FAA approves Lockheed's design

Lockheed Martin has been given the go ahead by the FAA to build it's 20 Ton variant Sky Tug (story.) They are working with Hybrid Enterprises which will be the official reseller for all of Lockheed's ships. Lockheed will keep the rights to sell these ships to the military if such a need arises.

Some things of interest when comparing this new design with the original concept is that the engines are smaller and the envelope is bigger. This will maximize the ships fuel economy as the expense of top speed.

Lets hope them the best of luck and cross are fingers that we will be seeing the worlds first production prototype flying by 2018.

Aeros has begun building a production prototype of... something.

The question of what is happening, is a little up for grabs however. But according to Aeros Facebook Page they are building a new Aeroscraft! Possibly the 250 Ton modal that the Military was hoping to build for logistics.  Although it would make more sense to build the 20 ton variant as a stepping stone, and in case funding drys up or other unforeseen problems.

Whatever the case today is a great day!

Lockheed Still in the Airship Game

Lockheed Martin has announced it's launch partner, Hybrid Enterprises LLC, with plans to enter the market by 2018. Hopefully by that time the first Sky Tug will be flying and companies will be able to demo it's capabilities. (Read More)

HAV Meets Funding Goal

HAV has met and surpassed it's funding goal and stands at 2,096,610.
Good Job everyone who contributed! Hopefully we will see a fleet of Airships soon, we need them more then ever.

VIDEO: Hybrid Airship Overview

This video explains almost everything you need to know about Hybrid Airships:

Nepal Earthquake Highlights the Need for Airships

Photo source: Time.com

By now you have no doubt heard about the earthquake in Nepal that decimated cities and caused an avalanche on mount Everest.

Unfortunately with the rugged high altitude landscape disaster relief is running into a mess of logistical nightmares. Helicopters run out of fuel quickly at these altitudes, airplanes have nowhere to land. Roads are unusable in some areas and even delivering supply's on foot or horseback can be difficult.

It is unfortunate that at this time there is not even one operational hybrid airship on the planet that can respond to this crisis, for if there was, it would provide the ideal logistical relief needed in this area of the world to save thousands of lives right now.

This is an ideal mission type for hybrid airships, as hybrid airships can easily provided the capabilities of a helicopter at these altitudes with greatly increased fuel efficiency, range and duration. The only penalty would be to the amount of cargo it can take then that at lower altitudes.

This crisis highlights why we need hybrid airships, they are not just a fun way to fly but in situations like this they are vital.

Airship Market will be worth 50 Billion in the next 20 years

Hybrid Air Vehicles has started a crowd funding campaign that you can invest in if you live in the UK. You only need  £100 but if anyone in the UK has a few hundred thousand this may be the best chance you get to grab some equity in the company.

What is even more interesting is that if you log in to the link I provided, there is a section talking about the predicted market for airships. HAV writes:

Market

The aviation market has been seeking alternatives to overcome the limitations of existing technologies.  Helicopters are expensive to run, and are limited by their existing lift capacity and range.  Aeroplanes don’t have an ability to fly at a wide range of speeds (which is useful for surveillance tasks), and typically need costly infrastructure at airports. Unmanned Air Vehicles have limited range, endurance and/or payload capability and many are constrained in their use by regulation. The operating performance and low cost of Airlander 10 means it can fulfill roles in surveillance, communications, advertising and filming, remote resupply, leisure & tourism. The airborne surveillance market (covering communications and other forms of survey, search and rescue, maritime patrol etc) is estimated to be worth $19.23 billion. The luxury tourism market is worth in excess of £2 billion. The annual cargo market has been calculated by Boeing to be 200 Billion Revenue-Tonne-Kilometers growing to over 500 billion RTK's by 2030. Industry estimates for the value of aircraft deliveries to military and commercial customers annually are in excess of $400 billion. This gives an indication of the size of the aerospace markets which the Airlander can enter. To calculate the likely share of this market for Airlander 10, over the last few years, there have been 4 market studies on hybrid aircraft – 3 of which have been independent, and all of which have put the market at between 500 and 1000 aircraft. The most recent independent market study, commissioned by an Aerospace major and the Company, was by Renaissance Strategic Advisors (RSA). RSA is a leading independent consultant to the aviation industry. RSA validated potential demand for 556 hybrid air vehicle platforms between 2015 and 2035 worth over $50 billion and identified an upside of a further 100+ aircraft. The early adopters of Airlander are likely to be military and governmental agencies interested in border control, maritime surveillance, force protection and search & rescue. There is also strong potential for early adoption from the luxury leisure and tourism market. The RSA report stated that Airlander 10 has multiple civil applications including tourism/leisure flights with associated advertising, oil and gas people movements and pipeline security, commercial sensing e.g. geological surveys in support of the mining industry, remote logistics e.g. for wind turbine blade movements and communications relay.

The diversity of product usage is summarised by the segmentation analysis which you can see uploaded in the images section to the left *bottom*.

So 50 billion in the next 20 years is a good starting point, but I imagine it is only the beginning. This market valuation doesn't seem to include the possibility of public transportation systems like the one I wrote about last year in my examination of using a public transportation solution here where I live in California.

In that analysis, I found that one could make good profit running the airship as a mid range transportation solution just in the area where I live. I didn't even do feasibility tests in places like Los Angeles, New York and London where they would be even more profitable.

There is even the possibility that hybrid airships can compete with the airlines in long range transport by offering the services of staterooms, shopping and other leisure activities like gambling while passengers are transported to their destination at a decreased cost. Yes it will take longer to get there then airlines but for travelers that don't need to get to there destination quickly and would rather relax on an airship sun tanning and drinking champion for a day or two instead of being cramped into a small seat for 8-14 hours there is the possibility that it could be competitive.

Only time will tell, but I feel like 50 billion is probably only the start for this industry.

Solarship more promising then ever, yet nobody is paying attention?

It seems that the Solarship has fallen off the radar of the mainstream media. If you go to their facebook you will find that all sorts of activity has been going on, but too few seem to be paying attention and it seems I was the only one who has reposted this playlist on facebook.

There are a few holes in the Solarship dream in that it is unlikely they will ever be able to have solar panels light enough and efficient enough to maintain powered flight in the day all day anytime soon. And should solar panels be made that are efficient enough to keep an aircraft like this airborne our energy issues should be solved at that point.

However the airframe is a wonderful platform to develop small airships for personal consumption all over the world.

Maybe what Solarship needs to do is refocus their operations on building small to midsize family airships with better VTOL capabilities and a high degree of safety features that they could sell to the general public. It would be a hard market to penetrate but likely has a better return on investment in the next 60 years, and can help generate revenue for their ultimate goal of delivering supplies to Africa.

Aeros sues the Navy

Very unfortunate that Aero's is forced to take these measures in order to remain out of bankruptcy:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/navy-653939-aeros-roof.html

I think it would be best if the US Government spent some serious money to pump out a fleet of these airships as the potential increase in GDP would make the effort well worth it in the long run.

I don't really know who is at fault here, and really it shouldn't matter as these airships are too great to pass up and it's unfortunate that the Navy doesn't see itself in a position to fund a technology which historically has been in it's repertoire.

As much as I self I identify with libertarian philosophy, at the end of the day the government needs to be the institution to spend money on innovation when no one else is and this is a case where corporate welfare really dose have a place in politics.

If the US government was spending the money to buy the two XL-250 Aeroscrafts that they indicated they would buy if the Dragon Dream was successful, and it was, then Aeros would have all the money they need to start mass producing Aeroscrafts, as it stands the government is being stingy in an area it really shouldn't be given the huge benefits to globule GDP and cost reductions in logistics for the military that this technology can bring.

All the money spent on these airships will save a lot more money in the long run, yet it seems that the government is deadlocked when it comes to seeing this as the situation. And it's unlikely that the privet sector is going to pick up the pieces any time soon.

Now is the time for self sacrifice on the government's part to push these airships out and kick start this revolution into overdrive. It would be an injustice to humanity if Aeros went bankrupt right at this critical point when it's just about to change the world forever, hopefully the big wigs in the government will see that.