# Mascarillons, a solution to our airlift needs?



## a_majoor (21 Nov 2005)

Although the idea seems a bit whimsical at first (and the researchers clearly are not thinking of this), the Mascarillon idea could be scaled up to provide airlift for our needs.

For those of you who don't want to download the document, the summary is a mascarillon is a cubical "blimp" which is endowed with sensors and some artificial intelligence allowing it to cooperate with other mascarillons. One blimp could sling lift a small vehicle, or several mascarillons could link up to create a larger lifting platform for bigger or outsized loads. For really big lifts, you could picture a "parking garage" structure which is loaded with supplies and vehicles. Once everything is chained down, dozens of mascarillons float down and assemble into a giant lifting cube around the "parking garage" and carry it to the destination.

This is not a tactical transporter (I wouldn't try that anyway), but as a way of lifting and carrying bulk cargo across Canada and to staging points near the AOR this might have potential. Read more here:

http://www.mascarillons.org/PUBLICATIONS/sis05.pdf


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