Airlander Repaired - Ready to Resume Test Program

Well that took less time then expected, Airlander is now repaired and ready again to fly. This is great news and shows that Airlander is more then capable of putting their ship back in working order in record time.

Hopefully, with a little luck, that will be that last time we hear about Airlander 10 having any kind of crash landing for the next 2 decades or so. And in a small way the crash was actually somewhat beneficial because of how disappointed people are after watching the video (Just look at the dislike ratio.)

No fireball, nobody died, just a genital crunch as the cockpit got swooshed, and now it's all repaired!

What a wonderful demonstration of the safety level that airships can bring to the table.

Solarship Challenges Lockheed to an Airship Race

Solarship has challenged Lockheed to a race covering two of the most expensive flight routs in the world. Obviously this is a publicity stunt to generate interest in Hybrid Airships, and less of a real challenge.

You can't really gauge the winner in the traditional sense as the question isn't necessarily who arrives first, but who arrives at the finish line more efficiently per unit of time then the other. My Gut tells me Lockheed will decline, but there might be value in taking part in this publicity stunt for Lockheed, as they will most likely win and will also demonstrate their airships ability to operate efficiently on harsh trade routs that traditional airplanes struggle with.

Personally I would like to see this, as both companies will benefit, and friendly competition is a lot better then cut throat competition, which I believe was a key factor in sinking Airships success in first Golden Age.

Win or lose both parties would generate a lot of interest in Hybrid Airship technology, and will get a large amount of data to work with on how well their respective airships do when truly tested.

That's something I think investors and enthusiasts want to see.

Quest's Stock Sores after Betting on Airships

Investors seem pleased with Quest Rare Minerals plans of using Airships for Cargo and Transport leading to a stock surge of 49.8%. This should hopefully signal to other companies that Investors are surprisingly bullish on Airships.

Perhaps because of the idea of investing in technologies to combat climate change or perhaps because of the idea in investing in a technology that is truly revolutionary, it seems that these investors are in it for the long haul, looking to make the world a better place with their investments over pure financial benefit.

Hopefully news like this will trigger a cascade effect causing even more R&D into airships and attract even more investors to this market, leading to companies willing to take even bigger risks with even bigger potential rewards.

There is something truly magical about Airships that cannot be measured in purely monetary gain. They are a ship that can fly. That value cannot be measured fully measured in the material sense.

It's something almost spiritual, a type of materialistic enlightenment no different then say how Native Americans refereed to sail ships as clouds on the ocean when they first laid eyes on them hundreds of years ago.

The Technology was so far beyond their comprehension, they could only understand it as some kind of sorcery.

Airships I feel trigger something deep inside us that ignites the imagination. It pours into our souls an idea of hope and wonder that is impossible to measure in money alone.

Although if I had to put a price on it I would gander it's worth about 2 to 3 Trillion dollars alone in the next 50 years, increasing exponentially after that until full market saturation.

What is the price of a child's dreams? If that child grows up to be the next Elon Musk? It's impossible to truly measure, but it's definitely something worth investing in.

I think that's what these investors see.

Lockheed gets Orders from Canadian Mining Company

Lockheed has been tagged by Quest Rare Minerals to build Seven 20-Ton Hybrids for mining operations in northern Canada. The deal is estimated to be worth $850 Million, including fuel.

Clearly the 'if' in the question of if Hybrid Airships will ever by a reality has now been replaced with a 'when'. And by the looks of things, Lockheed is going to be producing hybrids non-stop by 2020.

Hopefully when Hybrids are being used regularly in these niche markets, the perception of Airships will change and many who are unaware of the recent achievements in this industry will start reconsidering their viability in other areas, such as sightseeing, entertainment, flying hotels, shipping, public transportation, etc.

By 2050 Hybrids should be a regular mainstay of our global economy, the Hindenburg will be all but forgotten, and people living in that time will probably have no doubts about their viability or even superiority as an air transport platform.

Airship Market 2016-2020

I have been finding it hard to maintain this blog, what with the election, and a new job, but here is a link to a market forecast to hold you over. Hopefully there will be more news to come soon.

Airlander set to return in 2017

The BBC has an article with some info, none of it necessarily new, on Airlander's repair. The only info that is new is that HAV says they understand what happened leading to the crash, although no details have been shared.

Wired Article on Lockheed's Hybrids

There is an Article on Lockheed's Hybrid Airships.

JP Aerospace Launches Prototype

If you don't know about JP Aerospace, they are Airship enthusiasts trying to use Airships to get to space. They recently launched a prototype that you can read about here.

Solarship get's it's First Customer

Africa-based Manaf Freighters has just ordered 4 Solarships. This is great news for the little company that is trying to make a big difference. I still hope that Solarship can make just as big of an impact in the first world as it can in the 3rd world. In my mind there really is no better candidate for a personal flying machine in luau of a flying car. It's essentially the perfect design for cheaply hoping around town in.

Flying Hospitals Coming to the 3rd World Very Soon

Strightline Aviation has signed up with RAD-AID International to deliver flying hospitals to the 3rd world.

This is one of those projects that really shows the altruistic benefits of Hybrid Airships. It's good to see that Lockheed is willing to spend a good amount of money on something that will not generate profits but will provide untold millions in social benefits down the line.

This is one of the key elements in a myriad of other possibility that the Hybrid Airship can deliver that will eventually lead to total world peace, I believe.

Airships open up doors that have been closed for all of human history until now, we just need to turn the key.

3 to 4 Month Repair for Airlander 10

It sounds like the damage is not as bad as it had initially looked, as HAV is now saying it will only take them 3 to 4 months to repair.

It's also been revealed that the crash was probably due to the pilot's reaction to the mooring line getting lose. The pilots knew the mooring line was hanging too low so they flew high to avoid hitting anything. However when they came in to land they were too high and didn't develop a good enough strategy to get the airship back on the ground safely.

Thus as I have said before, there is indeed nothing wrong with the Hybrid Airship's Design. It's important to keep in mind that the test pilots have no checklist when things go wrong like airliners do. Everything is seat of the pants flying, and the pilots need to develop their own strategies on the fly when things go wrong.

Testing new and revolutionary aircraft is no easy task, but this accident I do believe is a one timer and the test pilots will develop a proper procedure so that any pilot in the future will know what to do in the same situation.

All and all it's good news.

Airlander will Recover

I believe Hybrid Air Vehicles will recover. The damage was only to the Gondola and it sounds like from the statements made in this article, HAV can fix the damage and Airlander 10 will fly again. This will be a real test for the company, but if they come through they will gain expertise in repairing badly damaged Airlanders, something they will need to learn to give themselves an edge, over Lockheed and Aeros.

Alaska to get Dibs on Lockheed's first Hybrids

Channel 2 news in Alaska has the story. The first of Straightline's Hybrid Airships will be heading to Alaska, while the rest of the 12 on order will be heading to different parts of the world to test feasibility.

It makes sense to try and get Alaska first, not just because it's an environment that's hard for everything else to work in, but also because Alaska is a sure market with wealthy customers who are willing to pay for the premiums of getting their stuff delivered on time.

Africa and Sybira are higher risk markets and while that will not discourage Airships in the long run, it makes sense from a business prospective to go after markets that are guaranteed to generate income first as to generate funding for higher risk ventures.

Africa is a market that badly needs airships, but the possibility of making a return on investment are very low at the start. Only after trade routs are established and after markets develop that are unaffected by the non-stop civil wars, Evil governments and lack of roads, then we will see a lot of money being made by Airships in Africa, probably more money then anywhere else really.

But in order for Straightline to penetrate that market, they need to have the capital to invest in the initial program that will definitely be running cargo at a loss to begin with. To support that endeavor they need money, and that means markets that are sure bets, like Alaska.

The next sure bet market is Canada, so smart money says their 2nd Airship will be heading there.

P.S. Did anyone else cringe when the reporter said "...the new vehicle is called, The Airship." That's kinda like saying to the DMV when they ask "What is your vehicle's make?" you answer "car." Geez reporting has gotten bad in this day and age.

Stingray

Sometimes I fool myself into believing I am the foremost expert on every airship program in the world. While I strive to know as much as possible about all Hybrid Airship programs going on, sometimes I miss things.

Today I'm pleasantly surprised to present Stingray:

It's a Swiss design that looks like it will be competing indirectly with Solar Ship. 

Between both designs I'm inclined to say that the Solar Ship is probably objectivity better, however the Stingray is targeting the right market I think, which may end up being more successful for them.

Solarship, needs to focus as much on their design being used for short city hops in the 1st world as much as it's going to be used to save lives in the 3rd world, I believe.

Really, Solarship has the design that is ideal for a personal flying machine in lieu of a flying car. If these things crash into each other, well, you saw what happens to the Airlander. Its highly likely the accidents will be more survivable and closer to car accidents then your typical mid air collision. That's something the Volocopter or even a Cessna 172 cannot say. 

Airlander 10 Crash is a Viral Video.

The Video posted by Lee Cordell has been a viral success standing in at 5,934,284 views as of writing. Other youtubers have been re-uploading in order to get free views and make money off the accident.

Interesting thing to note is that the dislike ratio is about 1 like for every 2 dislikes.

People were expecting to see the fiery explosion like with the Hindenburg, and then they dislike the video because the Crash wasn't spectacular enough for their frankly sub-mammalian instinct of wanting to see people die or stuff explode.

When we consider that this video is now the 3rd most viewed video on youtube when you search "Airships", behind two Flash videos; And we also consider that the first informative video is by James May who is more popular then Airships are in general and he's way past a bunch of minecraft videos...

Then we can be fairly certain that a lot of people who have never even heard of the Airlander or Hybrid Airships are seeing it for the first time.

And while it is an embarrassment for the industry as a whole that the AIrlander 10 crashed on it's second test flight, most people don't know that.

And there is a bright side...

A huge amount of people, frankly a lot of self absorbed people with too much TMZ on the brain, who don't care about world events or life saving technology, have just associated Airlanders/Hybrid Airships in their minds with boring crashes...

Think about that.

That might actually be one of the best things ever for the Airship industry. It's a reverse Hindenburg. This could actually be the biggest blessing in disguise for the Airship industry as a whole.

My current theory is that it was pilot error that caused the crash, if so, I'm certain they will never make the same mistake again.

Playing around in my Sky Tug in X-plane I remember actually killing the pilot one time doing a very similar maneuver, hitting the ground gondola first like in the video. In my limited experience it's a one timer, you make that mistake once, you never make it again (assuming you survive, and thankfully the test pilots did.)

But in a lot of ways, had the crash of the Airlander 10 not have been as bad as it was it would have never "qualified" as a crash. Leading to people clicking on it because they want to see a train wreak. On top of this they all come away disappointed and upset they didn't get to see anyone die or stuff explode.

Some of the top comments read:

"The most gentle crash humanity has seen" -Gyrolox 915 likes

another read:

"Oh my god!

That crash was so slow! Do you think someone might have spilled their coffee?" -Kunzite Universe 1112 likes

Comments like this are gonna leave a lasting impression in peoples minds, especially when we consider how early we are in the development of Hybrid Airships as a viable industry.

It may just be that what this industry needed most was a crash like this, at this moment. The Hindenburg set in stone in peoples minds Airships Crashes = Massive explosion, huge death, unsafe. This has set in peoples minds Hybrid Airship Crashes = Boring, nobody dies, super safe.

That's exactly what we want people to think.

Good Can Come of the AIrlander 10 Crash

HD Video of the Crash

So the Good News is that it looks like there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the Airlanders design from what I can see.

As you can see from the HD Video above the thrust vectoring really shows what the pilots were doing before the crash, and it seems they may have been a bit overly ambitious to get the thing back on the ground, as the intensified angling of the nose going down (at the 11 seconds mark) was clearly induced by them with thrust vectoring. When they realized they had gone too far they angled the thrust vectoring back up (16s mark) but cut the power at the same time, which is the exact wrong thing to do in this situation as the thrust vectoring cannot vector the ship without power. This lead to it crashing gondola first (at the 25s Mark, a full 9 seconds later.)

Clearly this is similar to when Helicopters were first invented and nobody even knew that Ring Vortex State was a thing. This lead to a number of unfortunate deaths and even today it is the bane of all Helicopter pilots as they must train hard to never induce the problem in the first place.

In this case the test pilots both survived, so that is a win for airships in it's own way. The only real change that needs to be made seems to be in the procedures of how the Airship is operated, particularly when landing.

Much in the same way that helicopter pilots must never do certain things when they are landing, Hybrid Airship pilots must do the same.

In this case the big problems seem to be:

1. The Pilots allowed the Airship to be pitched too much on landing.
2. The Pilots did not add power when the Airship entered it's "Soft Stall" state to allow the thrust vectoring to pull the nose up out of the stall, and or angle the nose up as to not hit the Gondola First.

It seems that what might have been going on here is that the test pilots may have been instructed to try and find out how steep they can land the craft as part of the test phase. This is all speculation on my part, but I think they didn't do this because someone had to go to the bathroom real bad and 9 seconds is too long to not react to the problem (The human mind can only be stunned for 7 seconds max.)

It's an unfortunate hiccup but the reactions I'm seeing on social media seem to indicate this is actually a win in some ways.

Lot's of random commentators and some reporters are pointing out that if Airplane crashes looked like this they would feel a lot safer flying in them. That's actually rather interesting, and while it is something I was aware of for some time now this Crash actually shows it happening in reality and can be shown as proof Hybrid Airship crashes are a hell of a lot safer then any airplane or helicopter crashes.

Had the craft been an experimental helicopter or osprey, it's most likely the test pilots would be dead right now, instead they escaped without a scratch on them, and they happen to have been in the part of the Airship hardest hit and most likely to get them killed.

In a lot of ways the Airlander saved their lives today, and that is no small feat. Hammering that fact home might change a lot of peoples opinions about Hybrid Airships.

Airlander 10 has Crashed.

I really wish I didn't have to write this story today, but the second test flight of the Airlander 10 has ended in catastrophic failure.

As you can see from the video it looks like the pilot losses control and fails to keep the nose up, leading to a heavy nose down crash landing. Both pilots were not hurt in the incident.

However unfortunately the gondola is completely cracked and it will probably take months for them to repair it, assuming HAV doesn't go defunct in that time.

This has really upset me and I'm not thinking very objectively at the moment, I need some time to think this over, figure out what went wrong, hope that the damaged isn't as bad as it looks and pray to whatever higher power might exist out there that this crash doesn't kill the Second Golden Age of Airships before it has even started.

I'll have a more detailed report and analysis latter. 

Point to Point is 10 times faster?

"... the average rate of transit for the conventional mixed transportation system using lorries, railway and a cargo ship stands at 8kph to 10kph, while the average speed of an airship is 100kph." (link)

In the above article from The National, it's pointed out that the time it takes for Cargo to be transported from Train to Ship can be as much as 7 days in some cases. The cargo just sits stored in a warehouse the whole time, leading to a much lower average transport speed of cargo by current methods then I had originally estimated.

Obviously this is good news for Airships, as the time on delivery is 10 times that over the average ship + train + truck delivery time. Airships can also make warehouses obsolete meaning there is a bigger possibility that Airships can compete directly with our current cargo transportation infrastructure in area's already dominated by ship + truck, or ship + train trade routs in addition to servicing remote locations not currently serviced by anything reliable currently.

KNARR the largest Hybrid Airship Proposed So far.

I have always felt that massive 10,000 Ton or even 50,000 Ton behemoth Hybrid Airship Freighters are a real possibility in the future as the point to point convenience of Hybrid Airships can save costs and time.
Imagine massive Sky Freighters running nonstop from Central USA to Northern China. They would be the biggest flying machines ever constructed, dwarfing the Hindenburg at almost 4 times it's size.

I believe It's a real possibility. Hybrid Airships can never fully replace Ships or Trains, but I think it's very important to stress that time savings is money savings in business, and it could be that it's overall more expensive to move something from Northern China to Central USA via train and ship if the cargo is time sensitive, then it would be by a Massive Airship.

It's not something I anticipate seeing in my lifetime. Maybe if things had been different and the U.S.S. Macon and U.S.S. Akron had both been Hybrid Airships instead of traditional Airship we would already be living in that world. Sadly, that is not the case.

Still I am Thankful to people like Roger Monk, who took the time to sit down and think how they would make Airships work. Without forward thinkers like him, dreamers like me would still think practical Airships are impossible.

When the truth is anything but, and the dream is turning into a reality.

Best Report on Airlander 10's First Takeoff

New Helium Deposit Found in Africa

I was looking at my older posts and realized I had missed posting this. A New Helium Deposit was found in Africa last month.

This should put to rest fears of helium shortages. The reality is Helium is the 2nd most common element in the universe. The idea that there isn't more Helium deposits in the earths crust is silly. We will probably not need to worry about helium shortages for 50 years if we don't discover more deposits, and it looks like it we will probably discover more deposits by then.

We Will Pay an Airship Premium for Fresh Foods

Assessing New Markets that Hybrid Airships can be used for is something I think can be very easy in a way.

Just imagine the world of your most fantastic imagination where everyone uses Airships for everything and nothing else, and pull out ideas from that and try to fit them into the real world. In a hypothetical world where Airships are used for everything, all cargo is transported by Airship because, somehow, the price is cheaper then all other forms of transport.

In reality this is hardly the case. Sea going ships will always have an insane amount of weight they can take compared to airships, allowing them to take massive super efficient engines and move cargo at a fraction of the price. Trains, it's much the same story. Although trains require massive infrastructure that in this day and age make them impractical for a huge amount of work.

Trucks on the other hand are a little bit closer to airships, as they must be constrained to the size of the road, which is like 8 feet I believe (2.4 meters.) So the engines on a truck cannot be as efficient as on a ship or locomotive.

Airships and Trucks essentially use the same engines. But the Truck can take twice as much weight with 1/4 the number of engines.

Airships however can go anywhere and they can do it about twice as quickly as a truck can, they also shouldn't be delayed by air traffic as they can land anywhere there is space for them.

The question becomes will people pay a premium for cargo by Airship. It's about 4 times as expensive to move something by Airship then truck but you get it quicker and you don't really need to worry about (pay for) logistics as much.


I think the rise of Health Food Stores like Whole Foods prove that people are willing to pay more for higher quality food, and for stores like them, Airships might actually bring prices down because ideally they can deliver from the farm to the stores lot or very close by.

In that same token, one trade rout I know will be profitable for Airships right now would be fresh Pineapple from Hawaii to California and fresh Beef on the way back.

Beef in Hawaii frankly sucks, it's all been frozen for 3 days before it even arrives, so you are always eating sub par beef in Hawaii. In Cali, it's been refrigerated for maybe a day so it still tastes great.

It's the same case with pineapple the other way, there is no fresh pineapple in California, but Hawaii has fresh pineapple in such abundance you can sometimes find it flouting in the ocean.

If Airships can deliver fresh produce in less then a day and still be relatively efficient then I feel that the rise of health food stores like Whole Foods prove there is a market of people willing to pay for that luxury.

If I'm right, we could see as much as a 3rd of the current food market switching food fright currently shipped by truck or ship to Airships by 2050.

BBC Video of Airlander 10's First Flight

Well, technically it's the 2nd test flight for the Airship formerly known as LEMV... but hey it's a great day none the less.

We have lift off!

Airlander 10 just took off about 17 minutes ago, fallow their Twitter for more detail!
https://twitter.com/AirVehicles?lang=en

Putin Pushes Plan for Airships in Siberia.

I remember that Igor Pasternak said that he is on Putin's bad list (a sad thing to hear), but love him or hate him both Igor and Putin seem to be on the same page when it comes to airships and their potential to exploit Siberia.

The sanctions and Russia Phobia Sentor McCain keeps spewing over the annexing of Crimea, may be justified, but I hardly feel this is a realistic long term strategy.

Now we must consider that Putin, Tyrant, Dictator, or Statesmen (however you feel,) is presenting a seriously good solution to Russia's highly inadequate infrastructure to further growth in Russia.

If we believe we are in the right, and we probably are, the USA needs to lead by example.

We really need to compete with Russia on this front. Instead of building more war machines to fight some hypothetical war that will only end with everyone on the face of the earth dead or dying, A better way is to win on a cultural level by providing more prosperity to the world at a better rate.

Putin is going to build a fleet of Hybrid Airships and they will give untold benefits to not just the Russian economy, but his friends and allies as well.

This includes Iran.

Think about it...

Do we really want the Muslim world to see Iran as a nation of prosperity with Flying Machines that would seem almost like magic to them, before they see us doing it first?

The Tech is sound, the plan is logical and we ~Need~ to be first.

We need to beat Russia culturally by building Bigger Airships with More Cargo capacity to impact the world on a cultural level and have a deeper impact on cultural affairs then they do.

The more Airships we fly and the bigger they are, the more the people of the world will see the US as a force that they should ally with, and the more they will listen to us in world affairs.

CO2 emissions go down, globule prosperity goes up and we all benefit.

On top of this it fulfills our geo-strategic goals as it's an effective weapons platform in and of itself.

The problems in Crimea will hopefully be solved by having more prosperity for all people globally, and airships allow us to do just that.

I'm not saying that the Annexing of Crimea was justified, the "election" hardly seemed fair, but trying to compete with Russia in another Cold War is just going to send both our economies into the tank even more, and that inevitably leads to war.

There is a better way.

We really need to start thinking about what's best for us as a globule citizen. Dictators and Tyrants will fade when the people are free to live their lives the way they see fit. And the only way for the people of the world to do that is with economic mobility.

Airships can do just this, and in a lot of ways fulfill the ideological destiny of freedom our nation was founded on.

Yes, Putin may be as bad as they say, but nobody I know today says Iraq is better off with Saddam gone.

We cannot compete with Russia Militarily, everyone will end up dead.

We can compete economically and culturally.

Hybrid Airships will allow us to do just that. We should do it.

Are Battle Blimps Practical Now?

I have a lot of ideas swirling around my head. Mostly around the idea I talked about in my last post about the Anarchistic Mobility of the Airship.

As you may or may not know, Airships are a highly durable platform on the battlefield. They can take a lot of bullets before they will lose any noticeable amount of helium. Hybrids are even more durable then that, because even if they lose a good amount of helium they can just point the nose higher to compensate for the loss of lift and keep flying.

I have pushed for the idea of the Government spending military funds on acquiring a Battle blimp in the past. But at the time, it was pointed out to me that the big problem would be in the maintenance costs of maintaining an envelope that keeps getting filled with holes on a regular basis.

No one questioned that it would be a good asset on the battlefield, but that it would be too costly to operate compared to an A-10C in the long run.

Well, as you may know from looking at my post about a week ago, Lockheed Martin has solved this issue with their spider repair bots. This make's me wonder, is the Hybrid Battle Airship feasible now?

I think the answer is, Yes!


These spider bots really open the door for allowing the envelopes of these blimps to take a beating and still grantee that a day or 2 later they will be back and ready to fight again with far cheaper maintenance costs.

This capability could allow the Military to transfer about 200 troops at a speed of 125 knots to an active war zone, maintain all the capabilities of an AC130 for CAS when they get there and, on top of that, it can have improved anti-air capabilities over the AC130 as it has more volume for defensive weapons compared to airplanes.

Combine this with it's extremely long loiter times and we are talking about a game changer in the way the a tactical battlefield is operated.

Plus operating costs are cheep, in the area of about $600-$2000 an hour to operate. Compare this to the $15,000 per hour cost of flying an A-10C and I think we can see why the Airship really is a game changer.

Right now the Air Force is talking about how they are going to replace the A-10c. In the game of close air support, it and the AC130 are sitting in the Kings Throne for keeping our solders alive when they are being suppressed by the enemy on the ground.

The Air Force has presented a plan of buying some A-29s for the short term and then building a whole new air frame or updating the A-10 or the OV-10 Branco. In fact the OV-10 has come out of retirement and been used in Afghanistan recently for CAS.

I do really like the idea of getting cheaper turboprop multi-role fighters like the A-29 or OV-10 with low operating costs to replace the A-10, but the Battle Blimp really represents a game changer and could make the whole process unnecessary if we invested in that over building a new air frame for CAS alone.

Still, I gotta admit, those A-29s look damn sexy to me:

Airlander 10 has Arrived!

At long last, Airlander 10 is out and about, ready for takeoff. It felt like Brexit woes might have slowed things down, but the political shock has passed, and the sky didn't fall...

Interesting how all these world changing events seems to happen around the same time. I think the explanation for this phenomenon lay in understanding the intricacies of fractal geometry; The cause and effect nature of reality.

Perhaps, in that sense Airlanders rise is symbolic for Brexit. The Airlander 10 takes to the skies with new capabilities, definitively it is a vehicle that can solve the problems of world hunger. What if Brexit is a manifestation on that same token? It was fundamentally after all, a question of freedom that was the deciding factor in the vote.

In areas of the world where rebel groups or petty dictators are committing ethnic cleansing by starving a seb set of people, doctors without borders or other altruistic groups can't help those people in need because the government wont let them in, or the rebels will kill them if they try to help.

The Airship allows for a certain level of anarchistic mobility. That is to say, it's a self contained system for supporting people in a country that it isn't allowed to be in. Troops armed with anything less then truck mounted fifty caliber machine guns will be able to do little to stop it. Even then, the Hybrids are highly durable.

Think about Johnny Quest the cartoon where the main hero would fly around on a jet that could land anywhere. The Hybrid Airship allows you to do that in real life, not in the fiction of a cartoon.

In a sense, the Airship is the ultimate underground railroad for a peaceful world wide revolution in libertarian expression. The more I think about it the more I am confident that the British very well may be leading the charge of spreading freedom on the backs of Hybrid Airships like Airlander to all the petty dictatorships of the world.

If the government shoots them down, most likely the crew will survive, and the government that shot them will look horrible in the eyes of the international community. It's basically a way that a nation can peacefully Harass bad actor nation, essentially,  Strategic Airship Harassment also know as the Gandhi way.

I'm feel a very high degree of confidence in saying this, but it is my belief that in the next 30 years the Britsh will have a cultural renaissance in libertarian ideology that, barring some major catastrophe (like a Hindenburg 2,) will muster a massive Armada of Airships that will rival the fleets of British yesteryear. Like during the age of sail, or the industrial revolution.

Maybe I am being overly optimistic, but if my theory about the fractal nature of reality holds true... we will see Britain rise again as a world empire, but this time it will be a peaceful empire of the clouds, not a tyrannical empire of the sea.

We will see, but if I'm right, Britain is going to be a powerhouse of job creation in the coming years. Just as it was in the industrial revolution. The EU will look like it's stuck in the stone age by comparison, and changes to the nature of the eurozone itself will be an outright necessity at that point, as the contrast between the UK in the EU and the UK out of the EU will be so vast that the political elites in Brussels will be seen as complete failures in the eyes of the public making change inevitable.

Time will tell, but things are looking up.

Lockheed Just Solved one of the Biggest Issues Facing Airships Today

Lockheed is very serious about kick-starting the Second Golden Age of Airships. Lockheed just announced that they have developed an new drone for repairing Airship Envelopes:

As you can see, this little drone will greatly decrease the time needed to fix Airship hauls by scanning the outside and inside to find little pinholes that need to be repaired, and then automatically repairs them.

You don't really think about little holes on airships that much (honestly I didn't think about it until after watching this video), but one of the big advantages of these new airships over the old ones, is their ability to only lose a fraction of the helium in their envelope every year.


In the past Airships would need to top off the Helium every year as they would lose about 20% to the sky gods. These new airships only lose about 0.03% a year, meaning there is no need to top off at any point during the airships life circle...  in theory.

However tiny pin holes put a hole in that theory, requiring huge amounts of maintenance in order to solve a seemingly tiny problem.

With these new drones Lockheed has solved this problem, showing that they are committed to bringing Airships back and that with a little pioneering innovative thinking you can solve seemingly impossible problems!

There is no doubt in my mind now that Airships are coming back, little things like this everyday remind me, we really have solved the issues with Airships:

The Hybrid Design, Thrust vectoring, fly by wire controls, buoyancy control, all of these things seemed impossible to the engineers of the 1920s, yet we have made the little steps bit by bit in the long process of solving these seemingly impossible problems.

I long for the day, that Airships become ordinary, I was born in an era when computers were just becoming a thing, and throughout my teenage years I could just take the technology for granted. I can't wait for the day when Airships are taken for granted, where getting on an Airship is no different then getting on a bus or walking into a casino. I just hope that day comes before I'm 60 years old.

It's sad to think that people like Count Von Zepplin, and so many others, envisioned that world where Airships ruled the skies and knew it was possible when everyone else said is wasn't. Yet those men and woman never got to see that world in it's full incarnation.

We are lucky enough to live in a time when we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It's important to remember the people that got us here, rebels in their own time. They helped get us here, and they should be remembered for that.

Their can be no denying it now, the Second Golden Age of Airships is coming, are you ready?

Lockheed's New Cargo Order

Lockeed has unveiled plans to bring the popular C-130 Super Hercules to the commercial market as part of it's plan of dominating the ever growing global Air Cargo Business. It's part of a two pronged effort to dominate the high end and low end of the Air Cargo business.

The C-130s will cover air cargo deliveries that need to be made quickly or over very long distances. If the range of the destination is more then 800 nautical miles, Airships become less attractive, as the amount of fuel the airship would need to take to move the fuel it would need, makes it's efficiency only slightly better then the C-130 at these ranges with a whole lot lost in time.

However the C-130 is too expensive to operate in the sub 800nm ranges routinely. In that zone the Hybrid Airship is the king of efficiency, while also remaining timely. On top of that each platform can get into landing locations the other might not be able to reach. The Hybrid Airships might not be able to find an open area large enough to land, that might only be serviceable by a small airstrip not large enough to fit the airship but will fit the C-130. On the same token areas with vast open expenses but terrain too rough for the C-130 to land on will be easily accessed by a Hybrid Airship.


Any air cargo business can see why having both of these platforms makes a lot of sense. When you are not in a hurry you have the Hybrid Airships do the bulk of the cargo operations in your area, with the C-130s only flying long range cargo missions where the premiums are not too expensive. Allowing for a maximum of savings without any lose of coverage. However when you need to move cargo quickly you can send out the C-130s for shorter trips and they can still land at almost the same number of locations as the Hybrid Airship.

This allows for any air cargo carriers to have all their bases covered. When business is slow you scale down the usage of C-130s and double up the Airship cargo routs. When Business is booming you fill in the gaps left by the airships with the C-130.

It's a very smart plan that will have wide ranging impacts on the Air cargo industry. Not only is Lockheed increasing the capabilities of Air Carriers to land anywhere, not only are we seeing increased fuel efficiency because of the use of Hybrid Airships, but we will see increased efficiency for the C-130 as well because it will not be delegated to missions that it's incredibly inefficient for.

That is something that will benefit everyone on the planet in the near future and beyond.

Major Set Back for Professor's Hydorgen Airships

Maybe you remember Prof. Barry Prentice, the Professor that had a plan to build Hydrogen Airships for cargo hauling in Canada's North. Well, unfortunately his business venture had a major set back, the Hanger they were keeping the Airships has been destroyed due to a Sand Storm (Full Story.) Estimated damages are between a half million to a million dollars.

Airship hangers have been notoriously finicky throughout history. The Aeroscraft was destroyed by the hanger collapsing just a few years ago, and in the past major Airship endeavors have ended in ruin because of fires and other major malfunctions in airship hangers all through the First Golden Age of Airships.

The conspiracy theorist in me has always found it a little odd that Airship Hangers seem to be so fraught with failure, when all they are functionally is a massive room. However the more logical explanation is that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way we construct airship hangers. In this case, I'm sure there is a solution to building much more reliable Hangers for airships then what we are doing now, Moffett Field has had no know problems from collapses I do believe, maybe it's a more structurally sound design?

HAV update July 12th

"The biggest disappointment of this Farnborough show must surely be the non-appearance of the Airlander 10. The huge hybrid airship remains confined inside the hangar at Cardington from which it was due to emerge and fly last April. Its maker, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV, Hall 4 Stand 36) told AIN that no single problem had caused the delay. “We’ve erred on the side of caution, as we’re the first of a new type,” said a spokesman." Full Story

Transition FAA Go ahead, Flying Cars are finally here?

The Terrafugia Transition, the flying Car that seems like it would never come, has just gotten the go ahead from the FAA for an increased weight carrying capacity and stall speed while still maintaining it's light sport status, this will allow it to be a street legal vehicle with modern safety standards, while also being an Airplane with modern aviation safety standards and state of the art equipment.

In related news NASA has unveiled it's plans to Jump start electric General Aviation, by building their own electric aircraft.

These steps are showing a very bright future for a revitalization in Aviation as a whole, not just Airships. I believe Airships and fixed wing aircraft are not going to be in competition this time around, but rather the relationship will be symbiotic.

The Terrafugia, really opens the door for a whole new picture on how the average person views aviation. Now you no longer need a Hanger if you want to have an Airplane, making the initial price and maintenance the only main concerns.

Terrafugia is going to be a forerunner to a very probable new market of roadable aircraft which is very likely to surpass the general aviation market as it stands. The future where we take a flying car to work may finally be arriving.

This has a very good possibility of changing peoples perceptions about aviation in general and leading to a larger willingness to explore new possibilities, which benefits Airships.

Airships are Coming to Battlefield 1

As we are still waiting for Airlander 10 to fly, some hype for Airships is being generated by the next Battlefield game from DICE. Battlefield 1 will take place in WWI, and Zeppelins are going to be implemented as a major gimmick to get people interested in the game. I generally stay away from games made by EA, but I must admit having a massive zeppelin in a game is something that gets my interest peaked enough to pay attention for a little bit.

Airlanders New Promotional Video

Bruce Dickinson interview by AVweb

AVWeb did an interview with Iron Maiden and Airship Geek Bruce Dickinson. Check it out.

Airship Happenings - Iron Maiden, HAV Funding Goals and more.

A lot has been happening lately in the World OF Airships (TM)... ha, got to it before you Wargaming!


The first big thing on my Radar is Iron Maidens Empire of the Clouds. Which I learned recently is a tribute song written by Bruce Dickenson about the R-101 Airship made by the Brits. The R-101 was pushed by politics rather then good engineering and on it's maiden voyage crashed in France killing 48 or the 51 people on broad.

This included big wigs pushing the Airship program in the UK. Eerily mirroring these events was the USS. Akron Accident that happened a few years latter off the coast of Florida. A lot of the Big Wigs in the U.S. pushing for the Lighter then Air Program died as well in that accident.


In other News, HAV has raised a large some of money as part of their crowd funding campaign. These funds should insure that Airlander 10 will be seen flying for at lest 200 hours over the UK this summer as part of the certification process.

The great thing about Airships is that once you get them flying they promote themselves, and Airlander 10 has the words "Airlander" written across it's sides for that very reason.


Also worth noting are these weird little drone blimps that I can't help but chuckle at the way it picks things up.

There was also an Interview with Mike Kendrick, the man who will be buying Lockheeds Airships in the near future.

Volocopter First Manned Flight Footage

Looks very easy to fly, will this vehicle be the first to bring VTOL to the masses?

Well Written Inverse Article

Check out this article that talks a lot about Airships filling niches other Cargo Carries simply cannot.

Airship Scammers?

I was running through the comment section on the CNBC Article about the deal between Lockheed and this one guy was posting crap that got my attention. Going by the name Campbell, he posted this nonsense:

"the so-called 'hybrid airships" such as "LMH-1" "Airlander" "Aerocat" "Aeroscraft" are no more than novely; and as such, detrimental to the advance of the greater lighter-than-air industry"

Then in another post he posted to a page that I read a good potion of that talked about this mythical "HARBOR REACH" military operation where theses commanders were quoted as saying how great Turtle Airships are, and how they conducted this mission with a few 500 ton hauling airships and where amazed at what they could do.

And that the government should spend 3 billion on only Turtle Airships because they are the ONLY company that can build airships like this... all of which I knew couldn't be true. But it was written in a way that almost had me fooled into thinking, did I miss something?

I finally realized after putting the puzzle together that this webpage that was probably put up by Turtle Airships, was an obvious con-job designed to draw in unwitting investment funds from crowd funding or some other such investment scam.

Their fake webpage, looked just like a webpage I remember a few years back where someone was trying to sell Blender as a closed source application, even though Blender is open source and free.

I don't know, maybe we should feel proud of the fact that our little Airships industry is big enough now to draw the attention of scammers, but I refuse to let anyone get hurt by these con-men.

Turtle Airships is a scam, don't trust those guys. Warn others not to trust them, they are bad news and bad for business.

EDIT: THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE... maybe we should fight scammers every April 1st?

Today is the Day the Revolution Begins

Truly, today is a great day. A letter of intent, signed is but just a piece of paper, but alas, a paper that is so much more then the greatness of it's words.

I feel it, I feel the future coming, that day, the day I have been preaching about like I have a sermon on a hill, that day has finally come and the clouds on the horizon are a glory of ferocity and adventure.

Fear and pain may lay in it's wake but the time to reap the fruits of humanities collective efforts is about to begin. A flower of peace shall bloom, brought on the backs of our flying clouds to all the people of the world.

Great things lay in wait. A horizon as beautiful as it is dangerous, but one that offers a next step in our evolution as a spices on this planet.

We will build the Airships, we will conquer the skies, as we have the seas and the land. We will soon set our sights on the Hevens above and blissful grace the cosmos with our love.

We are forever, and eventually we will set the universe free.

Airlander 10 Ready for Takeoff

After a successful float test, Airlander 10 is ready to fly. Finally we have reached the point where a real Cargo Ready Hybrid Airship has been constructed and is

ready to do some missions. It has been one massive headache to get to this point, but we have finally reached the precipice. I hope you, like me, have all done

a little prayer that everything works out for Airlander 10. Everything needs to go smoothly with Airlander 10. If something bad happens now, it

might be the final nail in the coffin for Airships.



Fortunately that is unlikely to happen. The issues with old Airships really came down to their inability to maintain buoyancy control, which Airlander fixes by being

part airplane. Airlander won't need luck to prove it is the best ship for the job, the engineering is sound. It just Needs to Not have any bad luck.

Here is to hoping for the best.

More on Airship Public Transportation

I had some more ideas about the concept of an airship public transportation system that I wrote about before that I would like to share.

One of the problemswith a transportation system like this, is that with the large amount of people that would use it, and the frequent stops, it would be hard to insure that everyone was paying their fair share when it comes to who pays how much and when.


In my example, the Airship would fly from 3 or 4 major cities. Picking up and dropping off passengers at each stop.

The airships would have seating for about 300-400 people, meaning that with a limited staff it would be difficult to make sure everyone has a ticket, and making sure that passengers got off when they were suppose to would be a massive headache if they only payed to go half way.

So I was thinking of a solution and realized that the free market had already come up with a solution to this problem.


I'm sure you all know about the popular taxi service Uber by now. It allows for users to pay their fairs with their cellphones, by keeping track of how far they went using the phone's GPS.

We can use this same technology in our public airship transportation system.


Passengers with the cellphone app, will have an account that will automatically deduct the fees from their bank account, or some kinda trust, when they walk on and off the airship.

Sensors on the airship combined with the GPS in the phone will insure the transaction. In this way, most passengers will be able to freely walk on and off the airship without needing to even think about buying a ticket, and the company running the enterprise can be assured that passengers with the cellphone app are not stealing a free ride.


Passengers without a cellphone can still buy a ticket but they will just need to pay full price and get a refund from a refund machine which will be placed behind a one-way gate as they are leaving the Airship.

It will be much like a fast-track system at theme parks or the DMV.


This solution will fix the problem of keeping track of fairs and will also mean that the airship itself can have a much larger area of operation with more stops along the way.

Check out Lockheed Martin's New Airship Commercial

LINK: http://3blmedia.com/News/Lockheed-Martins-Hybrid-Airship-No-Roads-No-Problem


As we can see from the video. The front section of the airship is going to be for crew and passengers, while the rear is going to be for bulk cargo. Funny that they

call it "first class" seating, when in my mind first class on an airship is a luxury stateroom. Still, this idea of having cargo and passengers on the same trip is a

good idea from a bottom line point of view. Fed Ex could offer cheaper tickets then airlines while transporting cargo around. It would take a lot longer to get

there, but it probably would be about as expensive as taking an equivalent bus ticket, and you have a great view to keep you entertained the whole time.



It was great there at the end too, with the Goth Girl starring out the window with this look on her face -like... "Not even flying in an Airship will impress me!"

Is life really- that fleeting? You're on an Airship! How can you possably be unhappy?! Jezz.


I could say a lot more but I think the video really dose a good job of showing what I have been blogging about over the years.