There has been some big news in the world of Airships. Aeros has announced it plans to build a fleet of 24 airships in the 66 to 250 ton range, and today they are currently at the Air Cargo Europe Convention looking for customers. Aeros isn't planning to sell their airships yet, as the support networks needed to keep these airships running is somewhat complex. But they will be leasing these 24 airships to clients, with Aeros supplying the crew and maintenance crews needed to keep these boats afloat.
In other news the Monticello City Council has voted to rename Gage Road to Aeros Way, which is a nice symbolic jest. Maybe 20 years from now Aeros Way will be a hot spot for Airship culture and innovation.
It's great to see that the Aeroscraft is really taking off as a future airship platform, they are clearly the best competitor. HAV and Lockheed are lacking behind now and Aeros is probably on a crash course with destiny at this point. HAV might pull itself back together and get back into the race, but I wonder if Lockheed is even building the Sky Tug anymore, at this point? It's hard to say with Lockheed because everything they do is super-secret and they could have unofficially canceled the Hybrid Airship program when they realized they couldn't get any customers and Aeros was far ahead of them, but last news I head was that the Sky Tug is still under construction. So we will see.
I think it would be a mistake for any of these airship companies to pull out of the race at this point, even Lockheed. As the problem with lake of customers has very little to do with the actual market that exists and needs this technology. The lack of customers is because the vast majority of people don't know a lot about airships, and as a result everything they ever heard about airships is usually bad. Hindenburg, Macon, Akron, etc. It's all bad, and most people don't understand the complexities that contributed to why these airships went down.
When I talk to people about airships, very few are aware that most airships don't have VTOL capabilities, and hardly anyone knows about the complex nature of buoyancy management. They've never even heard the term pressure altitude, and they have no idea what types of these issues are solved with the Hybrid Airship design.
So the customer base, most of which exist in the 3ed world, still believe that airships are inherently dangerous, and are less willing to invest because of their belief these new airships will ultimately end in failure. They would rather stick with helicopters or airplanes even though these new airships are arguably more safe. As a result the real market to sell airships to is huge!
Once people realize how much better these new airships are over the airships of yesteryear, they will see the potential and there will be an absolutely gigantic market that will open up. Bigger I believe then the current aviation market, as once people realize these new airships are safer then airplanes people who are afraid to fly will want to fly in airships. Airships will become the new stranded in luxury air travel and they will explode in popularity like someone had just invented the first ever sea going boat.
Companies like HAV, Lockheed, Solarship, and Aeros all stand to benefit from this coming airship revolution and their is more then enough market to be shared between all of them. It's just going to be initially hard to get there, but well worth it. But it's a catch 22, one of these companies needs to prove airships work to build investor confidence in order to get the investor capitol to build the airships. That's really the hardest part and it's why airships haven't gotten off the ground in that past.
Lockheed defiantly has the sex appeal factor when it comes to their Skytug and I believe that would give them an initial boost, but they need to be willing to risk it big and build the thing to prove it works in order to get their market to open it's eyes. That's what Aeros has done and now they are naming a street after them!
So we shall see.
I just wanna add that it's been hard to keep up with airships as there has been so much happening the conspiracy world it's been overwhelming. I mean just check out what's going on in free energy. Not to mention the IRS and the Boston Bombing. It's been really hard to focus on just airships.
