Surveillance blimps assembled in Duluth
ISL, a U.S. defense contractor developing dirigibles for military surveillance, has been using the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base in Duluth, Minnesota, since last fall; ISL’s plans to assemble the airship in Duluth hit a rocky patch with its clients, so the dirigible has been stored in the facility since last fall, lying uninflated on the floor
German entry in the new dirigible class // Source: nytimes.com
A U.S. defense contractor developing dirigibles for military surveillance has been using the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base in Duluth, Minnesota, since last fall. So far, Information Systems Laboratories, or ISL, with operations scattered around the United States, has not paid any rent.
Duluth News Tribune’s Candace Renalls, writes that the company’s plans were to assemble one of its high tech, unmanned airships in the facility to support U.S. forces, probably in the Middle East. The airships are not top secret; but what the airships do is sensitive, said Bob Portney, ISL vice president of operations in Atlanta. “You don’t want to tell the bad guys what you’re doing.”
ISL is part of a growing industry which is researching and developing high-altitude dirigibles to serve as military surveillance platforms equipped with sensors to track air and ground targets, including cruise missiles. The blimps can stay airborne much longer than conventional aircraft, Portney noted.
ISL’s plans to assemble the airship in Duluth hit a rocky patch with its clients. So the dirigible has been stored in the facility since last fall, lying uninflated on the floor.
“Think of a big outdoor circus tent, pulled out and rolled out,” said Brian Hanson, executive director of the Duluth Economic Development Authority (DEDA). “It’s not very exciting. Compared to the size of the facility, it’s dwarfed.”
Inflated with helium, however, the 100-by-50-foot dirigible would fill about one-quarter of the cavernous 189,000-square-foot facility, Hanson said.
ISL and DEDA agreed to a monthly fee of $9,200 during assembly and testing of the airship. Because the company has merely stored its deflated blimp there, a storage rate will be charged, Hanson said. “They (ISL) are in negotiations with their customers, and we’re in negotiations with them,” Hanson said about a timeline.
That storage fee probably will be about $1,500 a month, he said. When ISL’s production begins at the base, the $9,200 month rent would kick in.
The rental fees from ISL will help lessen the financial drain on the otherwise empty maintenance base — estimated to be $138,000 a year— until DEDA finds a permanent tenant.
DEDA is looking for a tenant that can use the $52 million facility for what it was designed for — maintenance, repair and overhaul of airplanes.
Portney, however, said ISL is interested in using the facility base for “quite a while.”
With its aeronautical division based in Brownsboro, Alabama, why choose Duluth for production work? “You have a big building perfect for doing this,” Portney said. “And this thing is very big.”
