The Walrus HULA was a proposed Hybrid Ultra Large Aircraft. The goal was to create an airship capable of traveling up to 12,000 nautical miles (about 22,000 km) in range, while carrying 500-1000 tons of cargo. In distinct contrast to earlier generation airships, the Walrus HULA would be a heavier-than-air vehicle and would generate lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring, and gas buoyancy generation and management. The project was cancelled in 2010.
DARPA said advances in envelope and hull materials, buoyancy and lift control, drag reduction and propulsion combined to make this concept feasible. Technologies to be investigated in the initial study phase included vacuum/air buoyancy compensator tanks, which provide buoyancy control without ballast, and electrostatic atmospheric ion propulsion.
The WALRUS could potentially expand and speed the strategic airlift capability of the United States substantially while simultaneously reducing costs. However, while such a project has not been seriously attempted before, costs are still uncertain. A smaller scale demonstration was scheduled for 2008, when a small scale version of the WALRUS designed to carry only the capacity of a C-130 Hercules (i.e., 18,000 kg or about 40,000 lbs) was expected to fly.
Famous quotes containing the word walrus:
“The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”
“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)