Boeing touts heli-blimp for heavy lifting

The JHL-40 is an uncommon mix of blimp and helicopter.

(Credit: Boeing image by Joe Naujokas)

What do you get when you cross a blimp and a helicopter? One potential answer is the Skyhook JHL-40.

The JHL-40, mind you, is still essentially in the blueprints-and-artist's-renderings stage. It's an aircraft that Boeing and its partner Skyhook International are pitching as a short-haul commercial transport rig.

Boeing says that the neutral buoyancy of the JHL-40 would let it hoist and move far greater payloads than can be handled by existing rotorcraft. The aircraft, the companies say, should be able to lift a 40-ton sling load and then transport it 200 miles without refueling, a capacity that would come in handy in harsh, undeveloped regions like the Canadian Arctic where "conventional land and water transportation methods...are inadequate, unreliable and costly."

Here's how it would work: The helium-filled envelope would support the weight of the aircraft itself (fuel included). Four rotors sticking out from the sides of the envelope would provide the lift for the external payload.

The venerable twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicoptor, by comparison, has a range of about 200 miles, but lifts only on the order of about 10 tons.

One industry ripe for the JHL-40 is logging, Boeing says.

(Credit: Boeing image by Joe Naujokas)

This being the era in which no product, potential or tangible, can be promoted without a greenish tinge, Boeing also proclaims that the JHL-40 will be "environmentally acceptable" because there would be less of a need to build roads in remote regions and because it would lessen the carbon footprint of target industries like logging, mining, and energy.

The patent on the aircraft belongs to Calgary, Alberta-based Skyhook, and it will be developed and built by Boeing's Advanced Rotorcraft Systems unit. (JHL is short for Jess Heavy Lifter; the patent lists Skyhook's Peter Jess as the inventor.)

Two production prototypes are set to be built at a Boeing facility in Ridley Park, Pa., and the aerospace giant says the aircraft will enter commercial service as soon as it gets the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada.

As unusual as the JHL-40 appears, this isn't the first such blimp/rotorcraft combination. The pioneering helicopter company Piasecki Aircraft in the 1980s experimented with a very similar demonstration vehicle called the PA-97 Helistat. It was built on a U.S. Navy contract for the U.S. Forest Service, according to Piasecki.

[xcopy]

"Boeing also proclaims that the JHL-40 will be "environmentally acceptable" because there would be less of a need to build roads in remote regions and because it would lessen the carbon footprint of target industries like logging, mining, and energy".

"Acceptable"? LOL! Where do they find these guys?

While on the surface this seems like a cool new invention, here's the subtext of what Boeing really means; all those undeveloped areas that were previously inaccessible can now be raped without building a road. Devastation can now occur almost anywhere you desire and we can get you there.

The next Boeing ad....

"Want to wreak havoc in untouched or protected lands? Have those pesky environmentalists prevented you building roads and from clear cutting or strip mining your way to Nirvana? Don't worry, because we'll take you there, and there won't be anyone around to complain.

Boeing, exporting environmental destruction to any where you want to go!"

[Durrettd]

An alternative interpretation would be they said what they meant. The problem with the environmentalist movement is that it has representatives like xcopy.

I wonder what would threaten the environment more: bulldozing great swashes of untouched wilderness to access select areas a forest or selectively removing trees from those areas?

You see, the demand for wood and construction supplies doesn't change. The fact is, those logs will be harvested. So how would we like to go about doing it? Minimally invasive so as to not do as little ecological damage as possible, or trucking it out causing additional air and noise pollution, compacting soil, disrupting migratory patterns, dividing population groups, etc...

xcopy, you ripped into a criticism by claiming you were oh so educated, oh so enlightened... all your post demonstrated was that when given a choice, you'd prefer we slash and burn.

Don't snub your nose at improvement because it's not perfect. It's developments like those at Boeing/Skyhook that are the stepping stones to even better solutions.

[InklingBooks]

I quote a previous poster: "here's the subtext of what Boeing really means; all those undeveloped areas that were previously inaccessible can now be raped without building a road."

Like pacifists, many environmentalist demonize anyone who disagrees with them or does something they don't like. In this case, Boeing and loggers getting lumber to build homes become rapists.That's sick and twisted.

These are hate groups. Pacifists hate soldiers with the courage and integrity to unseat murderous dictators (most recently Saddam). Environmentalist hate anyone who simply wants to enjoy life untroubled by the ecological hysteria of the moment. It the 1960s it was an alleged a population explosion. In the 1970s, it was global cooling. Most recently, it's global warming.

--Michael W. Perry, Seattle

[xcopy]

While I realize that it was beyond you, much of my post was tongue in cheek.

I'm neither anti-war, anti-military, or anything you'd like to believe. I support a strong military and if I could I'd have you shipped to Afghanistan in the morning.

i also don't believe in environmental activism if it causes destruction. I do, however believe in intelligence and the ability to understand the repercussions of our actions. I realize that you posses neither, and it's obvious that you're someone that "wants to live life untroubled by " [insert any issue/topic/problem that requires thought or anything other than self-interest here].

That's the problems with most fools, idiots, and right wing republicans (but I repeat myself). Shallow thinking and the inability to understand the repercussions of their actions have brought us to our current point. I'm sure you're quite pleased with yourself and environmental degradation we're facing.

I can only hope your days, and those of your kind, are over soon.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Pics remind me of something the Krauts would build circa WW1

[gridwerk]

Jeezus, xcopy... really?

So the guy doesnt follow your specific brand of brain-washed Marxist clap-trap so you want him "shipped to Afghanistan in the morning"; declare him a "fool(s), idiot(s), and right wing republican(s)" (because, by default, those that dont agree with you must be) and you feel the need to vail threats towards him with "I can only hope your days...are over soon."

Yup, you're the the truest voice of tolerance, peace and all the ideals that the 60's generation tried to instill in Americans in order to make this a better country. Thank you for your kind words.

I hope my tongue-in-cheek is not lost on you.

[gridwerk]

BTW, this is a tech site, can the politics please.