Developing a paramagnetic design tool for lighter than air vehicles

The purpose of this research is to develop a tool supporting the design of lighter than air (LTA) vehicles based on vehicle and mission parameters, such as vehicle size, lifting gas: optical payload performance, and operational altitude. The advanced missions division of Northrop Grumman TASC (NG TASC) is interested in developing a tool that will allow its engineers to analyze LTA performance characteristics for a given set of design parameters. This tool will be used to support LTA design efforts for NG TASC's current and prospective clients. We discuss the work performed to develop a tool prototype in this paper. We first discuss the tool's requirements and specifications. We then provide a case study illustrating how the tool can be used to perform tradeoff studies. We conclude by presenting our thoughts and opinions on the final version of the tool, and by noting tasks for future work.