Skycruise SKS600 (aka The Spirit of Dubai) now Allegro.pl

The story of the Spirit of Dubai today comes to a final closing, since it is no more. The Skyship which was at the Zeppelin Hangar in Friedrichshafen for maintenance (we reported earlier here and here) is now on it's way to Poland for it's new contractor Allegro.pl. According Trevor Hunt form the Airship-List it is an "E-bay type company" and the airship "will be visiting a variety of Polish cities until the end of September."
Here is a picture of the new design, provided by Arnold Nayler via the Airship-list

More pictures can also be found on the Airships Europe Blog at
http://airships-europe.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-palm-to-allegro.html
The airship is owned and operated by the swiss company Skycruise Switzerland which will also carry out the flights in Poland.

RC Airship Regatta Munich coverage

Sorry that there wasn't a post yesterday, but I was out on the (rail)road to Munich for the RC Airship Regatta. The regatta was the closing event of this years DGLR workshop. Here is our coverage complete with pictures and videos. There were 10 airships present, in order of appearance those were:

• Kirby - Wolfgang Heydlauff(TU Stuttgart)
• Centriolo - Dominik Baumüller
• Homer - Philip Neuhaus
• EAPinguin -Erich Fink
• Double Bubble - Gerhard Hattinger
• Double Bubble 2
  
• Mikrobe - Dominik Baumüller
• LarsPing - Martin
• Iris - Johannes Eißing
• Hinkelstein - Martin

The RC Airship Regatta was first held 4 years ago and ever since it has been held in context of the yearly DGLR meetings and at special events. The goal is to try out new airship designs in the small and let them compete against each other. It's also an opportunity for students and younger people to get interested and involved with airships and LTA technology. Johannes Eissing is the organizer of the regattas and set up a yahoo group at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rc_airship_regatta for communication, organization and planning of regattas. Everybody interested in remote controlled blimps and airship design is welcome to join. Right now these events are only in Germany, but if there are interested people around the world who would like to set up such events in their country, please contact us at airshipworld or Johannes. Mini airships are a great way to get involved and also to raise the visibility of airships in the public. The designs competing this the race should not be confused with toys, they are built by people who are involved in airships in the day job, like Johannes who previously worked for Cargolifter and is now working for Zeppelin. If you already have a remote controlled blimp and would like to race someone, send us an email, and we will help you organize a race.
Check out our slideshow and webalbum on Picassa containing fotos of the race:

We also have a few videos of the runs up on YouTube as a playlist, check them out:

Hyperblimp an UFO over Salt Lake City

A few days ago Daniel Geerys Hyperblimp caused some buzz around his hometown Salt Lake City. He tried out a new propeller which showed good results, but turned out to suck the battery dry in minutes. The result was that the Blimp was left uncontrollable hovering over the downtown area of Salt Lake. All this caused quite some people to look into the sky and worry what that UFO up in the sky might be. The local TV Station KUTV has an extensive Article about the event with video and picture footage. it's worth a read. Also FOX news reported on it with a video. This is of course some great publicity for blimps and airships, since it shows once again what kind of outreach an airship can have when used for advertising, but I think Daniel, had not really intended to create so much media attention. If you want to see more of this RC-Blimp (remote controlled blimp) check out these YouTube videos

To see even more videos you should check out Daniel Geerys YouTube Site. If you want to see some other RC-blimp and airships fly and you happen to live in Europe why don't you check out the RC Airship Regatta this Saturday in Munich Germany, we will be there and take pictures and videos, hope to see you there. For more informations email us at our known email address or post a comment. If you can't stop by check the blog, we will cover the event with some special posts.

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.

Want to pilot the goodyear blimp ?

The website Jetemployment offers jobs in the global aviation industry, and this time in the LTA (Lighter Than Air) industry. Their current job offering is for a "Zeppelin Pilot", but to be more precise they do not look for a Zeppelin pilot but for a blimp pilot no just any blimp no they are looking for a pilot of the Goodyear Spirit of America the job offering reads the responsibilities in this job as follows:

• Operating the airship safely, effectively and efficiently to assure optimum utilization of the aircraft for favorable exposure of the Goodyear name.
• In concert with the Pilot-in-Charge, accomplishing public relations assignments by planning, organizing, directing, operating, maintaining and administering the airship operation, including airship, personnel, passenger safety and ground support equipment and obtaining maximum exposure of the company name.
• Commanding and assuming responsibility for the aircraft and functional operation during take-off, flight and landing when piloting alone.
• Assisting in forward planning of airship mission requirements with respect to travel accommodations (airports and motels) movement of the airship and ground support service vehicles and airship personnel.
• Assisting the Pilot-in-Charge in ensuring compliance with all company standard practice and policies, as well as FAA Regulations.

If you want to read the full job offering go to http://jetemployment.com/zeppelin-pilot/.
It sounds like a great job, and if you need more information go to www.goodyearblimp.com and check out the Goodyear Website. I just discovered it, via this job posting and have to say it's a really great site with lot's of background information and nice videos and images. It's worth a look even if you don't want to become an airship pilot.

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.

A personal Blimp goes Cartoon and XLTA roundup

Dan Nachbar one of the creators of the Personal Blimp and organizer of the XLTA must have been stoked when he had seen this issue of the Comic Rose is Rose. The Blimp seen in the last picture looks extremely similar to his very own Skyacht.

Todd from the Airship-List had found the comic strip first and I really would like to thank him for the find. Check out Dan Nachbars Personal Blimp page for pictures of the Skyacht and compare yourself.
I had previously mentioned the XLTA, which was held from June 1-3, 2007, if you read the Blog you must have gotten the announcement for it. Dan just provided me with some more information on what has been going on. Dan reported that there was a total of 19 aircrafts and 50 pilots and crew participated from 11 states and Washington DC. 2 group flights were made Saturday and Sunday morning. The afternoon flights had to be canceled due to thunderstorms. After the winds calmed down, Keith Sproul gave tethered hopper rides during the evenings. The Alberto ship built by Dan Nachbar and Mike Kuehlmuss flew for the attendees on Saturday morning and in the afternoons there were informal workshops covering topics like "open source" balloon design projects or building a tetrahedron. For more information and a quite detailed report go to this post on the balloon-maker mailing list written by David Tanzer. If you are more a visual person I would suggest to check out the pictures that were taken during the event on the XLTA website. If you want to know even more or join one of the next XLTA meetings like the 2nd Annual XLTA - Seattle from August 3-5, 2007 in Seattle WA or the 4th Annual Amherst Experimental Balloon, Hopper, Chariot, and Airship Gathering (a.k.a. XLTA - Amherst) from May 16-18, 2008 in Amherst MA contact Dan Nachbar via XLTA