Interview with Robert Rist from Ohio Airships

It's been a long time since I heard any news about the Dynalifter Aircraft that is being developed by Ohio Airships. But it seems like they rebuilt their damaged prototype in a proper hangar and are trying to continue development. I am still a bit doubtful that the Dynalifter will ever fly or if it does will have that kind of impact that Ohio Airships claims it will have. Time will tell. Have a look at this video that was just posted on YouTube where Robert Rist from Ohio Airships gives an interview about the Project, you get some good views of the prototype.
Ohio Airships

William Thomas about Airship on Coast to Coast AM

© William Thomas

William Thomas a Canadian investigative journalist was on Coast to Coast AM the beginning of this month and spoke about airships. Coast to Coast AM is a syndicated radio talk show in the United States. Read the Wikipedia article for more background information on Coast to Coast AM. The radio show can be listened to again via these two youtube playlists:

• Coast to Coast AM from June 16th 2008
• Coast to Coast AM from June 16th 2008 (alternative)

Informations given in the show are nothing really new, a few false claims for example that the Zeppelin NT can carry 21 People instead of 12 but that might have been just a number mixup. The most interesting part is when Robert Rist from Dynalifter gets a chance to talk about the project, stating the the project is alive and that they are working on the prototype. So it seems the project is not dead yet eventhough their first prototype got so serverely damaged.

William Thomas also wrote a number of articles that are available from his website, I have just skimmed them but they might be worth a read as he covers a broad spectrum of general Airship Information, overviews about the companies currently in business and looks at the future possibilities of airships for passenger travel and their impact on climate change. He covers the Zeppelin NT from Zeppelin Luftschiff Technik (ZLT), Airship Ventures, the Voyager Airship of 21st Century Airships, the Dynalifter of Ohio Airships and Worldwide Aeros with their Aeroscraft. Here are his articles:

• THE AIRSHIPS RETURN - A Modest Proposal
• UP SHIP! - AIRSHIP INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
• AIRLINES GIVING WAY TO AIRSHIPS?
• JETS, AIRSHIPS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Let us know what you think about them, share your thoughts in the Airshipworld Forum and on our Mailing List. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the Blog please do so by clicking on subscribe, it's free and allows us to have a better overview of how many people read the Blog.

Dynalifter update - AirshipsAfrica Website

It has been quiet around Dynalifter for a while now after the prototype got severely Damaged by a storm. But now a new website has been launched called AirshipsAfrica the domain is registered to a guy from California by the name of Harry Etheridge. And they just issued a press release unfortunately not containing any new information about Dynalifetr. That a Californian is hosting a website of an African company is interesting and one has to ask what the plan of this company is. We do not know for sure yet but will contact Airships Africa for further information. We also want to find out why (for example) the logos are so similar and what the connections of Airships Africa and Dynalifter are. If we find out more we will post it. We still have not heard any replies to our inquiries for an interview with Dynalifters Robert Rist. As of today now Dynalifter has ever flown, the prototype is in no condition to fly right now. One interesting bit that I found was on the Dynalifter website it states there:

Shortly after receiving certification, Ohio Airships achieved its primary goal of "gaining international attention" by making the Associate Press and United Press International newswires, and appearing in the New York Times, National Geographic, Wired Magazine, and on the cover of Popular Mechanics Magazine.

To me Dynalifter still seems to be in an early stage of gaining publicity, eventhough their websites press section has not been updated since November 2006. Another claim that is made by Dynalifter is that there is little need for infrastructure which is true, in fact there must not be to much infrastructure around otherwise the Craft will not be operable. With the smallest Dynalifter (according to Dynalifter.com) being 580ft (176m) long which is 2,4 times the length of the A380 with 239ft (73m) which is going to make it difficult to manoeuvre on a regular airport with other ground traffic. Since the Dynalifer can not take of vertically it needs a runway even if it is small. With a lift of 45,000lbs (22 t) the Airbus in it's freight configuration A380F has a maximum payload of 300.000lbs (150 t). So the question has to be asked, how is buoyancy's handled if 22t are removed from the craft. And how are trucks with together 22t of cargo drive on a grass strip. It has to be seen if there is a niche for the Dynalifter when the first one is built and sold. Until then we will continue to keep an eye on Dynalifter and will report of any updates and progress of the project. If you want to read more about the project read our previous posts about Dynalifter.

Dynalifter update. It's still alive

Robert Rist from Ohio Airships provided me with a quick update on the Dynalifters state, this is what we wrote:

The Dynalifter's Hangar was damaged, and maintained somewhat intact after today's inspections. Main collapse missed the Dynalifter's main beam by inches. The aircraft is repairable, not destroyed. We are looking for a new location.

It's good to know that the Dynalifter was not completely destroyed but the repairs will obviously take some time. We will keep you posted, when the Dynalifter found a new hangar and is ready to fly again.

Dynalifter prototype destroyed

Mark Fisher sent this already around the Airship-list but we would like to share this sad news with those who do not subscribe to this list. The Dynalifter prototype got wrecked by a storm this last weekend. On the X-Plane Forums there was a post by Robert Rist reporting that the Dynalifter prototype got severely damaged. Here is the full text:

See attached Pictures, Winds Last Friday hit hanger near 80 Plus MPH. The hanger protected the prototype till the end. There is damage to aircraft, but all and all not too bad. The aircraft bent under the stress of the hanger rings, but if you notice the south wall held, and the aircraft fell under the south wall. The main beam of aircraft though bent is intact and still there. The tail though beat up still solid. The aircraft was undergoing modification to lower weight of landing gear. If you look close you can see the new Starboard landing gear took the brunt of the load and just flatten the tire. We have not seen the cockpit yet. Thanks for all your support in this project. I think we can rebuild the aircraft, but need to now find another airport, and hanger. As you know, it takes a lot of ups and downs to get an aircraft as new as this going. We are very positive for the future, and we consider this an act of God, and we proceed. As it says on the side of the aircraft... WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, including wind burst. We go on.

Bob Rist
OAi

These are the pictures which are mentioned in the post, click on them to get a bigger size.

If you want to read the original post then go here. It's sad to see this happen. We are still waiting for an interview by Robert Rist but haven't gotten back from him. We will now add more questions about the storm wreckage and how the project will now continue to our interview.

Random airship stuff (ends up in court ) [updated]

Today I was just scanning the web a little finding some interesting articles and websites that I would like to share.
First of an article about the Dynalifter by Ohio Airships which was published in Popular Mechanics check it out here. The great thing about the article are the pictures showing details of the prototype. The article is from October 2006 but still i found it very interesting. It also mentions the Lockheed Martin P-791 produced by their Skunk Works Company here is a link to a very good picture of it. Also there is an Article at Aviation Week talking about the P-791 airship. If you dig a bit deeper and read the articles then one name pops up, TCOM a manufacturer of airship envelopes, they must have built the envelope for the P-791 but they also must have built the envelope for the Spirit of Dubai at least it's pictured in on their Website. It's interesting how fast you can get around jumping from one article to the other, and finding the interconnections between all the different projects. I hope you liked my little dig through the web and found something interesting for yourself. Please share your favourite links, websites and projects with us. We need your help to bring airship news to everyone.
[Update] So as if the interconnections aren't enough the Aviation Week had also spoken about and everybody interested knows already about it. The P-791 looks an awful lot like the SkyCat designed by Roger Munk and now Lockheed Martin Corporation is trying to sue him for patent infringement. Dan Nachbar from PersonalBlimp posted this on the Airship-list. Here is the link to the Courtfiling Lockheed Martin Corporation v. Jeffery Munk et al. The Courtfiling lists as Defendant Jeffery Roger Munk, Advanced Technologies Group Ltd and Skycat (UK) Ltd, so this is against the old ATG and Roger Munk. We do not know what is going on but we will keep an eye on this, and make it as public as we can, since the Sky Kitten flew way before the P-791 I would call it prior art. But I am not a lawyer and we do not know the whole picture. If anyone has more information about this case please let us know.
Also as a reminder there is the XLTA organised by Dan Nachbar from June 1-3rd 2007 read about it in one of our previous Posts.

Ohio Akron and it's airships

When you write about airships you have to come accross Akron Ohio sooner or later. To me this happened this week, somehow this city and it's airshipindustry chased after me. First I found this picture on a website called Plan59 they are calling themselfes "the museum (and gift shop) of midcentury illustration. I don't know if they have more pictures and images of airships one might have to look through the archives. They also offer high resolution TIFF versions and a high resolution JPG, too.

But this was not by far every thing about Akron, next there was some buzz about the Dynalifter Project that drew my attention to them, right now I am trying to get an interview from Robert Rist one of the founders and Co-President of Ohio Airships, Inc. the Company behind the Dynalifter Aircraft. The Dynalifter, is not a classic airship because it needs dynamic-lift to fly and and is not able to do VTOL (vertical take off and landing) like most modern airships can. But the project aims to combine the best of both worlds, fuel efficiency of airships and speed and handling of planes. So stay tuned for more on that too.
Our last Akron encounter is with the current owner of the big hangar that is pictured above in the illustration. If you kept track Lockheed Martin is currently the owner and they are/were developing a High Altitude Airship that can stay deployed for a very long time in a high, almost geo-stational, location in the athmosphere. I will try to find out more about the project and the progress they have made if I can. If not all we have is the marketing illustrations that some of you have already read/heard about but out main goal is to satisfy the customer.

Regards,
Andreas