the airship, and the
wing-like shape of the airship by its tri-lobe hull. One of the
challenges of lighter than air vehicles is that they are
sensitive to weight changes. In the event there was an increase
in weight, such as being rained on, it simply increases the
angle of the wing of the body which makes up for the lift that
otherwise would have been lost, with a component of efficient
lift plus robust lift. The direct lift provided by the
helicopter-like operation offers a lot of the controllability.
The four propulsion systems have a great degree of thrust-vector
capability and offer the ability to be highly maneuverable on
the ground, in flight, and in the presence of wind. When all
three of those are combined it is considered "a hybrid lift
solution," he said.
1:22:37 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 7, "Our Hybrid Airship" and advised
that specific to the Lockheed Martin hybrid airship, the tri-
lobed hull allows the ability to generate the aerodynamic lift.
It also offers a mechanism to provide a structural mechanism
with the ability to carry fairly significant loads, about 47,000
pounds of load off that envelope by distributing the load across
the entire surface. There are four thrust vector and propulsion
systems attached to the side of the vehicle, the envelope itself
is non-rigid, and the rigidity comes simply from the helium gas
that fills the envelope. Therefore, he pointed out, not only
does the helium gas provide the buoyant lift gas, but it also
provides the pressure gas that keeps the outer skin stiff
allowing things to be attached to the outer skin. Significant
to the capability, he said, is the capable Fly-By-Wire (FBW)
flight control system. This FBW system makes it extremely easy
to fly, and with the modern computers and modern flight control
technology they can make all that a simple mechanism for the
pilot operating the airship. The FBW system has two controls,
one control "says how fast you want to go" from minus three
knots to seventy knots, the computer determines the propulsion
inputs needed, and the other stick "says go up/go down/turn to
the left/turn to the right." He described it as very simple and
ship-like in terms of how it is operated, and sophisticated in
terms of the flight controls that are running behind the
airship.
1:24:12 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL surmised that to control it, a pilot is not
required to have particular knowledge about each engine, what
the engine is doing, and the angles of surfaces, and he asked
the type of licensing necessary to fly the airship.
MR. JOHNSTON responded that Skunk Works will work with the FAA
to have a "type certificate" in a hybrid airship, and he
anticipates that initially Skunk Works will use the pilots it
trained under the "initial cadre of pilots." Subsequent to that
process, he said, it is anticipated that the typical airship
pilot and command would have the similar experience as a pilot
and command in a twin-engine piston powered aircraft. He
described that it is not as sophisticated as the airliners
because flying the airship is relatively straight-forward.
Skunk Works has a requirement to work with the FAA for that
training program and the training of the initial cadre of
pilots, he offered.
1:25:25 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 8, "LMH-1 Interior Layout" and
noted that a significant feature, when it comes to the
operability of hybrid airships, is the ability to adapt to the
environment. One of the challenges of earlier airship
operations was that they had no idea as to the weather over the
horizon, and modern weather prediction and planning allows that
to be an issue of the past. A common misperception is that
airships are more sensitive to the environment than airplanes,
such as wind, and cold. Except, he pointed out, airships have
essentially the same weather limits as the fixed-wing fleet, and
airships are certainly more robust than the current helicopter
fleet. The onboard weather prediction and route planning is key
in allowing for efficiency when looking for route structure
because the airship flies the currents exactly as a sailing
ship. After reviewing worldwide routes, the airship can count
on up to a 15 knot increase in speed when flying with the wind
as opposed to into the wind, he advised.
1:27:57 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked whether temperature affects the
lift, and whether the same quantity of gas is used at the
equator as at the North Pole.
MR. JOHNSTON answered yes, if there had been a plan for
operations in one spot only because the helium load could be
optimized for that specific environment. However, he said,
onboard is the Balane automatic system which automatically
regulates the pressure of the helium gas with the goal to keep
that pressure constant through temperature, through altitude,
and through many such factors. He explained that as the airship
moves up in altitude, the pressure is going down as the
temperature changes, and there is a built-in Balane system which
automatically takes care of that issue. For most operations, he
said, they would just rely on the Balane, and there is the
ability to slightly optimize the "helium load out" to make it
more ideal for a specific location. In the end, he advised,
"that is not a big swinger" in terms of ...
1:29:06 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked whether there are any environments
where airships will not work.
MR. JOHNSTON answered no. Although, he said, there are
environments where they do not work well, such as Greenland with
extremely high winds all the time in one area, airships would
probably not be seen in that region due more to the wind rather
than the temperature. As it gets colder, the airships work
better within the airship component because the components that
occupy the airship are standard aircraft components and are
generally certified by the FAA down to minus 40 Centigrade and
Fahrenheit, he explained. Any electronic component can be
frozen, he said, but they are standard aviation specifications
for environment specifications.
1:30:05 PM
MR. JOHNSTON advised that other pieces include: the large cargo
bay is 10 feet by 10 feet by 60 feet long; unpressurized; the
airship generally operates below 10,000 feet; the payload bay is
square; the ramp is at truck bed height; the tailgate is a soft
structure in the back of the airship allowing it to carry
outsized cargo, such as a large turbine wind blade out the back
of the airship; and its cargo fuel and ballast tanks are located
in the back to manage its weight on the ground.
1:32:01 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SULLIVAN-LEONARD requested a description of the
tri-lobed hull, and whether it was specific to the front of the
airship.
MR. JOHNSTON responded that the tri-lobed hull is throughout the
entire structure, and a normal airship is purely round because
all pressure vessels want to naturally go to round. In this
case, he noted, there are two rounds, cut in half, and joined
with the other part, which would be a third one in the middle.
The reality is that with the round one in the center, as soon as
a load is on it will straighten out. He explained that when
looking inside the airship a person would see two half lobes and
a lobe with straight lines which provides shape. Most
importantly, he said, are those curtains that "we hang all that
load on." The original hybrid lift had the three-lobed hull,
"what normally would be circles," but Skunk Works intersected
them together to form that which goes from the nose to the tail
offering a bit of streamlining, but it also is a mechanism for
hanging the payload.
1:33:40 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SULLIVAN-LEONARD related that, initially, she was
thinking of the double-hulled ships that are required for the
transport of oil and gas, and whether that would be the same
concept. Although, the airship appears more aerodynamic or
structural in design, she offered.
MR. JOHNSTON responded that it was not there as a safety
feature, three lobes have been put together for both aerodynamic
and structural reasons.
1:34:10 PM
MR. JOHNSTON advised that in addition to the water ballasts used
to manage the airships heaviness on the ground, it also has the
cargo fuel tanks. He referred to the "cube-out" phenomenon
challenge in typical fixed-wing transportation and explained
that normally when hauling cargo by air, the cargo bay is filled
with cargo before hitting the maximum weight because there is
not the tendency to carry "really heavy stuff" in a fixed-wing
aircraft. He related that not all cargo is heavy, but 10,000
pounds of groceries take up volume, such as cereal boxes. In
this case, he said, to put the airship at maximum efficiency
with 10,000 pounds of groceries, the company would load the
cargo fuel tanks with 36,000 pounds of diesel fuel for remote
areas. One of the things recognized in remote areas, he
commented, is the need for fuel, and the airships can always fly
full which, from a weight standpoint, drives economics.
Importantly, he said, because Skunk Works is part of the
certified system, fuel is not hazardous cargo and it flies
people at the same time as the fuel. Skunk Works is working
with the FAA in that its baseline configuration will be two
pilots and eight passengers, with the ability to travel with up
to 19 passengers, the FAA limit. He pointed out that the people
essentially fly nonrevenue, at no cost, unlike most
transportation opportunities because the airship is designed
around the main cargo bay and the people are there basically
flying for free. At this point the airship was not intended to
be an airline, but eventually an operator could apply for an
airline operating certificate.
1:36:56 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 9, "Operations" and said the video
was a full-scale mockup in Palmdale, California designed to
represent a landing site in the Ambler region. He said when
they bring people to the "Hybrid Experience" they say "Welcome
to Alaska" as they tried to put it directly in its working
environment.
[Video played 1:37:21 through 1:38:50.]
1:39:00 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL referred to what was seen on the video wherein
"they see the envelope there."
MR. JOHNSTON agreed.
1:39:18 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 10, "Tech Demo to OPERATIONAL
CAPABILITY" and noted that the vehicle at the top left, P-791
(2006), flew ten years ago as a sub-scale demonstrator to prove
out the tri-lobed envelope design, digital flight control, full
vectored thrust, air cushion landing system, and it over-
performed so they made some design changes. Palmdale,
California, he advised, is one of the windier places on earth
and in terms of the operation they were able to prove the
airship could operate routinely in 30 plus knots of wind, which
exceeds most fixed-wing aircraft, and the airship system is
designed for 40 knots of wind. He referred to the LMH-3 and
advised that is where they started 20 years ago, the vehicle was
capable of carrying 500 tons or 1 million pounds of cargo as a
"through the air version" of a container ship, except the
vehicle was approximately 700 feet long. There are no
facilities today "to do that" and they backed away from that
vision to what they believe is an irresistible initial market
space in the remote cargo transport market. He suggested the
committee consider that it carries payloads designed for
overland trucks, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, or the Boeing 737
fleet. He said, "So that's the first vehicle that we intend to
introduce to the marketspace," anticipating having the first
flights in 2018. Skunk Works will perform a one-year FAA
certification program during which it may conduct some
environmental testing to prove it works in the environments in
Alaska, he said. The airship would then be introduced into
commercial services in 2019, and FAA certified under a whole new
type of certificate with new criteria for hybrid airships.
1:42:28 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP said that as far as air traffic controls,
the airship would have the similar approach and take-off as a
helicopter and asked where they would commercially operate.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that the basic concept is to avoid the
traditional airport infrastructure with long runways, and fast-
moving airplanes. The fundamental concept of operation,
although it is compatible, is a landing area approximately 2,000
feet in length and approximately 800 feet in width, devoid of
large trees due to the air cushion landing system. Most likely,
he said, the most rigorous element to accommodate is how the
buyer would operate their cargo operation and whether trucks
were accessible. He stated that "vertical operations" would
require a 500-foot helipad. He explained that [airships] have
less vertical precision than helicopters.
1:44:45 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL surmised that a frozen or unfrozen river in rural
Alaska would be ideal.
MR. JOHNSTON agreed, and he clarified that a raging river would
not be ideal, but the weight would certain work.
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP noted that there should be a commercially
based area for resupplying away from an airport, and good
road...
MR. JOHNSTON interjected that close to a railroad is ideal which
is close to a road network because when bringing cargo from
remote areas to the railhead there should be a quick mechanism
to put it on the railroad or truck and transfer it to the next
most efficient mechanism as quickly as possible. He related
that a partner of Skunk Works is looking at setting something up
in the Kenai Peninsula in terms of a remote location.
1:48:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP said he knew that PRL Logistics had a
commercial heliport there with a lot of logistical support for
the oil companies.
MR. JOHNSTON said that he can publicly disclose that PRL
Logistics is the logistics arm of the first announced interested
buyer, Straight Line Aviation out of the United Kingdom, and
they recently signed PRL Logistics on as a component of its
logistic side.
1:46:51 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN asked the range of the cost of a hybrid
airship.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that the purchase price is $40 million,
more expensive than used airplanes and cheaper than new
airplanes. He commented that the competition, such as the
Douglas DC-3s, has a market value of approximately zero. More
importantly, he said, is the fact that it competes on the
overall operating costs, and the price of the vehicle is a
component. Detailed modeling has shown that when competing
against used cargo aircraft, and rolling in the maintenance
cost, operating cost, fuel cost, crew costs, all those other
costs, and determining what it costs per ton mile to operate, he
said that Skunk Works is competitive against almost all the
existing "remote transportation needs."
1:48:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN noted that there are practical limits as
to the distance of transporting cargo. For example, he offered,
2,000 miles would be too far of a distance for the airship and
that 200-300 miles becomes more reasonable.
1:48:36 PM
MR. JOHNSTON stated that Representative Claman was correct. The
airship has economic ranges probably in the 300-600-mile range,
and he explained that the range has to do with the throughput of
cargo, how many flights, and how long the crew was onboard. He
related that a customer flew the airship around the world, it
could fly 22,000 miles without refueling, except it took him 28
days. The airship has a 1,400-nautical mile range and he
suggested thinking of that primarily as a ferry range. He
offered that if the airship was deployed from Alaska to an area
in Canada it would be flown there "which probably would be a
nonrevenue flight generally, "it would be a positioning of it."
Travel slower and those sorts of ranges could be exceeded, which
is typically in the 300-600-mile range. Skunk Works is working
with the FAA on a new set of rules that makes it more ship-like
in terms of how it is crewed, he said. Rather than having a
pilot in command that can only sit in the seat for eight hours
and cannot let him off, to switch over and have a captain
onboard relaxing in the back with a duty officer. That is the
model that was there in the early days of the airships because
they were the same speed and flew for long periods, he said, and
the FAA is willing to work with Skunk Works on the concept.
1:50:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN surmised that it flies lower, so it is a
different airspace than what the FAA currently regulates.
MR. JOHNSTON replied that it still can be regulated, but it
generally economically flies at 1,500 to 2,500 feet above ground
level (AGL) with the maximum height of approximately 10,000
feet. The lower the airship flies, the more efficient it is but
the planning will be weather and obstacle dependent, he
explained.
1:51:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DRUMMOND referred to Mr. Johnston's earlier
testimony regarding diesel fuel in the tanks of the airship and
asked whether there was a limitation other than size and weight
on the other types of cargo, such as a tank of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) or propane going to a remote village which would
otherwise be difficult to reach.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that a plan is to certify the airship to
carry the diesel fuel in the tanks, and because it is certified
it would allow people and fuel at the same time. Skunk Works
looked at the transport of LNG and noted that LNG is not well
designed for airborne operations due to the "tare weight" being
fairly high, and currently no one would conceive of flying LNG
in an airplane. There is a market space that could transport
LNG efficiently, and it would probably involve a slight
modification to the transport mechanism. Whether or not the FAA
would allow Skunk Works to do it as a non-hazardous operation is
still to be determined, he explained, and that would basically
mean that "you can't fly passengers and would have to take
specific actions." He said that they do believe this could open
a market that says, in addition to just heavy fuels "that you
actually even be able to conceive of a -- of a pace that you
could actually deliver LNG to remote areas where you start to
unlock the sorts of things where you could provide a year-round
access to that."
1:52:55 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DRUMMOND noted the upside is that a village is
small, and it does not need a large LNG tank, and the whole goal
is to replace diesel fueled operations with cleaner fuel.
MR. JOHNSTON added that LNG does not have the same shelf life of
a heavy fuel and the airship could simply supply fuel once a
week and top off the tanks. That is a potential, he commented,
but it is not in the baseline thinking because no one is really
trying to transport LNG by air.
1:53:37 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL noted another fact for LNG as opposed to diesel is
that there is no fear of it spilling on the ground whereas many
tank farms in rural Alaska have a lot of necessary maintenance
and rehabilitation. He referred to the largest LMH-3, which was
700 feet with 500-ton payload, noting that the Graf Zeppelin was
900 feet, and asked whether it had a huge payload and its
primary use.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that the Graf Zeppelin was built for
passenger carriage, and although it was 900 feet long, it had a
payload capacity of approximately 10 tons, and due to
technology, that is half of what Skunk Works is doing on its
smaller airships. It had a rigid structure, the fabric that was
dope covered so it was not a lightweight high strength fabric.
In terms of the massiveness of an airship, the modern airship is
smaller and "much, much, more capable" due to advancements in
technology and materials ...
1:54:45 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL interjected that even though the gas was half the
weight, all the other stuff was heavier and was primarily like
an ocean liner ...
MR. JOHNSTON interjected that it was an ocean liner and was
never designed for cargo.
1:54:58 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 11, "Demonstrator Flight (video)"
and said the slide is the demonstrator Skunk Works built and
flew in 2006. It was a ground operation and although it is a
fairly large machine "you can see how nimble it is on the ground
turning on itself," which is afforded by the propulsion system
making it very snappy in its takeoff and flight characteristics.
The airship is large with no sense of motion, it is like a bush
plane in terms of the mode of operation, on a much larger scale.
MR. JOHNSTON, in response to Co-Chair Wool, advised that the
airship is possibly "knocked around" in serious turbulence
resulting in a bit of a ship-like swaying, but a person would be
comfortable due to the large inertia.
1:55:54 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL asked the weight of the LMH-1.
MR. JOHNSTON replied that weight is interesting when discussing
airships because after removing helium from the airship it
weighs approximately 60,000 pounds, when helium is inserted it
becomes much lighter, and then if all the payload is removed it
weighs less and will float away. He explained that "heaviness"
is a measure of apparent weight and that a typical airship blimp
has about 800 pounds of heaviness, yet if you put their airship
on the scale under normal operations it would weigh
approximately 20,000 pounds. There is a robustness ...
CO-CHAIR WOOL interjected that as far as being pushed around by
the wind, how much mass would be involved.
MR. JOHNSTON answered that in-flight there would be little
effect, and because the flight control system is trying to drive
it 20 degrees, for example, it would perform whatever the flight
control had to do to make certain it stayed on the command of
the pilot's course.
1:57:29 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 12, "Getting to Market" and advised
that getting the airship to market comes down to understanding
the value stream and making it clear across an entire value
stream that this is good for everyone involved, including
convincing the oil and gas and mining extraction side. He
pointed out that questions for the user of transportation could
include: what was needed to move "their stuff" into and out of
their facilities; what mode; and how that mode would save money;
whether it would de-risk their operation; and how it would lower
those costs. Additionally, he said, the oil and gas and mining
folks do not generally operate any of their own equipment and
generally work through a logistics provider. For example,
Pacific Rim Logistics (PRL) connects the hard job with someone
willing to do the hard job, and convincing a logistic provider
there is money in the airship. Ultimately, he said, the
financiers, such as Lockheed Martin, said that before "I go do
all the capital development it says okay, I'm going to develop
and field one of these systems, how do I know that somebody's
actually going to use it or buy it." He related that by Skunk
Works moving through that entire stream of value and locating
everyone willing to sign up and agree, has been a relatively
hard challenge over the last three years. The hard part of
revolutionary technology is how to get everyone to sign on, he
said.
1:59:43 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 13, "Offshore Operations Support"
and advised, in transportation there is the consideration of
safety, and how the airship would support off-shore oil, with
the range, payload, and costs advantages far superior to the
helicopter fleets of today. Safety is a challenge, he said, and
landing on the oil rig itself is not necessarily an ideal
situation, and there is the problem of landing on the surface
around the rig to transport the crew to the rig.
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 14, "Oil and Gas Support" and said
the airship can support phases from exploration through
development through production to emergency services. Skunk
Works spoke with the oil companies about making their rigs small
enough to fit 20 tons at one time, and the oil companies agreed
if it made enough sense. He said that it is difficult to
compete with pipeline transportation, and the interest is in
spill response, transport, and resupply.
2:02:41 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 15, "Hybrid Operations Case Study"
and said that, ultimately, from an economic standpoint "we can
push out" close to twice the range of the current fleets, four
times the load, charge aggressive rates, and allow the operator
to make money. When it comes down to the value in this, he said
they offer an opportunity to open a tremendous new value
proposition for all the players.
2:03:23 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 16, "The 'Roadless' Mine" and noted
that the largest rare earth mineral deposit, outside of China,
is on the border of Quebec and Labrador in Northeast Canada, and
the plan is to build a permanent road from the Strange Lake
Project to the coast on the east side. He explained that they
have worked for multiple years to obtain the environmental
impacts reports and "we're having a challenge" closing the
business case on this. Straightline Aviation approached "them"
about creating a roadless mine with the current plan to fly the
rare earth mineral concentrate out of Strange Lake to
Schefferville, put it on the railroad and ship it to further
processing. He described this as the first adoption of a truly
roadless mine, although, they may build temporary ice roads for
some of the initial construction and infrastructure to provide
wind energy. Significant to that value stream, he pointed out,
is the fact that now there is a mining operation signed up and
ready to spend $850 million, over a 10-year period, writing
contracts allowing the logistics provider to buy services from
the airline (indisc) shifts from Lockheed Martin "and the whole
string closes through there."
2:04:57 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 17, "Arctic Operations - Ice Road
Replacement - Point Thomson" and referred to the slide that
depicts the budget allocations for 2015-2016 for this specific
operation involving trucks moving up the Dalton Highway, an ice
road for the last mile from Deadhorse to Point Tomson and flying
all the people from Anchorage to Point Tomson. He said that
when only considering that last tactical mile, the small hybrid
airship would result in a 25 percent reduction in the operating
cost of that operation.
2:05:47 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 18, "Hybrid Case Study" and
emphasized the significance of a major project completed at
Papua New Guinea performing LNG movement. Skunk Works was able
to review in detail the costs involved in the manner they
performed the project, and how those costs would have been
impacted if "we'd done it a different way using airships." The
total actual project cost was almost $1 billion, largely due to
building the road and runway infrastructure to allow the cargo
to move in on a large Russian antonov 124 vehicle. If they had
had the 20-ton hybrid airship they would have been able to
complete the same project, in terms of the infrastructure set
up, for a 98 percent reduction. He said that those facts get
people's attention, the challenge is that no large oil company
is willing to bet a $1 billion plus development program on
something that does not yet exist. Therefore, he noted, it is
important to get the hybrid airship to market so the public will
start to see that this will enable different projects.
MR. JOHNSTON noted that in a similar region "they are looking at
transportation options" that currently represent barges moving
up rivers. The problem being that, at times during the year
those rivers are dry, unlike Alaska with its frozen rivers, and
it has a tremendous risk of losing all transportation options.
Therefore, "they look at ways" of de-risking those operations by
bringing on alternate mechanisms of transporting people and
materials, he said.
2:07:10 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 19, "Hybrid Case Study" and said,
in terms of the direct costs of transportation, when comparing
the large Russian antonov 124 vehicle moving essentially the
same cargo as a hybrid airship, the airship offers a 72 percent
cost reduction.
2:07:33 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 20, "Operational Safety" and
reiterated that safety is a key component of any operation.
Airships inherently travel at slow speeds and the beauty is that
"if it really looks hairy and scary" in terms of the approach,
it could pull back and wait because it can fly at zero speed at
certain weight levels. He explained that the redundant systems
refer not only to the electronics and avionics onboard, but also
to the propulsion system because the airship is designed to "fly
with engines out." Therefore, he pointed out, another asset is
the ability to lose an engine and take off and return home with
only three engines, plus the airship can operate off any surface
when looking for emergency landing spots, whether it is a river,
lake, or an open spot. There is also the fact, he said, that
the airship was purpose designed for cargo and it keeps the
potential sources of fire away from people through separation
and inherent safety elements.
2:08:58 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 21, "Hybrid Airship Sustainability"
and reminded the committee that more and more of a worldwide
issue is the sustainability of transportation solutions.
Conservatively on the fuel side, he advised, the airship is one-
fifth to one-tenth of the fuel required to carry the same
payload via the airship compared to a helicopter. Even compared
to the most efficient fixed-wing aircraft, [airships] require
one-third to one-tenth the fuel. He related that more and more
of an issue in both urban areas and remote areas is the noise
impact on the environment and animals. He explained that the
baseline noise profile of a hybrid airship is approximately 60
decibel (db), which is a relatively low noise footprint compared
to the current eight times that level. The emissions, the
carbon footprint, goes almost hand-in-hand with fuel because
when burning less fuel there is less production of a carbon
footprint, which becomes a bigger and bigger issue as some
nations drive toward reducing that carbon footprint.
2:10:35 PM
MR. JOHNSTON turned to slide 22, "Summary" and related that the
hybrid airship was purpose built for remote operations; the
ability to operate without building an infrastructure;
environmentally friendly; ability to show the dramatic reduction
in the cost of performing operations; and when the airships are
introduced it will begin to enable different concepts. He
related the airship can assist in humanitarian missions, such
that a radiological group signed up and is trying to provide
radiological services worldwide in rural areas, which is
possible with an airship. Alaska, he stated, could see airships
as early as 2019 because Skunk Works anticipates flying airships
and starting the certification program in 2018. Skunk Works
believes that Alaska is ideally suited for the operations that
this vehicle was purposely built to solve, he said.
2:12:38 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL commented that the Lower-48, with its access to
roads and railways, probably is not a likely area to see a lot
of hybrid airship cargo activity, but Alaska is likely by being
remote and without those infrastructures. He said that it
sounded like Skunk Works has customers and people interested,
which is the part that interests him, noting that he had been
reading about this for decades. He said that Mr. Johnston had
testified that Alaska would see the airship next year and asked
whether that was an accurate statement.
MR. JOHNSTON responded, "We believe so, we -- I'd like to say
that it's done, but I can tell you that there is a lot of stuff
going on in the background that is aligning all of those
component pieces," and his company would not waste his time
coming to Juneau to say, "Oh yeah, just -- just wait another
year, just wait another year." Skunk Works is serious about
this with a lot of serious players performing serious work in
attempting to unlock this opportunity because it will truly open
new frontiers in terms of transportation in Alaska and Canada in
remote areas, he stressed. Ultimately, Skunk Works believes
that as it deploys the full family of these capabilities, to
start in Alaska, he remarked.
2:14:40 PM
CO-CHAIR WOOL opined that the timing was fortunate because
someone had mentioned it to him in passing, his office contacted
Mr. Johnston, and now he was testifying, which is a testament to
the fact that Skunk Works is serious about being in Alaska.
Alaska has transportation needs and resources located in remote
areas and "we'd love to combine those two things." He described
that it will be exciting and see how it works at minus 40
degrees in Barrow or Fairbanks.
MR. JOHNSTON related that it was a privilege to address the
committee.
2:16:01 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Transportation Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 2:16
p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| House Transportation - Bio Craig Johnston 4.4.17.pdf |
HTRA 4/4/2017 1:00:00 PM |
|
| House Transportation - Hybrid Airships Lockheed Martin PPT 4.4.17.pdf |
HTRA 4/4/2017 1:00:00 PM |