MicroTandem

MicroTandem Airship

The MicroTandem is a both a testbed for the larger Tandems and a operational vehicle in its own right.
The vehicle is just over 14 feet long and weights 16 pounds. The MicroTandem is a very simple airship.
Instead of a single gas envelope like a conventional airship MicroTandem is lifted by two latex weather
balloons. This configuration makes it very slow. It only goes one knot with both motors going all out. However,
it makes up for it by being cheap, easy to deploy and capable of reaching extreme altitudes.

The MicroTandem will expand JPA's ability to work in the upper atmosphere.

The first flight of the MicroTandem took place on Saturday October 6th, 2007. It was flown to over 80,000 feet.
It carried the entire systems set of the larger Tandem. MicroTandem is driven by two electric motors mounted
on the crossbar.

MicroTandem WWW.XENOCANON.COM For the Firefly Fans!

Launch! Climb out.

We had change plans on the launch. The bags were a touch too tight for the helium volume we wanted.
One balloon popped out before launch. We hand launch the MicroTandem instead of doing a bagged launch

MicroTandem in Flight

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