Lockheed Martin is serious about developing lighter-than-air vehicles, and now it has patented a new “spider” device that solves a maintenance problem for airship operators. Traditionally, teams of workers have been required to manually scan the airship envelope to find and repair tiny holes that couldn’t be found any other way. Now, Lockheed’s engineers have developed a small device, about the size of a Roomba autonomous home vacuum, that can travel over the entire surface of the envelope to find and repair any holes. The device has two parts, one inside and one outside the envelope, that are connected by magnets.
Several of the devices can be deployed at once, and each one communicates with engineers who can see the holes they find and verify remotely that they’ve been repaired. “We’re not only revolutionizing transportation operations with the hybrid airship,” said engineer Ben Szpak. “We’re also creating new technologies … to help efficiently and effectively maintain the airship.”
