Wednesday, February 13, 2008

BYOB - Build Your Own Blimp

Dominique Viard is building his very own ultralight blimp in the French "ULM Class 5" category. And is documenting it on his Blog http://construiresondirigeable.blogspot.com/, since the Blog is in French here the auto translated Version.
According to ULM-Reunion.com does the Ultralight Class 5 Category have the following specifics:
An ultralight balloon complies to the following technical conditions:
  • The maximum continuous power is lesser or equal than 60 kW for single seaters and 80 kW for two seaters;
  • the volume of helium gas must be lower or equal to 900 m3
  • the volume of hot air must be lower or equal to 2000 m3.

He has already posted two videos on his blog that we also would like to share with you. The first one shows him cutting the first pieces of the Envelope:

The second one shows him again gluing the first to slices of the envelope together.

Do you know of someone who builds a blimp like Dominique does? Which other airship/blimp categories are there in other countries? Do you know more, please share it with us in the comments. Also pay a visit to Dominiques Blog(in English here) and write a comment to his posts, I am sure he enjoys getting feedback.

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