How long can a blimp continue to fly without recharging the batteries?
An Aeroblimp is designed to stay flying for a minimum of 20 minutes at a time on one charge of the nicad batteries. The nicad battery packs only take 15 minutes to fully recharge, and the discharged battery packs can be replaced by new packs in less than one minute through a removable access panel on the side of the gondola. The amount of paint on the blimp and the weight of the payload carried by the deployment device will effect the continuous flying time realized by the blimp. The more weight on the blimp, the harder the motors must work to keep the blimp aloft; hence a greater drain on the battery. Some additional weights are included to ballast the blimp properly. When ballasting the blimp, it should be a little bit heavy before the coupons on put on the drop device. This is done so the blimp falls down instead of up, in case of a power failure.
