Why Airships could soon be Everywhere

I just ran some tests inside X-plane 10 on the profitability of running a public transit system in my local Bay Area using Hybrid Airships to transport people around. The results are very promising, and show that not only are Hybrid Airships a good idea for areas of the world where no other solution will work, but that Hybrid Airships can very easily compete with our existing transportation system at a profit.

Monterrey Bay Area

The test consisted of a few short stops at local airports in the Monterrey bay area, just south of San Fransisco, before going over the hill to San Jose. In my area, there are a lot of people who live in the Monterrey Bay area, but they work over the hill in San Jose at the high tech jobs of silicon valley.

As a result, the main highway, highway 17, is usually backed up between the hours of 7AM to 8AM and 5PM to 6PM. This is a logistical nightmare that the county has not been able to fix other then by adding more lanes to the highways.

One solution that has been tossed around for years is to fix the railroads going from Santa Cruz to San Jose. But this is another logistical nightmare because the railroad was taken out years ago to make room for more highway.

So with this information in mind I decided to run some feasibility tests to see if a Hybrid Airship would be an ideal solution to solving this problem. As it turns out, this seems to be a very profitable idea.

In total I estimated it would cost $2165.34 to run this trip one way. That includes the diesel fuel, crew costs, and maintenance.  The Airship itself could take up to 274 people and the trip even with stops at every airport along the way, would only take about an hour to complete, which is much faster then taking a car from Monterrey to San Jose, and way faster then taking a bus.

At $40 a ticket from Monterrey to San Jose, and $20 just to go half way, I found that the airship would net $15 million per year, and would still make a profit even if was only 1/4 loaded. If Hybrid Air Vehicles really is able to get their price per airship down to 40 million thanks to the investments by our government, then this venture could pay itself off in 3 to 5 years, and every year after that it would generate 15 million in revenue for investors.

Assuming my calculations are correct, this clearly shows that Hybrid Airships would make a welcome addition to our public transportation system. Sure their would be a mild luxury fee, but I feel that commuters would be willing to pay that fee for the joy of riding in an airship to work everyday, and also for the large reduction in commuting time. Especially if they have a high paying job like those in Silicon Vally generally do.

Places like New York, LA, and other high congested areas would probably benefit from this type of transportation system as well. And if these places started to implament these types of Hybrid Airship "Bus" systems, flying in an airships might become something routine for the average person.

Here is a little Video I made.

Here is the promotion video I made for the Sky Tug I made in X-plane, enjoy:

LEMV is in Cardington

LEMV is now in the Cardington hangers, it will be tested for the next 12 months before first flights at the end of next year. (Source) This is not really the optimal situation, but it is better then allowing the blimp to just sit in a hanger forever.


I feel like we as Amaricans missed our opportunity to really innovate here. The Pentagon should have reconfigured LEMV itself, yet politics and MIC got in the way. Now instead of innovating, the government has gone into fire sale mode giving away all our innovations for $0.001 on the dollar.

The United Kingdom will no-doubt lead the way in airship development for the immediate future, something that will undoubtedly pay dividends when the airship revolution really starts to heat up.

Some Good News came out of the Government Shutdown, at lest for Airships.

Some good news for LEMV and HAV, bad news or U.S. taxpayers but that's not really anything new. LEMV has been sold back to HAV for $301,000, literally pennies on the dollar. According to the Army it would have been too expensive to keep LEMV in storage and undoubtedly thanks to the government shutdown the Army decided it would be best to, more or less, just give it away to HAV, who plans to use it for cargo operations in Alaska and Canada.

To me, this is not as bad as it sounds. Sure the US Government has proven to be totally incompetent with Tax Payer money and wasted a huge amount of money on a spy program that never went anywhere. But the government is spending $48 billion a year to protect us from "terrorists" which are less of a threat to your safety in the US then rattle snake bites and lighting strikes.

The truth is these spy programs have nothing to do with spying on "terrorists" and everything to do with suppressing the political uprising against the fascist bankers who have taken over our nation. I think I am going to write about this some more over on my other blog about the end of the Illuminati. This is a big win for freedom and liberty, because now instead of something we spent 300 million on being used ageist us as a weapon in a possible future civil war, it is now going to be used for peaceful cargo operations that I believe one day will help in saving the world from environmental destruction and economic terrorism.

The ability to move cargo is what makes a Hybrid Airship so versatile, it's use as a spy platform is less cost effective then traditional LTA craft. So the fact the LEMV will live on doing what it was born to do, is a good thing. The fact that it was American money that put it in the air, means the good old USA helped to get the 2ed airship revolution started again... although a bit by accident.

There are going to be political problems with getting another airship program started in the United States, as these spy blimp programs will undoubtedly be used as a reason to not pursue any more Hybrid Airship development by the US Government. That being said, LEMV will prove it was a good investment when it proves to be more then capable of delivering cargo in Canada and Alaska. Which may spark more investment by the government and corporations.

This might have been the best thing the US Government ever did to help Airships get off the ground again. We now have a working prototype that will demonstrate the effectiveness of Hybrid Airships, to deliver cargo in some of the most extreme locations. There are literally billions of dollars waiting to be invested into Hybrid Airships by mega corporations that need the logistical capabilities the Hybrid Airship can deliver. Yet, they are unwilling to invest because they are unsure of the technology and they would like to see a working prototype in action before they are willing to invest.

Now we have that prototype, and with it we are paving the way for Airships to rise again.

The future is looking good!

Aeroscraft begins flight testing following FAA certification

http://www.gizmag.com/aeros-gets-faa-approval-for-testing/28970/

Aeros Readies for First Test Flights.

The Los Angeles Times as a very interesting Bio on Igor Pasternak. I had no idea that people could die due to helium leaking into the gondola and suffocate the crew, defiantly something to be aware of for any future Blimp Captions.

You can also check out some Facebook photos of the Aeroscraft's outdoor ground testing. Things are looking good for the Aero's team, first flights should be accomplished before the end of the year.

As a little side note, I was on the Los Angeles times website and I noticed an article about the F-22 Raptor. It talked about the problems with military acquisition deals, which is something I have ranted about on this blog before.

Sky Tug has it's own Web Page Now.

Just an update for anyone interested, I have made a Web Page for the Sky Tug and have released Version 0.5, I'm about half way there to full release.

Check it out here: http://skytug.webs.com/