Military Customized Inflatables
 

Aerostar utilizes its fifty years of inflatable manufacturing knowledge and technology to engineer custom inflatables as solutions for unique applications. These radar calibration reflector spheres have been manufactured since the very earliest days of Raven Industries and Aerostar International still manufactures them today. In the 1950's they were made from metalized Mylar film and today we use our proprietary Diamond Weave Ripstop  Nylon with the metalized laminate.

We have a large variety of fabrics available for use in these customized inflatables.  We have many proprietary fabrics we have developed with our fabric suppliers during our long partnerships.  If we don't happen to have a fabric which will suit your needs, we can source or have a partner design a fabric which will specifically  fit your application.

In the mid 1970's, Raven Industries (our parent company) was hired to make a mock payload to train the space shuttle astronauts on how to handle very delicate cargo. This weightless Hubble Space Telescope Training Article represents  another application where Raven met the demanding needs of NASA  to allow for thorough training  of astronauts prior to missions Our proprietary helium holding fabric allowed us to make airtight / helium inflatables replicas, which would exactly duplicate how the Hubble Telescope pieces would react in the weightlessness of space. Since that time Aerostar has continued to build additional space inflatables, replicating various types of payloads.

Photo courtesy of NASA

There are many other applications for which our inflatable products can be used.  Some of the applications are air cushions, air bladders, NBC inflated protection, gunnery range marker/targets. The 10’ sphere pictured at right is used as a gunnery range reference marker/target.

Lockheed Martin uses inflatable "Air Cushion" when mooring 420K aerostat.  The cushion was specifically designed to match the curve of the lower section of the 420K aerostat perfectly. This cold air inflatable air cushion protects the valuable instrumentation in the lower section of the aerostat.

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