The Walrus: the US Army contemplates building an aircraft the size of a football field
from Aero Gizmo (452 articles)
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Image Gallery ( 13 images )DARPA’s vision for the WALRUS Program is to demonstrate the feasibility of a heavy lift air vehicle concept to meet a strategic transport need. The program will not re-package 1930s technology or upscale the more limited commercial dirigibles of today, but rather will employ an LTA vehicle concept with new and emerging technologies. By leveraging these technologies to develop an air vehicle, DARPA hopes to truly introduce a paradigm change in capability for providing responsive and flexible deployment and force projection options to military commanders.
WALRUS will require little or no infrastructure to build or maintain, and will not be limited by the need to use runways or other infrastructure (masts, etc) at the landing location. The system will not require a hangar for storage while not in use, and will be able to withstand adverse weather conditions throughout operational life without significant tie down or other manpower intensive operations.
It is anticipated that Walrus will operate in areas where there is local air superiority and ground defenses are suppressed. Survivability will still be an issue that demands importance and will be shaped by the definitive needs resulting from the development of CONOPs.
The Military’s logical future tasks will require the capability of rapidly maneuvering to critical points across the earth and rough calculations show the walrus will be able to do this a minimum three times faster than by ship and be ready to operate immediately - and do so at lower cost than existing airlift. The current alternative is to find a nearby airport, and use a fleet of C-130 cargo planes, which can each carry about 22 tons, fly in the trucks necessary to move it, and truck it all to where it needs to be.
Not surprisingly, the Walrus won’t take on the zepellin-like cigar shape of the infamous and closely-related Hindenberg, the largest aircraft ever to fly, which burst into flames in one of the most public disasters ever to etch itself into the public consciousness in 1937.
Indeed, mentions of the Hindenberg in official documents and the ever-present paragraphs distancing the Walrus from previous generation airships and their outdated technologies are plentiful in the documentation that has been made available to the public so far.
DARPA’s Walrus program will develop and evaluate a very large airlift vehicle concept designed to control lift in all stages of air or ground operations including the ability to off-load payload without taking on-board ballast other than surrounding air. In distinct contrast to earlier generation airships, the Walrus aircraft will be a heavier-than-air vehicle and will generate lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management.
The two contractors receiving Walrus phase I awards are Lockheed Martin (US$2,989,779) and Aeros Aeronautical Systems Corp (US$3,267,000).
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