Blimps deflated everywhere

An earlier photo when Sky Dragon was inflated and operated

A reader who follows the military use of airships and has noted the repeated deflation of the Thai Army’s zeppelin known as Sky Dragon, sent us a story regarding the U.S. military’s mothballing of its airship operations. The U.S. “mega- reconnaissance blimps” were more costly and much larger than the Thai balloon, but also faced “performance challenges.” The Thai “performance challenges” were essentially lack of performance in that Sky Dragon was unable to fly or stay inflated.

Our last post on Sky Dragon mentioned its crash in Patani, during its first active operation. For a bit of a round-up of our previous posts on the blimp, its shady purchase and more, see this post.