Monday, August 5, 2013
James May talks about Airships
Sunday, July 28, 2013
LEMV has been Deflated
InsideDefense.com reported back in June that LEMV has been deflated and is planed to be sold as scrap. The plan for HAV to buy the ship back apparently fell through.
This is however not the end of airships, or a tragic end to the 2ed coming Airship Revolution. The government is still interested in Hybrid Airships for cargo and is making noises that they plan to acquire a few 66 Ton carrying Aeroscrafts for logistics. This is however probably the end of the Government's attempts to build Hybrid Airship ISR platforms, which is probably for the best.
"...when the Army in April offered to sell the hybrid airship back to HAV for $44 million -- a price calculated from federal acquisition regulations requiring renumeration for material costs -- the sum was more than the company could immediately muster, HAV business development director Hardy Giesler told InsideDefense.com.I'm surprised I missed this article, obviously not good news, especially for HAV, and when we consider that $400,000 worth of helium was probably just dumped into the atmosphere, it just keeps getting worse.
HAV countered by proposing a down payment of more than $10 million, followed by installment payments. That offer, however, was deemed [sic] "high risk" and "unacceptable to the government," according to John Cummings, spokesman for Army Space and Missile Defense Command, which managed the LEMV acquisition effort."
This is however not the end of airships, or a tragic end to the 2ed coming Airship Revolution. The government is still interested in Hybrid Airships for cargo and is making noises that they plan to acquire a few 66 Ton carrying Aeroscrafts for logistics. This is however probably the end of the Government's attempts to build Hybrid Airship ISR platforms, which is probably for the best.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Aero's "Might" Get More Money From Congrees.
In the latest NDAA, both congresses agreed in their bills to "[direct] U.S. Transportation Command and the Air Force Mobility Command
to monitor progress in this area and report to the congressional defense
committees no later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act on
the status of developments in the commercial sector regarding hybrid
airships that could be used to provide the capability identified by
General Fraser, and to what extent the DOD could benefit from them."
Nobody is denying that the Aeroscraft was a success, and nobody in congress is willing to make a fuse about a technology that clearly represents the future of green aviation, This is good because it shows that any political pressure to stop airship developments, if there ever was any, has all but dried up.
No, now the only problem is that congress is in debt up to their eyeballs. The underlying cause being that the country has been robbed by offshore mega banks. Too bad we didn't spend any of that 26 Trillion the Fed gave to bailout the criminal banking mafia on airships, or jobs, or infrastructure, because now it looks like all congress can do is say, airships are a good idea, but we don't have any money to invest in the effort.
Hopefully the commercial sector will pick up where congress has left off, as congress is basically criminally negligent these days. It's almost surprising they even got this much right.
So we will see if there will be any money going to building airships for cargo transport. Fingers crossed.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10948326.htm
Nobody is denying that the Aeroscraft was a success, and nobody in congress is willing to make a fuse about a technology that clearly represents the future of green aviation, This is good because it shows that any political pressure to stop airship developments, if there ever was any, has all but dried up.
No, now the only problem is that congress is in debt up to their eyeballs. The underlying cause being that the country has been robbed by offshore mega banks. Too bad we didn't spend any of that 26 Trillion the Fed gave to bailout the criminal banking mafia on airships, or jobs, or infrastructure, because now it looks like all congress can do is say, airships are a good idea, but we don't have any money to invest in the effort.
Hopefully the commercial sector will pick up where congress has left off, as congress is basically criminally negligent these days. It's almost surprising they even got this much right.
So we will see if there will be any money going to building airships for cargo transport. Fingers crossed.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10948326.htm
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Airship Update! (playlist)
I made a playlist of airship related videos on YouTube, I figure it's something nice to play when I walk away from my computer.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
3rd Cargo Airships for Northern Operations Workshop kicks off
So the 3ed Annual workshop for Cargo Airships kicks off tomorrow, and it looks like there might be some revaluations about Lockheed's Sky Tug. Last year not much happened other then the usual suspects came together and all agreed airships was a good idea. Lets hope this year with Aeros having completed it's prototype, and Lockheed still working on their own design that we will get some good news out of the workshop this year.
Hers is a link to their website:
http://event.arc.nasa.gov/airships/2013Workshop
Oh where has my Sky Tug gone?
I had thought of starting my own website, but I realized I don't really wanna deal with the hassle unless I got something that's good to put up. Trying to find a place to host my files I realized today I can upload them to Mega, the new encrypted FTP server from Kim Dot Com and share the files from there.
So here they are, they include Version 0.4 of my Lockheed Martin Sky Tug, the resource files used to build the Sky Tug, and KMRY Monetary (Originally created by Eric McCloud for FSX.) You can download them here:
Edit: I forgot to mention the Sky Tug works with both X-plane Version 9 and 10, KMRY I made for X-plane 10 but it might work in Version 9.
Sky Tug Download.
Sky Tug Resource Files Download.
KMRY Monterey Download.
I have heard that the Sky Tug is sill under construction at Lockheed, maybe we will see it fly by the end of the year?
Edit: The Sky Tug now has it's own website www.skytug.webs.com get the latest version there.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Gage Road chnaged name to Aeros way
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.
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.
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