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Concept courtesy of Lockheed Martin.

Size matters. (Well, at least in the surveillance world.)

And three projects under way take dimensions to whole new lengths. The LEMV (it stands for Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle) is a mammoth hybrid airship championed by the U.S. Army as part of a future fleet of reconnaissance vehicles. As required in the U.S. Army’s LEMV proposal request, the non-rigid autonomous airship must be able to operate at 20,000 feet above sea level, have a 2,000-mile radius, and remain deployed for 21 days.

The 250-foot-long airship will be able to house a 5,000-pound payload of radar and motion-imagery sensors, in addition to other spyware. While the LEMV has yet to be built—Lockheed Martin is one possible airframe supplier—the buoyant behemoth is expected to deploy to Afghanistan within 18 months.

Photograph courtesy AeroVironment, Inc.

On the other end of the spectrum is AeroVironment’s NAV (Nano Air Vehicle) “Mercury,” which weighs less than an ounce. Mercury mimics a bird in flight with its ability to climb and descend vertically—as well as fly sideways and backwards—and is part of a new class of small remote-controlled gadgets able to fly indoors and gather intelligence in urban settings.

Lockheed Martin’s NAV, based on a maple seed, is in the second stage of testing. As we reported in 2006, Lockheed Martin hopes that soldiers will be able to carry the NAV in their pockets, and use the technology to photograph cave interiors, or to see what’s lurking down a blind alley.

Photograph courtesy Lockheed Martin.

According to Jill Krugman, a public affairs officer with Lockheed Martin, DARPA stopped funding the project at the conclusion of phase one. But the company felt development should continue, and the corporation has been funding the project through Independent Research and Design (IRAD). “Through IRAD,” says Krugman, “the team developed the approximately 30″ SAMARAI as a technology demonstrator.” (View a YouTube video of the 30″ prototype here.) As the project progresses, the team will build increasingly smaller versions, based upon what they learn during testing.

According to a report in Flight International, India’s defense ministry is buying Russian-built MiG-29K fighters as “part of a 2004 order…that was incorporated into a deal for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.”

Wait—India has an aircraft carrier?

That navy workhorse, the aircraft carrier, has been around for 100 years. (Ok, nearly. While the concept was presented in 1909, the first ship, the Royal Navy’s HMS Furious, didn’t make its debut until 1917.) But after a century, very few countries still have carriers as part of their arsenal. The United States has the most by far, with a whopping 11. The United Kingdom, with its long naval history, has just two. Italy and Spain also have two carriers, while France, Russia, Brazil, India, and Thailand each have one.

The Admiral Gorshkov

That list doesn’t include the number of carriers in development, however, nor does it say anything about the history of each ship. For instance, India’s active carrier, the Viraat, is a Centaur-class carrier that started life as the HMS Hermes with the Royal Navy (and was built during 1944-1953). The Hermes, sold to India in 1987, was retrofitted from 1999-2000, and returned to the fleet in 2001.

In 2004 the Indian government purchased the Russian-built, Kiev-class Admiral Gorshkov, which was built in 1978 and commissioned in 1987. (It was put up for sale in 1996, but didn’t find a taker until 2004.) Currently being upgraded, the Gorshkov (which will become the Vikramaditya, named for an ancient Indian king) won’t be ready for service until 2014.

And, as reported by the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau in February 2009, India has begun building its first indigenous aircraft carrier, making it one of only four nations with the capability to do so.

They wouldn’t be allowed to do it today, but back in 1959, experienced military pilots would sometimes buzz the Grand Canyon when flying out of nearby Nellis AFB. At the time, RAF pilot Ron Dick was an exchange officer with the US Air Force, training students in a Lockheed T-33. Fellow instructor Bud Pratt recalls that during these Canyon flights, the pilots would fly low enough that spray would be thrown up from the river.

Ron Dick rose to the rank of Air Vice Marshal and later became a fellow of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and a popular writer and lecturer on military history. He died in 2008. His son Gary Dick, who put together this video from Ron’s footage, says, “As a lifelong supporter of the National Parks and a man with a keen interest in bird watching, Ron would definitely endorse the flight restrictions that ensure natural quiet in the parks today.”

Last Wednesday, an as-yet-unnamed joyrider in a South African Air Force Pilatus PC-7 Mk. II turboprop inadvertently triggered his ejection seat while over Langebaanweg Air Force Base in the Western Cape Province. The passenger was blasted through the canopy within seconds, much to the astonishment of G. P. Lourens, an SAAF Silver Falcons demonstration team pilot. The ejection system functioned flawlessly; the parachute deployed, and the stunned passenger was retrieved by a helicopter.

Commenter no. 1: “Was this perhaps Julius Malema [a controversial South African politician]?”

Commenter no. 2: “If it WAS Malema, can ejection  seats be triggered by the pilot?”

Frederick Humphreys (NY State Military Museum)

A hundred years ago today, the U.S. military got its first pilot. On October 26, 1909, Frederick E. Humphreys, a 26-year-old Lieutenant with the Army Signal Corps, soloed for the first time in a Wright Flyer at College Park, Maryland, under the watchful eye of no less an instructor than Wilbur Wright. That same day Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm also soloed, winning Pilot Certificate No. 2 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Both had been in training since October 8, only weeks after the Army purchased its flying machine from the Wrights. By November 5, the airplane was out of commission, its wing damaged during a low-altitude turn, which left the country’s fledgling air force temporarily without a vehicle.