Re: Battle blimps

"K.H.Ranitzsch" wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ryan Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
>
> > At 5:09 PM +0900 4/17/02, Edward Lipsett wrote:
> > >Offhand, bcause it is a heck of a lot harder to hide, has a bigger
> > >cross-section, and moves slower. On the other hand, I am not a
blimp
> expert.
> >
> > Cross section yes. RCS...no. They are not the same.
>
> But Radar is, even nowadays, not the only sensor that an enemy can
use.
> Modern fighters have TV sets with zoom optics and IR detectors. The
blimp
> would have to be stealthed against that, too.
>
> Greetings
> Karl Heinz

The TV camera is not a search sensor.  Someone correct me if I am wrong,
but
the camera is used to identify targets tracked by the radar.  Before you
zoom
in you look for some kind of dot in the sky, but if the battleblimp
cleverly
makes itself as luminescent as the sky behind it, the dot ceases to
exist.
The use of lighting systems to make a skylined object disappear is one
of the
hypotheses for the origin of the "Philadelphia Experiment" urban legend,
because it was tested by the USN in WWII, and F16's became much harder
to