4th Airships to the Arctic Symposium - Commentary Part 4

Todays fourth post of the Airship to the Arctic commentary written by Charles R Luffman of LTA Solutions continues with day two of the conference. You can read part 1, part 2 and part 3 to catch up if you have missed them.

The Conference – Day 2, Wednesday October 31, 2007

This second day of the conference, again chaired by Barry, primarily was for people in the LTA aircraft industry to express themselves. It had been interesting to hear about the logistics and environmental issues Canadians faced in the northern regions from the previous day but, for those of us involved in LTA technology, it was to be our day to explain what LTA could and perhaps be developed to do with regards to the needs expressed.

A key issue for LTA aircraft in the arctic, which they must be able to cope with, is the very cold conditions. So, to begin the day 2 conference, Barry introduced Mayor Tim Johnston from the City of Thompson, Manitoba, to provide the welcoming address.

Welcome (8:15-8:30 am)

Mayor Johnston’s address was not just a simple welcome; rather, it was an invitation for the LTA industry to consider Thompson as a centre for cold weather testing (to enable suitable systems and procedures for the arctic conditions to be developed) and as a hub from which operations serving the northern regions could be conducted. This was a bold, although well reasoned, initiative from Thompson, demonstrating their enthusiasm to help make LTA operations possible without delay. This was good news for the LTA industry that should not be sneered at, so let’s get things moving.

Mayor Johnston went on to explain that Thompson had unique conditions suitable for cold weather testing and already was set up for this due to serving most major companies in the automotive industry and some aircraft organisations for this purpose. He further explained that, due to major reserves of nickel (the largest deposits of the world) discovered to the north of them, they were developing significantly as a distribution centre. Their regional airport is the 2nd largest in Manitoba and they are being linked by road and rail as a distribution centre for many things. It therefore makes good sense for transport airship operations to be centred there.

Besides, he gave everyone a nice little commemorative pin depicting the City of Thompson. So we need a reason to wear it, OK.

Session 1: Pushing the Envelope (8:30-10:30 am)

Barry next introduced us to Vic Gerden, Executive Director of the Manitoba Aerospace Association, to be the day’s first session moderator. Vic was keen to point out that Manitoba already has a thriving aircraft industry, and with composite component development, that may be leveraged to help with new LTA aircraft developments – both for the supply of trained people and to help with engineering activities. It appears Manitoba (at least) would like to become self-sufficient in LTA technology, so there is scope for cooperation to help achieve this objective.

Vic’s first speaker, an LTA technology leader, who I personally wanted to meet and get to know, was Hokan Colting, the CEO of 21st Century Airships Inc. Hokan is a pilot with many years in the LTA industry behind him. He was only there for the day to speak about his efforts in Development of a new Sightseeing Airship. This was a rather interesting arrangement, of which he showed a prototype version in flight via a short film. Typically, Hokan had devised a simply arranged but unique airship with precise control capability that would be cost effective to purchase and operate – ideal for the purpose. Of course, people at the conference perhaps would like to have seen something bigger that could be used for transportation. Well, maybe this was a step towards that goal, since the sightseeing airship should enable good revenue and experience for a sound foundation to his business, which could then enable bigger things. It was clear that he takes a pragmatic approach to new developments, which has helped in maintaining steady progress.

It is not a secret that he is working on the development of other types (including for heavy airlift purposes) but he did not appear to be ready to say anything about these at the conference. New airship developments are rather expensive; so, until the pot of gold for big transport airships is made available, folks should not expect individual entrepreneurs like Hokan to stomp up the development costs themselves for new LTA aircraft with a lifting capability like the Hindenburg that they would like to have – the final achievement from around 30 years of steady, hard (not always successful) development. In my eyes Hokan showed us that he is steadfastly tackling issues (such as good control at all speeds), which many in the industry have not addressed yet, in a practical way and this should pave the way to better things. Otherwise, a regular injection of necessary capital would be a useful accelerant.

Vic's second speaker, Michael Schieschke, who I also had travelled from Germany with a view to meeting and getting to know, is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co KG at Friedrichshafen in Germany. A tall man with a law degree, Michael was there to relate ZLT's experience in Development of Geo-Physical Survey Applications - certainly relevant to exploration in Canada's northern regions. He also related an interesting project in Europe to monitor the atmosphere. Scientific equipment has been installed in a unit on the top of a Zeppelin NT and apparently is yielding excellent results.

Michael showed himself to be an excellent ambassador of ZLT, smart, articulate, attentive, open and well versed in the technology he advanced. Following his talk the delegates asked many widely ranging questions (not all related to the subject), which he answered freely, without hesitation. For example, he told us that a new Zeppelin NT would cost €10 million and have operating costs of €1,500 per hour. Used for tourism, the Deutsche Zeppelin Riederei (DZR) also were carrying 11,000 to 12,000 passengers per year, with ticket prices upward from €150 (I think), depending on flight duration. Also, the hangar in South Africa cost $1.5 million and yes, they were still in negotiation with De Beers for a replacement airship for the one unfortunately wrecked by a very severe storm.

With regard to Geo-physical survey, the Zeppelin NT was shown to be an excellent platform with precise control at all speeds that had delivered the results desired and with new diamond deposits found in Botswana. Michael also showed that it was a reliable aircraft, able to cope with most situations in a cost effective minimal requirements way. They also had devised a way to cope with extreme changes of temperature in Botswana between day and night, where the lifting gas (helium) would expand or contract beyond normal operating levels. Normal envelope operating pressure, he said, was about 5 mbar.

Nonetheless, the big question was, "did ZLT have plans to develop a large airship for transport purposes in the near term?" No doubt they are considering such developments, but the answer was "not at the moment". It all falls back to funding and the preparedness of those who want such aircraft to put their hand into their own pocket to help pay for the development. Until this is understood, it is unlikely that the LTA industry will take on such risk in the short term, since it must be an equitable shared situation. What was clear from Michael is that ZLT were making steady progress and intend to continue with manageable steps, as they are able.

Session 2: Keynote presentation (11:00-12:00 am)

Moving on, Barry introduced us to Dr Jon L Smith, the Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the East Tennessee State University, to be the next session moderator. He was well suited to this task, since his current research is orientated towards transportation economics and international entrepreneurship.

Even so, Dr Smith wasted no time in introducing his speaker, Dr Robert Boyd, the Hybrid Lift Portfolio Manager from Lockheed Martin (LM) Aeronautics Advanced Development Programs (otherwise known as the Skunk Works). Dr Boyd also had attended the AIAA LTA conference in Belfast, where I first encountered him. Prior to his visit to Winnipeg, however, there had been false media speculation about his trip (LM being so secretive about their developments) and this had been upsetting for him.

Naturally, everyone wanted to hear about the P-791 Hybrid Airship program, for which LM had given him their NOVA award for his leadership as its Project Manager. But it was not to be, perhaps due to LM restrictions on what he was allowed to say. Instead, we were lectured on the topic of Delivering Value with Buoyant Aircraft.

This turned out to be a 2 part thing where, with his jacket off, he spoke freely as an independent adviser on the subject and then, with jacket on, he spoke as a representative of LM. I could empathise with the advice he gave with jacket off - effectively on ways to deliver value; but we really could have done without the stuff with jacket on - primarily LM HTA aircraft war systems. Perhaps Dr Boyd was obliged to relay this material, but the HTA and high altitude application was way off the subject of the symposium and, to many delegates, of little interest. Otherwise I felt his personal advice was useful and that he was well intentioned.

Subsequent to the Winnipeg symposium, a film and some information has become publicly available. For those who want to know about the LM P-791, one source of this material is at: http://airshipworld.blogspot.com

Lunch Speaker (12:00-1:30 pm)

As for the previous day, we all walked across the hallway to the Crystal Ballroom for lunch, keeping the show running through discussion around the tables. After eating, we were supposed to hear from the Honourable Gary Lunn, the Minister for Natural Resources in Canada, who was not able to attend. So, filling the slot, Barry arranged another speaker to tell us about Optimisation of Airship Routes for Weather instead.

Barry's speaker was Ron Hochstetler, a Senior Systems Engineer with SAIC in the USA. Ron has been involved with LTA aircraft projects for over 20 years, having first been involved on the Piasecki Helistat programme. Until recently he also was the Chairman of the AIAA LTA Technical Committee. Through his work, he therefore is a knowledgeable individual who has dedicated his time to the furtherance of LTA aircraft.

Weather issues are a rather important subject for airships, where ways to operate effectively are needed. Ron's talk, also given in Belfast at the AIAA LTA conference, was about an algorithm that could be used to determine the best route between 2 distant positions, harnessing the wind patterns instead of just driving against them.

Session 3: Making Cargo Airships Happen (1:30-3:00 pm)

This was a special session, arranged as an Airship Developers' Panel, involving audience participation. For this Barry introduced 3 panellists active in the industry, as follows: Gil Costin, Mirko Hörmann and Alan Handley. Rudy Bartell, the Engineering Manager of the American Blimp Company had been invited to be a panellist, but didn’t come.

Gil, who is an ex US Navy Vietnam veteran and pilot of both fixed wing and rotorcraft with considerable flying experience (including Artic operations), is the Founder and CEO of Millennium Airships Inc. He told us that his company was transitioning from being a developer to an operator instead, in order to take advantage of the new hybrid airships being developed by LM. They now hope to be the first operator of such aircraft for transport operations.

Mirko Hörmann is the CEO of CL CargoLifter GmbH & Co KG a.A, which is a new company in Germany with the objective of taking over from the previous CargoLifter Company, still in the hands of the insolvency manager. Mirko was one of the shareholders of the previous CargoLifter, who lost his money due to the company's inability to continue with the funds remaining without further serious investment. Regrettably, that didn't happen, but it didn't deter investors like him from continuing to believe in the need for Cargo Lifters and supporting their development. Indeed, he was there with senior members of Zukunft in Brand, the association formulated following the original CargoLifter Company’s closure as a support group, mainly for shareholders, to help realise the objective of heavy lift aerial logistics operations. The new CargoLifter, I believe now with the intellectual property of the old company and the lessons learned from the original company, and with continuing support, appear to be well placed to make it happen.

Alan, the third panellist and CEO of Varialift Airships PLC, is an individual entrepreneur (an inventor, businessman and industrialist, who also is able to do his own design and engineering work) from the midlands in the UK. He is self funded and is working on the development of a demonstration article to show how his Varialift system works. I believe the demonstration article is intended to show how a buoyant vessel with variable aerostatic lift capability may be used to carry a large heavy load - initially, 2 tonne. I also understand that Alan has made good progress with this and should be ready to demonstrate his method soon next year (2008).

Following a short introduction from each of the panellists, Barry then put 3 questions to them, which they answered as follows:

Q1 How can small start-up operations generate the necessary investment capital to pay for theinitial stages of technological development?

• Depends on right time and circumstances.
• Get a wealthy person interested.
• Go to the public with the concept.
• Build, fly and use for revenue.

Q2 Other than investment capital, what does the airship industry most need to accelerate its development?

• People willing to champion the industry.
• People who pave the way.
• Meetings, such as this one.
• Trained people.
• LTA academy.
• User friendly regulations.
• Flight corridor for experimentation.
• A need, customers and developers capable to deliver reliably.

Q3 Why do you think that the airship industry has not been able to take advantage of its inherent environmentally beneficial nature to generate public and private investment?

• Need LTA aircraft to demonstrate.
• Need united industry and lobby groups.

Following the answers to his questions, Barry asked the audience if there was anything else. Naturally, your commentator sprang to the fore with the following:

Q4 What would you like LTA support groups around the world to do to assist?

• Increase membership to gain critical mass.
• Associations should work together (cooperate).
• Hold more general public meetings like this one, instead of just technical meetings for the members.
• Help with more publications.
• Look more to the future, instead of dwelling on the past.
• Structure journals and magazines better with relevant sections (e.g. to deal with heavy lift).
• Make little known organisations, such as the Zeppelin Association in Germany, better known and working in unison with others.

With little time remaining after these answers, Barry closed the session. In his closing remarks he also suggested that the media should be more often invited to report on such events. With this, he pointed out the camera team filming the proceedings and then, after closing the session, was cornered in an interview by reporters. I understand that the reports later were broadcast on the TV and in the Canadian newspapers.

Session 4: Where's the gas? (3:30-5:00 pm)

Barry's last session moderator was Bill Zuk, an Executive Director of the Manitoba Aviation Council. Bill had two speakers to talk about lifting gas issues, the first of which was David Limb, a British chemical engineering consultant currently working in Canada for Opti as an air separation process engineer in Calgary. David also had worked in many places around the world on similar projects and holds patents for cryogenic separation processes and helium purification.

David’s talk was about Helium, its Recovery, Purification, Transport and Deployment as an Airship Lifting Gas. This was technically quite challenging for lay people, but of great interest to those of us in the LTA industry, since we need to know the issues. David went into detail about the way helium is recovered. He also told us about its scarcity and the problems of extraction and supply. Whilst there is sufficient helium for current needs, if the LTA aircraft industry gets going with big types and in large numbers, there will be a need to consider alternatives for the future.

Bill’s second speaker was Dr. Dirk Spaltmann, who (since 2005) is a serving member of the Board of Directors of the German Initiative, Zukunft in Brand e.V. (ZiB). ZiB is the association of CargoLifter shareholders and supporters, promoting the re-structuring of the CargoLifter Company. Dirk studied physics in Aachen (Germany) and Cardiff (Wales) and is now an associate at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Germany. More recently (2006) he joined the German hydrogen and fuel cell association (DWV) and co-founded the Institute for new airborne transportation systems.

Dirk was there to tell us about Hydrogen Gas: Past and Future in Airships. His talk also was quite technical for ordinary lay people, but rather interesting for LTA folks, as he addressed in detail the Hindenburg incident. In addition he was quite informative about hydrogen and its use as both a lifting gas and fuel. His was a well researched and articulate account looking positively at the issues. No doubt there is a lot of work to do to dispel myths, overcome false notions and political circumstances arising from the Hindenburg’s fiery end. However, this was one of the first rationally reasoned accounts that I had heard addressing the subject in a responsible way. I hope to hear more.

And this completes part 4 there is a little bit more that we will put into part 5 we will also feature a lot of links and additional reading material in the next part, allowing you to delve deeper into the subject. Airshipworld has reported on may of the projects and subjects mentioned during the Symposium and we will continue. Where there any talks that you want us to cover more in detail? The new Cargolifter or the possibilities of using Hydrogen in airships again? Please post a comment on the Blog or send us an email.

4th Airships to the Arctic Symposium - Commentary Part 3

Once again we bring you another part of our Airships to the Arctic Symposium coverage. This is part 3 in a series of posts. You can read part 1 and part 2 to catch up if you have missed them. All parts of the Commentary are written by Charles R Luffman of LTA Solutions.
Todays part takes a look at the first day of the conference and talks about each of the sessions that were held.

The Conference – Day 1, Tuesday 30 October 2007

Welcome

As Chairman, Barry kicked the two-day conference off in the hotel’s 7th floor Concert Hall with his first guest, the Honourable Ron Lemieux (Minister, Manitoba Department of Infrastructure and Transportation), who provided a welcoming address. The Minister was clearly very pleased to do this, showing his enthusiastic support for LTA aircraft as a possible way to overcome the logistics challenges of northern regions.

His remark, “Airships will certainly be a reality. We want to be part of that”, shows his enthusiasm and he also stated that airships were “personally and government supported”. During his address he further said that, with airships, the town of Churchill by the Hudson Bay was viewed as a viable port (gateway) to America and he added that he was looking at making Manitoba the hub for LTA activities (primarily transportation).

These remarks from a government minister certainly are good news for the LTA industry and I hope this will make the difference to help make it happen. Up ship!

Session 1: Logistical Challenges in Resource Extraction (8:30-10:00 am)

For this session Barry introduced Eric Hinton of Golder Associates Ltd. to be the moderator. Eric is a mining engineer with a fair amount of experience in underground and open pit mines. He had attended the workshop, where he explained the needs of the mining industry. Eric’s first speaker (of two) was Richard Gibbons of Tolko Industries, Ltd. (who was not at the workshop).

Richard’s subject was Forest Product Transport in Manitoba. Nonetheless, he also told us about Tolko’s overall business and the responsibilities he had with regard to proper sustainable management of the resources and care for the habitat without damage to the ecosystem – minimising the impact of harvesting by selective cutting, new tree planting and reversion of land worked to its former state afterwards. He was a hard headed man with not much interest in fanciful notions, needing practical reliable solutions for the movement of large quantities of heavy logs, solid cut wood and paper in the remote regions. He was also interested in ways to monitor the vast areas of lakes and forest (with slow air patrols), assistance with the movement of equipment used, wood hauling and bridging across ravines or difficult territory. Although initially he stated that he could not see the link between his business and airships, the more he was exposed to the idea, the greater his interest became.

Eric’s second speaker was Ron Malashewski, the President of Cliff Lake Capital Ltd., who was at the workshop and who talked about Mining beyond the Roads. Ron’s professional background was largely to do with investment and finance. However, he also was concerned at corporate levels with business and strategic planning, project management, operations and maintenance. He holds a prospector’s licence and is a member of ISO Polar. He told us that ship routes were now opening earlier and lasting longer, and they were transporting 35,453 tons of metal annually. Transport operations between the port and the mines, however, was a problem where there was a need to move 150 tons per day over 750 km. He explained that the Saskatchewan region has money for development in order to extract new resources of uranium, gold, diamonds and many other critical minerals/elements. Even so, he said that the mining companies were only interested in reliable solutions for further exploration and movement. This was a consistent message from speakers who were interested but reluctant to invest in LTA without proof of its ability to deliver.

Session 2: Logistical Challenges in Resource Exploration (10:30-12:00 am)

The proceedings moved forward with Al Phillips of A.J. Phillips & Associates as the next session moderator. He also is an associate of the Transport Institute. His second speaker (David Owens from Major Drilling Group International), who was billed to talk about ‘Diamond Drilling and Mineral Exploration’, regrettably was unavailable. Whilst it would have been interesting to hear about this activity in arctic regions, from ZLT’s business with De Beers in Botswana, the subject matter was covered at the AIAA’s LTA conference recently in Belfast. So Al just had Stuart Russell, the Vice President of Braden-Burry Expediting, to introduce.

Stuart (who also was at the workshop) provided us with an interesting animated talk titled Arctic Gas Exploration. He covered most aspects of the logistics operations his company is involved in. He clearly was an enthusiast of the northern regions, having moved to Yellowknife in 1971 to live there. He was a flier, having been involved with Hercules flight operations and civil airlines over many years. He also said he is pro-airship, which he felt should be part of an integrated transport network, and is a fan of training and using local people for operations. His operations from Yellowknife supplied many Inuvik regions and ranged from Edmonton to the Beaufort Sea, where there were drilling operations. His air transport needs were for 2000 km range. He told us about his activities in developing numerous supply chains and clearly was instrumental in keeping things moving. He advocated utilisation of experts and his distribution needs for the oil and gas industry were from source to site. He told us that there was a need to carry heavy bulky goods together with fuel and passengers in combined operations, although the number of passengers on any flight was low (up to say 20).

Lunch Speaker (12:00-1:30 pm)

Lunch was organised in the adjacent Crystal Ballroom for the many guests, enabling networking to progress. Nonetheless, when our meal was over and keeping things moving, Barry introduced Dale Booth of Partnering First Solutions to address us while still at our tables.

Dale’s subject, Making It Happen: Procurement-based Initiatives, essentially was a proposition for the delegates to get together and come up with a way to begin LTA operations within 18 months. This was to be a sort of contest, where the winner would be awarded with a contract to supply the northern communities. Dale is a specialist of First Nations’ business, economic development and infrastructure who has held positions in the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, where he developed ways to enable success of First Nations economic development involving partnering solutions. He now has several First Nation communities as clients and is helping them to realise their housing and infrastructure goals. While his proposal was well received, this resulted in much animated discussion, because it was felt that 18 months was too short for a proper service to be established (needing certification by the authorities). Nonetheless, trials and demonstrations should be possible. This was certainly something to be developed and was similar to proposals that Ron Hochstetler introduced in the previous month at the AIAA LTA conference in Belfast. This is an exciting prospect that should help the LTA industry. Let’s get it on!

Session 3: Logistical Challenges in Serving Remote Communities (1:30-3:00 pm)

Barry, true to his cause, encouraged everyone back to the Concert Hall across the way in a timely manner where the conference continued. There he introduced Fred Petrie, the Accountable Executive for First Nations Transport Inc, as the next speaker.

Fred, who is a transportation economist and also attended the workshop, was there to tell us about his experience with Air-lift to Remote Communities. Showing his preparedness to help make things happen, he started his talk by offering to provide the test market for the first LTA operations. His company provides cargo and airline services for the remote communities of northeast Manitoba and northwest Ontario and his assignment is to enable it to be a stable/profitable enterprise for transition to aboriginal and employee ownership. He also is involved with Sasco Ltd., a winter road trucking business. With 40 years experience, constantly facing the logistics challenges of northern freight transportation, Fred was well able to inform about the issues and to make the case for a solution to overcome the worsening conditions discussed already.

Next on Barry’s list of speakers was Jim Huggard, the Manager of the Merchandising Division from Arctic Co-operatives Limited, who was there to tell us about Retail Logistics in the Arctic. Jim was not at the workshop, so had come especially for the conference to advise about the logistics challenges he faces. Having worked in Co-op Retailing for 28 years managing Retail Stores and Federated wholesale Co-ops, he was well able to tell us about the problems of the supply chain from the distribution point to the customer in remote northern regions. He uses every way available (barge, ship, aircraft, road and rail) for supply of merchandise, which could be anything from boots, food and fuel to furnishings, equipment and housing, depending on the urgency and conditions. Often orders were made a year or so in advance and the goods then put into storage until supply was possible. What was significant for customers was the variable rather high cost for anything ordered, depending on the cost of supply to different locations. Some of the essential goods, such as food, were subsidised and this was a great help in paying for the supply services necessary.

Session 4: Logistical Challenges in Project Freight (3:30-5:00 pm)

For the last session of the day Barry introduced Graham Starmer, President of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce since 1998, as the Moderator. Graham, a Brit who emigrated to Canada in 1969, also appeared to be pro airship, saying “it was not a matter of whether airships were needed but when would they be available to provide operating services!?” Another question he proffered was, “what are the alternatives?” No doubt there are alternatives, but at what cost? He explained that Manitoba was committed to extending the network of permanent all weather roads. However, these will cost several billion dollars, will damage the ecosystem, enable unwanted visitors (causing further damage) and contribute to global warming and pollution through their use. His view was that LTA aircraft were a better choice that would be cost effective and with minimal damaging effects. Let’s work to develop the industry and prove this view.

Graham’s first invited speaker was to be Don Finnvik, the Director of Business Development, B&K Trucking to talk about Wind Turbine Transport and Assembly, but regrettably he was not there. It would have been good to hear about the issues Canada faces with such installations and the extent to which Canada wishes to go with them. No doubt the remote communities would benefit greatly from these installations through year round power supply. I often see new windmills being erected in Germany and am sure that LTA may assist with both transport and construction (as a crane) to enable windmills to be installed almost anywhere. What we need, however, is a paid commission to undertake necessary development for such purposes. If enlightened people in influential positions, such as Graham, appreciate that the industry cannot afford to develop new LTA aircraft for their own sake, then there is a chance.

So, to explain the challenges of moving freight in the northern regions, Graham introduced us to Jerry Pokrupa, an Architectural Technologist from Keewaytinook Okimakanak (the Northern Chiefs’ Council). Jerry (who was at the workshop) had prepared a talk on Building Construction in the Near North. Providing housing for the northern communities, who badly need better living accommodation, is an essential supply chain issue – how to deliver the construction materials, often as large prefabricated parts or perhaps the whole building. Nonetheless, his talk was more about preparing and operating the winter roads from the main routes to the localised communities. He provided graphic detail of the severe conditions and problems faced, showing vehicles that had fallen through the ice or in ditches and crashed, where emergency recovery action was necessary. In almost every case, he said that the goods in transit were damaged and this had to be accepted because of the difficulties to re-supply. Naturally, this also added to the cost. Jerry provided details about the costs of building and operating the winter roads, which should be available when the papers are published, showing how these varied from one community to another – depending on their circumstances and the weather conditions encountered. His work was not for light hearted people, where difficulties and dangers were ever present.

Following Jerry’s talk, at about 5.00 pm, we were then introduced to Mayor Michael Spence from the Town of Churchill, Manitoba, to round off the day’s conference. The Mayor’s message basically was that they can’t wait 10 to 20 years for a solution. They need it right away, in order to simply survive and carry on. For people with ready and effective solutions it will be necessary to talk with the leaders in the northern communities, like the mayor, to reach agreement on how things will be developed. It appears that the finance essentially will flow via the northern communities, since they enable the mines and forests to be worked and the resources to be extracted. They also want to be in control of their own circumstances, where they need to take over and run the supply chain network. No doubt initial training will be necessary for LTA aircraft operations but, after all, they are there, need the work and know the circumstances they live under, so are best placed to run the operations. It’s all about cooperation.

Symposium Banquet – Reception 5:30pm Dinner 6:30 pm

It had been an intense day, so the banquet was a chance to relax in the company of good people from far and wide. Naturally this also was a networking occasion, forming new relationships and discussing possibilities. The banquet was held in the Crystal Ballroom, where we had previously gathered for lunch, so already familiar to everyone. What I hadn’t discovered before, however, was a glass roofed and floored recess with a bar. Naturally, this was where things started and it quickly filled with people chattering away. Even so, we were soon ushered to the tables for our feast.

The ballroom was filled with large round tables each seating around 10 people. Looking around it was apparent that, as well as the symposium delegates, additional guests from Winnipeg had swelled our number – probably over 100 people in total. As banquets go, it was a jolly occasion, thoroughly enjoyable on every aspect – good food, good wine, excellent company and flawless service. Just splendid! Then, when the meal was over, there was a celebration event.

In the spirit of Entrepreneurship that the symposium was held to encourage, Hubert Kleysen a retired businessman from the region, was honoured for his work, inspiration to others and contribution in the community as an Entrepreneur. But first, to understand what an Entrepreneur is, we were provided with an explanation from a learned fellow from the university. This was quite entertaining, as well as enlightening. After Hubert’s award he addressed the ensemble, recounting a few stories pertinent to the occasion. Hearing his words was a great way to end the day.

This is the end of part 3, thanks for reading all the way to the end, we are aware that this is quite a lot of text but you can do selective reading and we think it is important to publish what has happened during the conference especially for those who could not attend. There will definitely be a part 4 covering day two and probably a part 5 with closing remarks.

4th Airships to the Arctic Symposium - Commentary Part 2

Today we continue our coverage of the Airships to the Arctic Symposium that we started last Wednesday. If you missed part 1 you might want to catch up by reading it here. This second part continues the introduction of the conference and talks about the workshop and the public lecture that were held on the day before the actual conference started. Again the commentary was written by Charles R Luffman of LTA Solutions. If you have any questions regarding the conference either send us an email or contact him directly, he also offers engineering consulting for the airship industry.

Making it Happen

Promotion of Airships to the Arctic and ISO Polar's efforts are therefore seen to be logical activities to enable timely and effective solutions. Whilst previous symposiums had paved the way, this symposium was organised with the theme of, 'Making it Happen'. So, with this in mind, the symposium was arranged with three consecutive parts, as follows:
- Workshop
- Public Lecture
- Conference

The Workshop

This first event got underway on Monday 29 October 2007 at about 2:00 pm for a 3 hour session as a combined ISO Polar Annual Meeting and, more particularly, a Workshop to discuss matters. 33 delegates attended the Workshop in a large first floor room of the hotel.

With Barry chairing a logical progression of the subject matters ensued. First, as one would expect, was an introduction from each delegate around the large table to say who they were and explain their reasons for being there.

From this we learned about the diverse interests of the delegates. 13 were international delegates, with the rest (20) from Canada. Of the international delegates, 5 were from the USA, 4 from Germany (including myself, a Brit), 2 from the UK, 1 from Australia and 1 from Japan (there to monitor rather than contribute).

Whilst Canada does have some LTA companies, notably: 21st Century Airships (run by Hokan Colting, from Sweden) and Advanced Hybrid Airships (run by Bruce Blake from down under); none were represented at the workshop. Hokan, however, was a speaker in the following symposium (more later). Also, Barry has a significant track record on LTA matters.

Nonetheless, my conclusion was that Canada does not have very much at the moment with regard to LTA technology, although it urgently needs it. Very sensibly though, it is taking positive steps to redress the situation (the reason for the symposium) and is open to international collaboration.

By contrast, of the 13 international delegates, 11 were active in the field of LTA technology and with 1 aspiring businessman ready to become involved. One might say these are the people who recognise Canada's needs and were there to help, as they may. Even so, practically all (including myself), need funding (a prime issue for the technology to develop) to make things happen.

Of the 20 from Canada, except for Barry, most had little LTA knowledge. These people were mainly there to explain their interest and express their real need for a solution to the effects of global warming, causing havoc with the winter roads. Although many were sceptical, they also were most interested to learn whether LTA aircraft were worth consideration.

The main group, around half of the 20, were involved with mining, exploration, construction, industry and energy supply (the later mainly wind turbines). These people expressed their problems and needs, which included transport of goods, large heavy parts and equipment. They also expressed their need for aerial cranes and the ability to undertake exploration for minerals and other resources by air.

Another large group (about 8) were people from the transport sector, involved in the movement of goods and people, as: distributors, advisers, regulators, carriers and haulers (air, sea, road and rail). From these people we also learned about their problems and needs. Certainly, some of these people could be customers for either LTA aircraft or their operation.

There also were a small group of people from the communities living in the northern regions who face the hardships and reality of their situation as the winter approaches. While they mainly were there to listen, we learned how they were developing networks to take control in their regions, to run the mines, harvest and manage the forests, undertake exploration and generally supply the resources they have – so must be included in any negotiations that follow.

This last group showed us the human issues we face. We must attend to these people's needs as our first priority, and without damaging their environment any further. In this way we perhaps will enable a better world.

Solutions were shown to be needed urgently (right away). LTA aircraft are a possible way for this, but we must cooperate to make it happen. ISO Polar appears to be the linking organisation for this, enabling its members to fulfil their goals.

To aid the proceedings, Barry also had sitting with him at the head of the table Harry Kelly, who is a successful industrialist from Canada with hard earned experience of what it takes to do business there – making it happen. Harry was there throughout the symposium with pertinent questions and advice, helping the proceedings to remain on track.

Following everyone's introduction, Barry started the debate by asking Ron Hochstetler to clarify the airworthiness authority's position with regard to certification and approvals. Ron explained the general position from a USA standpoint, followed by broad discussion of the topic.

The main issue from the discussion was to determine whether certification was a show stopper for LTA aircraft. Also, to understand the costs and time that the process of evaluation and proof of compliance takes before new LTA aircraft may enter service.

These issues were pertinent, since LTA types to fulfil the logistics operations needed in northern regions don't exist yet, so need to be developed. Really, though, the people from Canada had little interest in certification; they just wanted to know when LTA aircraft of a size and type necessary for the operations could start.

This really sums up what the workshop was about. Gaining an understanding of the issues and an appreciation of what it takes. Naturally, hybrid airships were discussed, as they appear to be in vogue at the moment, but it was made clear that they are a new type of aircraft with many issues that must be resolved before they could be used for normal service. Even so, it also was made clear that these types were not the only solution.

At 5:00 pm Barry duly brought the discussions to a conclusion. After a short break we then went to the 7th floor for the free Public Lecture in the Concert Hall (6.30 - 9.00), which had a stage from which the audience was addressed. This was an open event with several more people attending. About 50 total.

The Public Lecture

Unlike most conferences I've attended, the public event was a welcome addition, since it brought us in touch with mainly local people. From the questions after each of the 2 lectures, the audience were clearly interested in the subject matter and what we were up to, giving those with perhaps not enough time for the main conference over the following 2 days an opportunity to gain an insight.

Barry's first speaker was Dr James Blatz, a local man who is the Associate Head of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Regular airship folk might think, what's his interest in the technology? Well, his lecture was titled A Birds Eye View of Riverbank Erosion, so it was not so much about an interest in the technology, as what the technology could be used to do - although it was clear that he had become enthused due to involvement.

In James' case, it was a way to monitor a part of the Red river running near by from an overhead position without disturbing anything below. This was a task needed to assess the erosion that was occurring at a particular position. Interestingly, he used a small tethered aerostat for the purpose. This provided a low cost solution with good results.

The second speaker was your commentary's author. Well, it gave me a good reason to be there and I was interested to help Barry, as I could. Knowing that a lot of people in the audience would not especially be knowledgeable about LTA matters and airship possibilities in the 21st century, I had prepared a lecture on Lighter-than-air (LTA) Technology (A View from Europe) to speak generally, in layman's terms, about the whole subject matter.

For those who don’t know me, I am an aeronautical engineer who has specialised in LTA structures since 1981. About 4 years ago, I was asked by a teacher from a local high school in Germany to talk to the older students. The information prepared then was the basis for my lecture, with a picture on every page to give the audience something to look at if my talk droned on. Naturally, with so much material to cover, this was a possibility!

When my lecture was over Barry closed the day's events and we all then dispersed. It had been a long day, especially as my body clock was still on European time and we were due to start again in the morning at 08:15 for the first conference session.

This concludes part 2 of the commentary make sure to read part 1 if you haven't yet. Stay tuned for the next part hopefully in two to three days. If you have any comments please send them to us, we love to get feedback.

4th Airships to the Arctic Symposium - Commentary Part 1

After yesterdays events, we are now back to our normal posting schedule, we still have way more material than time to write all the posts so let's get on with todays post, which kind of ties in to the Total Pole Airship Expedition which was supposed to got into the Arctic.
On Monday we released a Video about the Airship to the Arctic Symposium that was produced by CBC. If you haven't seen the video you might want to go back and watch it, it's a really nice report about airships and how they could help the transport business in the Canadian north. As promised on Monday we bring you today the first part of the commentary of the 4th Airships to the Arctic Symposium. The commentary was written by Charles R Luffman of LTA Solutions who was so kind to share it with us.

Symposium Details

This international symposium (see http://www.airshipstothearctic.com/), held from Monday 29 to 31 October 2007 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, was a special event, compared with other symposiums organised by the main societies around the world, as it was primarily to promote the use of Lighter-than-air (LTA) aircraft (balloons, aerostats, airships, hybrids or other dirigible types) for use in Canada's northern regions. It was the fourth of a series of symposiums since October 2002 in Winnipeg at the Fort Garry Hotel (see http://www.fortgarryhotel.com/) chaired by Dr Barry E Prentice. The conference was sponsored and supported by ISO Polar Airships Inc.

Barry is Professor of Supply Chain Management at the IH Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba and the former Director (1996 - 2005) of the Transport Institute (see http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/management/ti/). It is primarily due to his vision and determination, to provide a better solution for the supply of goods to people in the northern regions of Canada, that the symposiums were organised.

ISO Polar Airships Inc (see http://isopolar.ca/) is a not-for-profit research institute (an association), founded in March 2005, to help make the objectives possible. This they do by promoting interest between the international LTA aircraft industry and the communities living (plus industrialists operating) in the northern territories of Canada. They undertake economic and engineering studies, coordinate demonstrations, facilitate certification tests and other activities that are in the public interest. They also are a lobby group, interacting with politicians and others to get financial and general support for the cause. Their mission is, ‘To encourage the development of airship technology for sustainable transportation and logistics in the Northern Latitudes.’

Why Canada Urgently Needs LTA Aircraft to Serve its Northern Regions

Due to recent climate change, people living in the northern parts of Canada have been experiencing increasing hardships. This is because of an inability now to deliver essential supplies (food and fuel) due to deterioration of the ice roads as a result of warmer conditions.

This may seem strange, since one might think warmer conditions are better. However, in the arctic environment, the warmer conditions are destabilising - causing changes that upset the regular pattern of life and the seasonal times established there.

With the momentum that has gathered, these changes are unstoppable in the short term and will continue and worsen unless uniform world action is taken to reverse the effect - unlikely. As a result, new reliable ways to deal with the situation at hand are needed just as soon as they can be provided.

Industrialists involved in exploration, extraction and harvesting of Canada's northern territories also need ways to take heavy equipment in and bring things out. Their needs are just as great as the communities’, who also need the work these activities provide. Even so, the solution needed is one that is not harmful to the delicate ecology or environment of the regions served and that doesn't exacerbate global warming even more.

Ice roads traditionally have been prepared annually for freight movement through the winter. The very low temperatures caused thick permafrost on otherwise marshy land and the lakes to freeze, providing hard surfaces over which trucks could be driven.

For this, the snow and scrub land must be cleared, and a smooth track prepared with special sections to prevent ice fracture to control the way vehicles enter and leave the frozen lakes, which may have flowing water beneath - especially where the lake is deep. Then, when conditions stabilise and the ice is thick enough (1 to 2 metres), the truckers get underway.

Even then it's a precarious business, where crashes, break-through (into the lake), entrenchment in the snow or slithering into ditches are constant dangers. This all slows the movement, until blockages, snow drifts and ice fractures are resolved.

Due to climate change, the northern communities now are almost unreachable over land during the cold seasons; mainly because of thin ice and/or poor conditions from the relatively warmer conditions. Autumn now lasts longer and spring arrives sooner, reducing the time that winter ice roads can be used safely. Also, in the autumn and spring periods, when conditions are unstable,little can be moved over land because it is not firm enough to support the trucks.

Because of the ice road problems sometimes communities now do not get all the supplies they need and must rely on small aeroplanes for essentials like food and fuel. Many inhabitants therefore suffer from malnutrition, with diabetes as a common problem and tuberculosis on the rise. Survival is a wretched struggle, resulting in low life expectancy.

The ice roads (very expensive to prepare annually) are the northern Canadian people's main life line. Now, because of global warming, they no longer are reliable and the period they may be used safely is somewhat limited, particularly because snowfall and other bad weather conditions affect their use. The people (mainly aboriginal communities) are confronted with inadequate housing, very high food prices, chronic unemployment and substandard services (water/sewerage, healthcare, education).

It's a dire situation that these communities face each year, where air or perhaps sea (if they are near to it) are the only alternative supply routes. Air freight is possible when conditions permit, but this is very expensive with old aircraft (like DC-3s and Hawker-Siddley 742s) and rather limited with regard to what may be carried. Movement of goods by sea in the winter months also is prevented by thick ice, where temperatures may be below -40°C, so also not reliable.

Heavier-than-air (HTA) aircraft (aeroplanes and helicopters) are used, but these have limitations of capacity and range, suffer from icing conditions and (for aeroplanes) need runways to land and take off - making it difficult to serve isolated communities. Because they can only carry small amounts and their costs are high, HTA types are unsuitable for main heavy freight duties.

LTA aircraft for heavy airlift transport and crane activities, however, have now been recognised in enlightened circles to be a possible way to overcome the problems of Northern Canada. Indeed, as displacement vessels, LTA aircraft get additional buoyancy from the cold atmosphere, when (due to gas contraction) they are topped up with a greater gas fill than they would otherwise get in warmer regions.

They also can be operated with little infrastructure on the ground and their efficiency improves with size - making them cost effective for large heavy loads. If they can also overcome the cold conditions and weather in northern regions, then they will be a solution.

We hope you liked the first part of our conference commentary, we plan on posting two to three more parts to conclude the commentary. If you want to read up on the Airships to the Arctic Symposium check out this post we wrote before linking to a lot of documents that are worth a read.

Commentary on the 17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference - 5th and last part

Today we conclude our coverage of the 17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference with the last part of the commentary. Sorry that it took so long, but my day job kept me quite busy. This last part is of course also written by our very own Charles Luffman from LTA Solutions Ltd.
Here are also the links again to the first 4 parts:

• Part 1 - Conference Details
• Part 2 - Monday and beginning of Tuesday
• Part 3 - End of Tuesday and beginning of Wednesday
• Part 4 - End of Wednesday and beginning of Thrusday

But let's get to the final chapter, shall we.

Events of Thursday 20 September (3rd and final day of conference) - continued

LTA-7. This was to be the last session of the conference, from 15.30 – 18.00 and about Transport Airship Developments. Chaired by Robert Boyd, from Lockheed Martin Corporation, Palmdale, CA, USA, who I did not know. It was interesting to see the Lockheed style of business.

25) Robert’s first speaker was to be Thomas Brandt, the new CEO of ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH and Co KG, Friedrichshafen, Germany, on the Zeppelin NT as a Platform for Remote Sensing for Environmental and Industrial Applications. Thomas had been attending the conference, but it was rather unfortunate that he was called away on urgent business due the loss of the De Beers NT-07 airship at its mast in Botswana because of severe weather. No doubt this will be reported elsewhere. As a result Bernd Sträter, the previous CEO of ZLT and our conference chairman, stepped up to the podium to present the paper.

As most people know, ZLT is a leading company in the development and operation of airships and this paper reflected the high standards and professionalism of ZLT. The paper gives an overview about the Zeppelin NT airship and information about some of the projects it has been used to serve. We certainly hope that the incident in Botswana will not cause problems for ZLT or inhibit their business. Nonetheless, weather issues need to be looked at by the industry (as a whole) to see how best such losses may be prevented.

26) Presented by Ronald Hochstetler, this paper from his associate Ananthakrishna Sarma at SAIC (not there) about Optimization of Airship Routes for Weather under the circumstances was a pertinent topic to follow as Robert’s next item, since it highlights the issue. Being as light as air airships are delicate structures but, as any balloonist knows, when drifting with the wind there is calm – due to low or zero relative airspeed. Restraining or directing them against wind currents will always be a problem due to their great size. Adopting the minimum energy solution therefore, like balloonists who attempt global flights by getting into the jet stream and then letting it take them at quite high speeds across lands and oceans, is a way to deal with the issue. LTA aircraft may sail the skies using air currents to best advantage this way (as Hugo Eckner advocated and did). An algorithm for route planning was expounded, which no doubt will be an important tool in the future for operators and pilots. Airships on the ground, however, need further treatment.

27) I took some time out, so am not sure if this next paper was presented, since it was said to be withdrawn. Shame, because Grant Carichner was there (one of the panellists in the plenary session) and it would have been good to hear about the developments of the Lockhead Martin project. Hopefully we will get to see his paper Hybrid Airships: A Modern Perspective another time.

28) The next paper of Robert’s session, Effect of Wind on the Aerodynamic Drag of a High Altitude Airship was an addition to the programme given by Behnam Behesti, from the Institute of Energy Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. I returned during this paper, so cannot say very much, except (from reviewing the actual paper) it provided useful input from water tank towing tests to determine the flow over the hull, which is a scaling effect that makes such testing effective. The last paper also shows how such comparisons between water and airborne vessels are possible. Benham also undertook flow visualisation studies over the empennage, complimenting the water tank trials.

29) Speaking for himself this time, Ronald Hochstetler was Robert’s next presenter, there to tell us about an idea for the Establishment of a Transport Airship Competition. The LTA aircraft industry certainly needs a boost to help projects develop and this proposal by Ron, who knows the business well, was a very interesting suggestion that drew audience participation – who wanted to ask questions and provide further input. Ron gave an outline of typical competitions in the past from the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize, which Santos Dumont took in Paris (19 October 1901) with his airship Number 6, to modern day events, such as the recent “X-Prize” competition for the first commercial space ship. He also talked about various ways that such a competition could be held. If readers of the commentary also would like to make input we should be glad to hear what people think.

30) Always a delight to hear Richard van Treuren speak, Robert’s final presenter and the final speaker of the conference, who gave us a talk on Comparing 1928 Technology and Operation: USS Argonaut (SS-166) and Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127). Naturally this was from his research of historical aspects but where he found many parallels between submarines and airships. These parallels were well portrayed by his paper, which concentrated on the particular vessels of his subject. This also was a pleasant reflection on former times but with a lesson for engineers in the subject to use history and such parallels for new developments.

Concluding Remarks

It was a good friendly conference giving people from the LTA aircraft industry chance to network and keep up with latest developments. I certainly enjoyed the three days in Belfast, my first opportunity to visit the city and have a small chance to savour its ambiance – mainly lunchtimes and an evening walk.

It was noticeable this year that over half of the papers were by people from academic establishments, who were there showing their capabilities and readiness to serve the industry. Yes, some key industry people were there, but not in such great numbers as previous years, perhaps reflecting the lack of investment for this key sector of the aircraft industry.

It was also good that the AIAA made it possible for the LTA-TC to hold the conference in Europe (certainly making it easier for me to attend) alongside the ATIO conference people. Whilst the ATIO conference was bigger, the quality certainly was not better, as we were treated to excellent papers in the LTA conference of a high standard. The papers are all available from the AIAA, details below.

Hope to see and talk with you at the next event, wherever. For those who can’t wait, see details following.

Cheers, Charles

And this concludes our coverage, if you want to know more please don't hesitate to contact us. You can also get a PDF of the full Commentary at Lulu.com it also contains contact data of Charles and the AIAA and a list of all the Sessions with their AIAA Code so that you can get them from the AIAA Website.

Commentary of the AIAA’s 17th Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) Systems Technology Conference

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17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference - 4th part of commentary

Continuing our coverage of the 17th AIAA Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference we bring you the third part finishing Tuesday September 18th and going in to Wednesday September 19th. If you missed our previous posts you are invited to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 before continuing on. As before this post is part of a longer Commentary written by Charles Luffman from LTA Solutions Ltd. Enjoy!

Events of Wednesday 19 September (2nd day of conference) - continued

LTA-5. The afternoon session concerning Airship Buoyancy Systems was chaired by Richard van Treuran, of the United Space Alliance, Cape Canaveral, FL, USA. Richard is a stalwart of the airship community, who has made LTA his second job, writing and publishing books and films on the topic via Atlantis Productions (http://www.airshiphistory.com/links.htm), which he runs with his wife (Deborah), who was also at the event.

18) The first speaker in Richard’s session was Alexander Bormann, already discussed above. His paper on, New Insulation for Thermal Balloons and Airships, was a collaborative effort with associates from Berlin, Germany; Igualada, Spain; and Lausanne, Switzerland. He gave us important information about fabric developments that help to reduce heat losses, thereby improving performance and reducing the amount of fuel needed for sustained flight. As evident from the papers, Alexander provides technical services and is involved with leading developments in the LTA industry, particularly fabrics. No doubt much of this is from his work concerning steam filled balloons as an alternative to other gases and hot air. I hope to see more in the future.

19) Richards’s next speaker was Chris Severns, an employee of the Boeing Company, Issaquah, WA, USA, who really was there on his own behalf (with his wife) following his work as a leading engineer in the field of electrical power systems at CargoLifter in Germany – where I got to know him. CargoLifter was a phenomenon of our time that inspired many people. Sadly, we have lost this now due to prosaic bean counting by those who only understand accounts. The cost of this loss however is not just the relatively small amount of money involved (€300 million), compared with that invested in the HTA sector (many €Billions), but the enormous setback to the industry and society its ruthless abandonment caused, where funds for development are virtually non-existent now. Thanks to Chris’ perseverance, we now at least have something from the research he started in Germany, which no doubt also may be applied to other non LTA systems.

Chris’ paper about an, Airship Hybrid Power System Design Using Evolutionary Programming for Seeking Neutral Buoyancy was beyond my field of knowledge and with a fair amount of theory, but clearly was a topic for those inclined or involved in such developments in the audience.

20) The last of Richard’s speakers was again Alexander Bormann, with a paper entitled, HEIDAS UH: Flying with Super-Heated Steam. Yes, Alex is the other principal advocate of steam to Thomas Goodey (not at the conference) as a lifting gas. This was an informative paper on the subject and of importance, because steam is not often considered. Yet it provides ability to vary aerostatic lift in an affordable safe manner. More work on this subject is needed, so I hope to see more.

Evening 2. This brought us to an early end, giving one plenty of time before the evening’s Awards Banquet in the Grand Ballroom. This was a splendid occasion bringing together the several hundred delegates, partners and other visitors from the several groups holding conferences jointly. The ballroom was set up with large round tables to accommodate the many guests. It was a convivial occasion with wine and social chitchat flowing freely. However, the highlight of the evening were the awards, where George Spyrou of AMS was given recognition for his services to the airship industry and Hepburn Walker, the veteran of airships, was awarded posthumously for his life time contributions in this field. Hep’s award was received by Richard van Treuran on behalf of Hep’s family. It was very pleasing to see LTA people being given such recognition.


Events of Thursday 20 September (3rd and final day of conference)

LTA-6. The final day of the conference again was started promptly by Alexander Bormann for that morning’s session about Aerostat and Airship Structures.

21) Alex’s first speaker was Shoji Maekawa, an invited researcher at JAXA in Japan, who presented the work of his team on Tear Propagation of a High Performance Airship Envelope Material. Tear propagation of fabrics in airship envelopes is a sensitive issue, so his oral presentation was much appreciated. He showed us the bi-axial test and pressurised cylinder work undertaken together with results achieved for the Zylon material tested. This was important work for the future of LTA aircraft, to get reliable data and lightweight fabrics for envelopes and gas cells with high rip strength properties – an aspect that is worrying with some fabrics. Understanding the behaviour is a necessary aspect to developing solutions and confidence, so it was good to hear about this work.

22) Still with more to speak about, Alex’s next presenter was again Rajkumar, to tell us about his team’s work on Multidisciplinary Shape Optimization of Aerostat Envelopes. This essentially was an exercise that had been undertaken to find the best profile, balancing cost and performance, for their airship projects. In the end Raj showed us that their original simple profiling method was good enough but weight reductions were possible by tailoring – using lighter materials at the nose and stern.

23) Pramud Rawat from Columbia, MD, USA was Alex’s next speaker, who gave a presentation on Nonlinear Analyses of Aerostat Behavior. Pramud clearly had significant experience concerning the deployment of aerostats both at high and low altitude, and in different locations. His message was simple enough to understand, where he was advising analysts to do the non-linear analysis with all of the terms included instead of simplifying and linearising the formulae. This was because he had found from experience some very nasty conditions, which only the non-linear approach would predict.

This was rather important to overcome overload situations where the tether would fail and the aerostat lost. The mediating factor he explained, however, was that aerostats were cheap and it perhaps wasn’t practical (due to excessive tether weight) to cover these occasional cases, so operators should keep a couple of spares on hand to keep the operation going when aerostats are lost – usually in places where supply is difficult.

24) Yet again, but for the last time, Rajkmar returned to the podium as Alex’s last speaker to present his teams effort in India concerning Design and Fabrication of an Aerostat for Wireless Communication in Remote Areas. Aerostats, as Raj explained, were being looked at in India as a simple, cost effective way to hoist communication systems that could be rapidly set up in remote places all over India. The presentation showed how a cost effective design with locally produced fabrics was being established for the purpose.

Mid-day 3. So, with the morning’s session over but a full afternoon yet to follow, it was out into Belfast for a quick bowl of stew and a cup of tea before the final events. Then back to the Edinburgh Suite again for more.

LTA Plenary session. The first event of the afternoon (13.00 – 15.00), instead of being another session of presentations, was an opportunity for review of the Environmental Advantages of Transport Airships, with full participation from the delegates there. The event was chaired by: Gregory Gottlieb, who is an Airship Association Committee Member, and currently lives in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The review was a little like some television debates, where there is a panel responding to input from the audience as well as the panel espousing their views. Gregory’s panel comprised: Grant Carichner, Lockhead Martin Aeronautics Company, Palmdale, USA; Ronald Hochstetler, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), McLean, VA, USA; and Richard Smith, Shell Global Solutions.

After explaining how things were run, each of the panellists talked briefly about themselves and their views on the subject to get things started. Gregory then addressed the delegates in the audience again to get input and with Mike Conners and Bernd Stäter carrying microphones around for delegates to be heard. Things quickly got underway and a useful exchange ensued. Many points were made, which I believe will be useful to help establish LTA aircraft for such purposes. Hopefully somebody recorded the debate some how.

This concludes part 4 of our commentary. We will return with part 5 soon and are also looking into making the papers that where presented available to download. If you have presented one of those papers and would like to share it with the public as a PDF download or would like to share your Powerpoint presentation please contact us, so that we can make arrangements. If you know one of the presenters please help us to get as many of the presentations as a free download. The knowledge about Airships and especially the research needs to be spread throughout the world. If you know of links where one can buy the papers please forward those also to us.

Part 3 of the "17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference" Commentary

Continuing our coverage of the 17th AIAA Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference we bring you the third part finishing Tuesday September 18th and going in to Wednesday September 19th. If you missed our previous posts you are invited to read
Part 1 and Part 2 before continuing on. As before this post is part of a longer Commentary written by Charles Luffman from LTA Solutions Ltd. Now enjoy reading Part 3.

Events of Tuesday 18 September (1st day of conference) - continued

LTA-3. The final (third) and longest session (with 5 speakers) from 15.30 – 18.00 was chaired by Michael Burns, also of Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., McLean, VA, USA. He also had been asked at a late stage to chair the session, due to unavailability of E Engleman Conners from the Federal Communications Commission in Washington DC, USA. Michael was another person who I didn’t previously know. It’s good to see new people spreading their wings, helping to generate interest in LTA aircraft, and that Booz Allen Hamilton is taking a leading role. His session concerned, High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Airship Technologies and Operation.

9) Michael’s first speaker, well known to everyone at that stage, was again Rajkumar Pant; clearly an industrious and knowledgeable chap with many hats, who also has further papers to be discussed. In fact, as detailed in the programme, Rajkumar was the representative of a team of people in India developing various airships – so was there as a representative of his associates (saving the expense for so many from India) to deliver the team’s effort. It was good to see the extent of the team’s efforts, showing that India is taking the initiative to become a leader in the technology. Nonetheless, this was more to do with providing transport and communication services in India, where LTA technology is seen to be an effective, environmentally friendly and relatively cheap way to do this. It was great to be able to learn more about this initiative, which I hope others will follow.

The paper presented by Rajkumar was about, Modelling and Simulation for Precision Navigation of Airborne Vehicles using Pseudolites Mounted on Stratospheric Airships. This showed that they have solved the equations of motion for a 6 degree of freedom (DOF) theoretical model and understand the control laws, so can use this now to enable autonomous control of real models in the stratosphere. I look forward to seeing their developments in this direction.

10) Patrick Hendrick from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, was Michael’s next speaker with a paper titled, Comparison of Propulsion Technologies for a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Airship. This was to be one of two related papers from Patrick, with the other at the end of Michael’s session. Just how one may power an unmanned airship reliably for long periods (say 1 month to 1 year) at stratospheric heights is a real challenge. If one uses solar power, it’s not available through the night. If one uses fuel carried on board, then this is used up over time causing lift/weight imbalance – where gas would need to be released – and conventional engines need a good intake of oxygen for combustion, which is rare in the upper atmosphere. Patrick’s paper, like a good systems analysis, looks at the issues and provides recommendations that should enable HALE airships to fulfill their power needs reliably, so is important for those developing such systems.

11) Michael Lee from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, AL, USA and working with I Steve Smith Jr, of Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, I think were Michael Burn’s next speakers. I remember the paper about The HiSentinel Airship, because they actually did it on a low budget – producing the airship, getting it up to the stratosphere, flying around and later recovering it. This was a notable achievement, even though it was a model (with not much payload capacity) and didn’t stay up for long. Hopefully, this will enable them to develop bigger long endurance types able to carry useful payloads.

12) Masaaki Nakadate, the manager for LTA System Technology at JAXA in Tokyo, Japan, followed with his paper on the, Flight Approval of SPF-2 Low Altitude Flight Test Vehicle. With regards to the subject matter, this paper might have been better placed under Giles’ session, as it provided a good example of the issues one faces with the authorities concerning UAVs in civil airspace these days and the requirements that the Japanese Civil Airworthiness Board (JCAB) have determined. Masaaki’s presentation is therefore important to those who wish to develop unmanned airships, which also applies to HALE types where, in the stratosphere, there is confusion about the international airworthiness requirements that need to be developed.

13) Returning to the podium for his second and the last presentation of the day, Patrick’s subject, Developing a European Research Strategy in the High Altitude Aircraft and Airship Sector also reflected the need for new regulations to cover such aircraft. His paper, however, was more to do with providing a report following the several workshops and studies by the Use High Altitude Aircraft and Airships (Use HAAS) group.

Brussels was the main meeting location for this group who came from all over Europe and Patrick was one of its main organisers, who also included: Tim Tozer (not at the conference), University of York in the UK and Bernd Sträter, our conference chairman, who undertook much of the donkeywork to write the final reports. I also had contributed a little along with a host of people mainly from around Europe. The intention of this group was to arrive at a common strategy, raise awareness of the subject at government level and to try to get funding for research and development purposes in Europe. Patrick’s paper provides the background and conclusions/recommendations from the work of the Group. Let’s hope it leads to properly funded LTA aircraft developments in Europe that we can participate in as leaders in the field

Evening 1. It had been an interesting (although intense) first day, so light entertainment was needed. As part of the event coaches were provided for an evening visit to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, where food, refreshment and Irish hospitality (with music) was to be had. Unaccompanied, as I was at the event, I soon found an unused seat on the coach beside an interesting looking American lady in a similar situation, but attending the ATIO conferences, which led to good companionship at the museum and interesting conversation with others who we met there together.

This was good because many delegates there had their partners with them, so we fitted in well. Especially nice was to talk with Ron Hochstetler and his wife. Ron had been a buddy who worked on the US Navy airship project with me in 1986 and more recently was the former AIAA TC chairman – still providing sterling help. Ron had been a steady going bachelor for many years until his delightful lady embraced him. Having not seen him for some time, it was evident that his long wait for a good woman was worthwhile. Cheers for friendship and happiness in life together.


Events of Wednesday 19 September (2nd day of conference)

LTA-4. But the evening was soon over and the sessions starting promptly next morning at 09.30 again. This second day, however, was to be less demanding – with just two LTA sessions instead of three. The first session, about Unmanned Airship Design and Control, was chaired by Patrick.

14) Patrick’s first speaker was Thomas Kuhn, from the Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany, who presented his university team’s work concerning, Multidisciplinary Design Methods for the Hybrid Universal Ground Observing (HUGO) Airship. This gave a very good account of the university’s design, analysis and prototyping capability, showing a nice model lifting body arrangement they had determined – intended to be produced and flown at the university. Thomas also had been an organiser at the previous DGLR meeting, when he saved me from the wrath of the weather by taking me to my hotel during a hail storm with hail stones like bullets of 1 cm diameter. This is a design case that LTA aircraft designers should give attention to these days, because climate change is having some odd effects.

15) We were then introduced by Patrick to Ely de Paiva, who was from the Centro de Pesquisas Renato Archer, Campinas, Brazil, as the next speaker. He also was presenting on behalf of a team effort concerning, Nonlinear Control Approaches for an Autonomous Unmanned Robotic Airship. His paper was quite mathematical, showing three different approaches for solving the 6 DOF equations of motion and control law inputs. Clearly, they had this in hand and were progressing with an unmanned airship with autonomous control. Their reason for looking at so many solutions was to find a robust method that was not subject to inference, enabling a reliable system to be developed.

16) The third speaker in Patrick’s session, Chin Lin, from Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan (roc), again on behalf of his associates, provided input on a related aspect by showing us their work on, Flight Autonomous System Integration for LTA Remote Operation. However, this was more to do with the electronic components and the selection of micro chips for the computerised controls, i.e. the hardware involved.

17) Due to non-attendance of a speaker from the Italian group, the final paper of Patrick’s session on a, Mobile Ground Station for the Unmanned Elettra-Twin-Flyer Airship, was not presented. The session was therefore closed early, giving time for networking.

Mid-day 2. There was reasonably good attendance of the conference with numerous people there keeping an eye on developments and the possibilities that arise from such conferences. Delegates in the audience ranged from about 30 to 80 people. It was good to be able to talk and it was interesting to note who was there but not as a speaker or session chairman. To name a few, people such as: George Spyrou, CEO of American Management Services (AMS) in the USA, operators and developers of airships; Philip Yiin, CEO of the Airship Group in Malaysia, aspiring developers; Luke Brooke, a representative of Tensys Dynamics Ltd in the UK, a group specialising in the analysis of membrane structures (such as airship envelopes); Jean-François Rives, Director of Strato Tex, with interests in fabric structures; Erin Murrin, an assistant editor of Wiley, the publishers; and people from Queens university Belfast or other institutions in Ireland learning about LTA.

This concludes our third part. We will have at least one more if not two parts to wrap up our coverage. If you have questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact us.

Commentary on the "17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference" - part 2

Today we continue the commentary of the 17th Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technology Conference that we started yesterday. If you missed Part 1 just jump back to our previous post and read the Introduction. Today we continue with the first two days of the conference Monday September 17th and half of Tuesday September 18th. The whole commentary was compiled by Charles Luffman from LTA Solutions Ltd who is also part of the organizing committee of the First International Airship Investors Conference. But now enjoy part 2 of his commentary.

Events of Monday 17 September (not scheduled)

While advertised as being from Tuesday 18 September, the event actually got underway on the previous evening with registration (for those who had already arrived) and an impromptu TC group meeting at a pre-conference dinner. Many people with oceans to cross naturally arranged their travel at the weekend, so were there on Monday with time on their hands. This made the TC meeting possible although, because of the late advice, those with pre-booked flights who arrived late Monday or early Tuesday for the official start and could not easily reschedule their travel, to arrive sooner, weren’t able to attend. Consequently, there’s no commentary about the TC meeting.


Events of Tuesday 18 September (1st day of conference)

Michael Conners (of Booz Allen Hamilton Marketing, McLean, VA, USA), the LTA TC Chairman, who appears to be a relatively new person to the LTA community, got the conference underway at 09.30 Tuesday morning, 18 September (the time that I was due to deliver my paper, scheduled as the first speaker). This was the first time for me, at least, to have the opportunity of hearing him speak. He made a good start, but we were there for the conference papers, so it was also good that he kept his opening speech short. Nonetheless, there were things to explain (primarily about himself and Booz Allen, and what the conference was all about) and then the technical chairman for the conference Bernd Sträter, who is an established elder in the LTA community known widely (formerly CEO of Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH) from Germany, had to be introduced.

Bernd then came on to make his opening speech and to say how the conference would be run (primarily the programme of events – attached, see the appendix) with session chairmen for each session. So this led to the introduction of Rajkumar Pant (an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India), the first session chairman.

LTA-1. Rajkumar, who I first met in Denver 2003, then took over the podium to get the first session, concerning Airship Design and Propulsion, going. Naturally, he spoke about himself and his work in India, but quickly moved on to say there would be four speakers in the first session – starting with me. From the breakfast briefing earlier, we already had organised things, so we were prepared. Nonetheless, before proceeding, I had to be introduced and a short biography about me was given. The pattern of the conference was thus defined and I was then able to present my paper.

The various chairmen were all brief in their addresses but, inevitably, used up about 20 to 25 minutes of the session time (09.30 to 11.30 – 2 hrs between 4 people). The 30 minutes each, which we thought we were going to have, already was reduced.

1) The first paper, about my experiences in the design and development of undercarriages for LTA aircraft ensued. Lighter-than-air (LTA) Aircraft Undercarriages: The Author’s Experience. Instead of reading the paper, a power point presentation was given (the way most papers were subsequently delivered). This enabled one to speak about the different aspects while the delegates in the audience could focus on the main points and the pictures, which filled my pages. If folks would like a copy of the presentation arrangements can be made, details later.

I believe it made a good paper, covering many different types of undercarriages and the basic theory/logic necessary for their design. It had been my experience that most aircraft engineers I encountered in the LTA sector gave very little thought to the need for an undercarriage, just as most people give very little thought to the care of their feet, so there was a need to highlight the issues. One soon finds out just how important feet are when foot or leg injuries occur and it’s similar for aircraft – immobilised or worse. If attitudes and needs change then, when the LTA industry picks up, the paper may be useful.

2) Jens Ottmann, a student from the Hochschule Bremen (University of Applied Sciences), Germany, quickly followed with his paper about Measurements of Drag/Propulsion Interaction Effects on a Spherical Airship Model. He also was nervous and had been practicing prior to the event to get his English right – his English is sehr gut! I met Jens and his co-authors (Jürgen Bock and Uwe Apel) last at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DGLR – German Organisation for Air and Space Vehicles) workshop in Munich (June 2007). Thoroughly nice people.

Jürgen, now retired, I believe was first known in the LTA sector for his work on the Aereon deltoid lifting body types in the late 1960’s early 70’s (way before my time) and is co-author of the excellent book “Leichter Als Luft, Transport- und Trägersysteme”, ISBN 3-86180-139-6, first published in 2003 by Frankenschwelle KG. He also was a delegate at the conference and it was rather nice to see and talk with him.

Uwe (not at the conference) is a Professor at the Hochschule Bremen (head of research I think), who took over as chairman of the DGLR LTA Committee (S2.3) from Thorsten Lutz – announced at the DGLR workshop. The DGLR in Germany is a similar organisation to the AIAA in the USA. It was good to see that the Hochschule Bremen is active in LTA research of this kind and I look forward to hearing more.

Jens’ paper was well formulated and of importance to the LTA aircraft industry, since it looks at a system that should be adopted for heavy lift purposes in the future. Just a balloon some might say. Nonetheless, it is simple cheap concepts like this, rather than the complex hybrid types (needing considerable sums to develop) that may soon enable heavy lift operations that one can only dream about at the moment. Jens’ paper showed that large spherical balloons could have reduced drag and stabile flight at higher speeds through careful positioning of the thrust units. This work is mirrored at full scale by the spherical motorised balloon systems of 21st Century Airships developed by the Swede, Hokan Colting in Canada, showing their capability at full size.

3) Alexander Hirner (the next speaker), a young research engineer from the Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics (IAG) University of Stuttgart in Germany, promptly followed. His paper on the Improvement of Propulsive Efficiency by a Dedicated Stern Thruster Design, also was an important topic for the LTA industry, since it dispels myths about the benefits, which (whilst small) were shown in his paper to be real, if an airship uses a designed for the purpose thrust unit at the stern. Alexander works with Thorsten Lutz (who didn’t attend the conference) at the IAG, where research in LTA aircraft ensues. Bernd Kröplin, Professor of the Institute of Statics and Dynamics (ISD) at the same university, also is active to advance LTA technology, leading several projects (most notably in the past, Lotte – a solar powered unmanned RC airship with a stern thruster). It was a pleasure to see Alexander’s work being advanced.

4) The last paper of Rajkumar’s session was presented by Silvain Michel of Empa, Duebendorf, Switzerland. This was entitled, Feasability Studies for a Bionic Blimp with a Fish-Like Propulsion System and undertaken in collaboration with Alexander Bormann of Aeroix, Kleinmachnow, Germany; M. Bernasconi, also at Empa; plus M. Zobel and E. Fink, Technical University, Berlin, Germany. I hadn’t met Silvain before but was aware of him and his work. I was pleased to see an articulate advocate with technical know how promoting this. Whilst perhaps not matching the LTA aircraft industry’s capability at the moment, which suffers through extremely poor funding and recognition, this was very interesting research work that shows how things may be developed. This is very important in a world that now recognises the effects of carbon emissions and the need for alternative ways that don’t degrade our environment.

Some of Silvain’s collaborators also were known to me, as I live near Berlin and have had the privilege to meet them in the Technical University (TU) there and to see their work. Alexander presented some of this in later sessions and it is interesting to see how these developments are also progressing. More later!

Mid-day 1. With the first session over at 11.30 punctually there was time to mingle and have lunch before engaging the second session at 13.00. Giles Camplin, my good friend and mentor, the next session chairman (put in at a late stage due to the withdrawal of A Elkins - unknown in the LTA industry to me, but allied to the Joint Warfare Analysis Center, Dahlgren, VA, USA) was down in reception having just arrived with his wife Christine (both active LTA people). This was perfect timing, giving Christine and I time to scoff while Giles was off preparing for the next session. Time, however, marches on, so it was soon back to the 12th floor with the curtains closed and that after lunch soporific feeling after good food and drink.

Giles deserves a word or two here because, although about the age of 3 score years now, he recently finished his PhD thesis and it was accepted, so he is now a Dr of the LTA business. His PhD subject was “Rediscovering the Arcane Science of Ground Handling Large Airships”, which took several years to finally produce with much sifting through archives and critical revue to provide a succinct account. Well done Giles! No doubt his thesis should be the foundation for anyone involved in new large airship developments, to save reinventing what has been done successfully before.

LTA 2. Giles’ session was about Low Altitude Unmanned Airships, a subject that interests many people these days, since they are perceived as a low cost long endurance way to conduct Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations. The problem here however is that they are restricted under civil regulations because of the danger UAVs pose to manned aircraft in the same airspace and to the public at large if things go wrong. On the other hand, military operators care less about such things and do not operate under such exacting requirements in a war zone. Even so, it’s not easy for the military to operate freely outside these zones, when they must comply with normal civil requirements. This therefore is an emerging business that people are trying to develop needing clear regulations to enable progress. The papers of this session were, no doubt, to look at how things are developing.

5) The session opened with a presentation by Rajkumar Pant titled, Design Fabrication and Operation of Low Cost Remotely Controlled Airships. This paper had been brought forward/swapped with a later paper to avoid double booking, where Rajkumar was scheduled to speak on another subject in the ATIO conference at the later time. It appears that the restrictions in flying such types are not as exacting in India (where this work ensues) as Europe or the USA. However, the work also appears to be more for test and development purposes, where flights were conducted safely away from populated areas and away from other aircraft. The paper shows the developments they are making, proving that these types can be easily produced and operated in a cost efficient way.

6) Giles next presenter, Masahiko Onda from Japan, who was scheduled to present a paper titled, Infrastructure Inspection LTA Robot with Cycloidal Propellers, regrettably didn’t attend. This was a shame, as he is a regular attendee at LTA conferences around the world, speaks well and has contributed significantly to LTA development. Also, Cycloidal Propellers, used by some boats (such as tugs), are an interesting concept for LTA aircraft because they should enable rapid thrust vectoring in any radial direction (360°) from a central axis under full power. Their development is therefore very important for the success of the LTA aircraft industry to improve control. Hopefully we will hear more from him on this work in the near future.

7) Rescheduled to the later time, Kimito Tanaka from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tokyo, who is a Senior Researcher in the associated Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics, was the next speaker. His paper was entitled, Studies and Applications for LTA. Kimito gave us a lengthy paper, starting with background history about LTA developments in early times leading to modern day applications. He showed us many aspects of the developments now being undertaken. In particular, he showed us the material tests that have been conducted on several high strength materials: Kevlar, Vectran and Zylon. He also provided examples on the use of airships at high altitude and for carrying out sensitive gravity surveys. In addition, he showed us examples of aerodynamic analysis, modelling and water canal tests undertaken by JAXA. In conclusion, one could say that JAXA have the capability to handle many aspects and to do research necessary for a variety of LTA applications.

8) Whilst Giles had another final speaker scheduled for his session (from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy), regrettably there was nobody at the conference from that group. Their paper, titled, Fuel Cell Electric Power Generation System of an Unmanned Airship, is another important subject about the development of environmentally friendly power systems, which airships may employ most usefully to provide long duration power needs. Hopefully we will hear more about this in the near term. The session was therefore closed, giving us time for a good chin wag before the final session that day.

We hope you enjoyed our second part of our conference coverage. With this commentary we want to make the current research in Lighter Than Air Technology more visible to the public. If you got interested into one of the Papers mentioned above, or if you wrote one of the papers, contact us and we will go into more detail about the projects and research. If you happen to attend a Conference about Airships and Lighter than Air and would like to write a commentary about it, please contact us, since we can not be at every conference we need you as our correspondents. The next conference on the map is the Airships to the Arctic Conference starting this Monday in Winnipeg Canada.