The Theolia Windream One airship - status update

Since we posted the first article about the Theolia Winddream One project back in June 2007 there has not been much new with the project. So to refresh you memory the Windream One project sponsored by Theolia aims to fly across the Atlantic from Africa to America in a small two person airship that is powered by solar energy and the wind. The team consists of Stéphane Rousson who built the Zeppy pedal powered Blimp and Peggy Bouchet who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean by herself. For more info about the project read our previous post about the project. Since June there has not been much on the web besides a few videos released by Stéphane Rousson, who first created the pedal powered blimp Zeppy. The experience gained from this project is used for the Windream One. So take a look at the latest videos from YouTube.

This first video is directly from Stephanes YouTube account, it shows some of the flights done for the Windream One project
World Premiere on Single pilot Airship over the water


The second video shows similar footage to the first video but has some more shots of the flight where the other video cuts to other scenes.
Dirigeable à pédales


This video is the first flight of Miss Louise, which is probably the nick name of the second pedal powered Blimp the original Zeppy Blimp had a golden envelope.
First flight Miss Louise

There are also three more videos on YouTube of the original Zeppy Blimp:
World premiere on single pilot pedal airship...Frejus 14 march 06
Le vol du Zeppy 1/2
le vol du Zeppy 2/2

Links:
Windream One, the first airship to cross the atlantic in this century

Windream One, the first airship to cross the atlantic in this century

The last transatlantic flight by an airship was around 1937, the crash of the Hindenburg put a sudden end to this era. Now more than 70 years later a new project is under development, called Windream One. It is financed and sponsored by Theolia, an independent European company producing 100% clean energy from wind power sources and others, like biomass or solar energy. The project was already announced on march 20th this year but we haven't yet had a chance to report about it. Now they have reached another milestone which lead us to report about it. The project consists of a team of twenty private and university researchers, technical and financial partners, all thanks to the inspiration, knowledge and daring of the project’s pilots – the creator behind the project Stéphane Rousson, well known in the LTA (lighter than air) industry for his Zeppy Project and the navigator-adventurer Peggy Bouchet, whose project expertise and experience include rowing solo across the Atlantic. The Windream One is a dirigible that is powered by the sun through solar power the wind and the sea using a unique technology called « chien de mer » (CDM). I could not yet figure out exactly how it works, but as soon as we find out we will report on it. Stéphane has started tests with the CDM just a few days ago, as is reported by gizmag. The article also contains some pictures of the Zeppy Blimp using the CDM.
The actual crossing flight of the Windream One is scheduled for 2008, right now the team has set up a camp at a former Naval Air Station on the French Mediterranean coast. Besides technical tests, Stéphane and Peggy go through survival and flight trainings, to be prepared for the great voyage.
We will continue to report on the progress of the project, if you want even more infos right now, check out these PDFs especially the press pack is very interesting since it gives you an overview about the whole project. They are in chronoloigcal order, the last one is the newest one.

• Press release : Official Launch of the Windream One project.
• Press pack : The WINDREAM ONE project
• A New Stage for the THEOLIA-Windream One Team

Is there anything that you would like to know in particular? Anything that we should investigate? Email us or post in the comments, we will try to address your questions in our next post about the Windream One project.