Guardian article about airships - and I am in it.

© the guardian

It's only a small mention, but I am in an article that appears in todays guardian a UK newspaper.
This is the third article in the guardian within the last 4 weeks that features airships, which shows that they are experiencing a big comeback. Which is good for our industry as a whole. So take a look at the article called New generation of 'hybrid airships'.

The link points to an Indian Newspaper that already featured the article tonight. So jump over to the Hindu and read the article, then come back to the Blog and let me know what you think about it. Post your comments and feedback to the article at the Blog and share your thoughts in our Forum. If you haven't yet subscribed to our blog go ahead it's free. Subscribe and you will get the latest airship news delivered directly to you as we publish them.

[UPDATE] With the new day just having started the Guardian has updated their website now also featuring the Article with the title Could Zeppelin's airships soon be gracing our skies again? if you want to read it on paper get a copy of the Guardian from June 05 2008 and flip to page 6 of the Technology news & features section.

Airship news round up

We are from Vacation and starting to clear the tubes a bit, so tonight we are bringing you a few stories that surfaced in the last few weeks, some might not be really current as of today but just for completeness we try to cover everything we can find. Check back regularly since we are going to publish quite a bit over the weekend.

1. Sanswire's airship comms platform looks like a bag of hot air
   This first item talks about Sanswire and their airship concept, summing up the history from 2004 till today. To me it's not clear if Sanswire is still in Business or not i have not checked their website since our post about the LA County Sheriffs to levy and seize Globetel's Stratellite Airship
   
2. The Aeros 40D S/N 40D-21 Sky Dragon airship gondola roll-out
   As you might guess from the Title of the second article this one talks about Aeros who created quite some press with their Aeroscraft in the last few weeks. But this article speaks about their more down to earth already existing Aeros 40D Sky Dragon and the Gondola that was built for the next model. All critizism aside, that Aeros might have faced, they have a certified airship and they are producing, which is something you can say of very few Airship companies nowadays.
   
3. That Blimp Rarer Than You Imagine
   This article talks about the Horizon Blimp that is flying around in New Jersey. What I found interesting about this article is what can only be read between the lines. There is currently no passenger service on any airship in US skies. You can not buy a ticket anywhere. But this is what Brian and Alexandra Hall from Airshipventures are going to do, the certification of the Zeppelin NT is on it's way, the Airship is built in Friedrichshaefn right now, so 2008 seems to become a very interesting year for Airships, maybe in a few year we are not talking 10 or 20 airships worldwide but more than 50. The demand is there they just need to get built.
   

Metlife puts "Snoopy Three" Blimp into service

Following hot on the heels of yesterdays video of the Metlife Blimp comes a story from Business Wire that Metlife is putting their third Blimp into service. It's called "Snoopy Three" a

A-150+ model blimp, which is 165 feet long, 46 feet wide, and 55 feet tall – with a gondola that can accommodate the pilot plus nine passengers. The blimp is significantly larger than Snoopy One and Snoopy Two which are A-60+ models, with a passenger capacity of three passengers plus one pilot.

The new blimp will fly throughout August until October 2007 handeling the extended blimp schedule and supporting the other two blimps "Snoopy One" and "Snoopy Two" during the celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the MetLife Blimp Program.

Links:

• Yesterdays Post with a video of the Metlife Blimp
• Post about the Metlife Blimp with links to the Website and background information
• Buiness Wire Article about the Metlife Blimp No. 3

The Goodyear Blimp makes the news.

The last few days have been quite packed with Goodyear Blimp news, this post tries to sum them up and give a short overview about what is going on with it.

June 25th

James from Googlesightseeing blogged about the Goodyear Blimp appearances on Google Maps and Google earth. Go to Googlesightseeing for the pictures and direct links to Google Maps.

July 22nd

Bob Collins, posted two very nice pictures of the Goodyear Blimp on his Blog Stirrings from the empty nest.

July 26th

Newswatch 50 reported about the Goodyear Blimps stop at the Watertown Airport which will be on Wednesday August 1st.

Flysouth Aviation News Africa had an Article about the Goodyear blimps stop at Airventure in Oshkosh last week also containing a picture of the blimp.

July 27th

"I'm a Cuckoo" posted on her MySpace page that she had seen the Goodyear Blimp over Arcata, California.

JR posted took picture of the Goodyear Blimp while it was flying over his golf course. Check it out at noded.com.

The Aero-News Network released an article about the Spirit Of Goodyear Blimp and it's return to Oshkosh.

July 28th

The Aero News network released a nice 4 minute video documentary about the Goodyear blimp. It includes and Interview with one of the pilots Matthew St. John.

July 30th

The Washington post just released a very nice article about the flight of a contest winner in the Goodyear Blimp.

The Goodyear blimp is also featured in the current advertising campaign with the slogan "Get There" which you can check out on the web. There are two video ads that feature the blimp. Having so much news coverage in such a short time, shows how impressive the public awareness is when an airship flies over their heads. There were even more blog posts and articles in the last few weeks. If you think we have missed a very important article or if you want us to report about your airship sighting, project or venture just email us or leave a comment.

Dan Nachbar's and Michael Kuehlmuss Personal Blimp "Alberto"

We are continuing our hot-airship coverage with some news about Dan Nachbars Personal Blimp. The first good news is that Alberto got the allowance to transport passengers. So Dan and Mike, can take passengers with them. Here is what Dan posted on his mailing list:

Greeting all.

After nine months of waiting, the FAA has finally said "YES" to the request that Mike Kuehlmuss (my cobuilder) and I be allowed to take passengers in Alberto, the Personal Blimp! Getting rid of this stumbling block is a big step forward.

To be clear, we could have taken passengers in Alberto long ago if Mike and I were willing to go through the technically required but utterly pointless exercise of obtaining an "airship" pilot's rating. But before doing such a nonsensical thing, we decided to ask the FAA to do be reasonable. And now they have.

START OF LONG BUREAUCRATIC EXPLANATION. SKIP BELOW IF BORED OR BUSY

This entire exercise in bureaucratic fiddling about was necessary because the FAA lumps all aircraft into a one of several "classes" -- e.g. airplane, helicopter, balloon, and so forth. In order to take passengers, a pilot must have a rating that matches the class of the particular aircraft being flown. (Pilots are permitted to fly so-called "experimental" aircraft -- such as Alberto -- without a matching rating so long as nobody else is onboard. The FAA is reasonably open-minded about killing oneself but not others.)

Alberto falls into the class labeled "airships". Things classified as "airship" are distinct from those in the class "balloon" in that airships have a motor and can be steered. But, the fact is that Alberto behaves much more like a balloon than an airship. Unfortunately, the classification scheme is not terribly subtle. So Alberto has the bad luck of falling into the wrong classification box.

In particular, because almost all other airships have pressurized gas bags and use Helium rather than hot air, the training syllabus and testing rules for the "airship" rating are focused largely on pressurization and Helium. Perhaps if our technology becomes more prevalent someday, the FAA will change the airship rating. But, for the present, it is pretty irrelevant to Alberto.

We pointed out the disparity to the FAA. In particular, we pointed out that Mike and I both have hot air balloon ratings and ratings in powered aircraft. We showed why we think the combination of those two ratings is better preparation for flying Alberto than an airship rating. After mulling it over for nine months, the FAA agreed with us.

END OF LONG BUREAUCRATIC EXPLANATION -- SKIP TO HERE

As luck would have it, we won't be able to take advantage of our newly granted status right away. Mike is already on the road to the gigantic airshow in Oshkosh, WI for the week. I'm heading out that way in a few days. (We are giving a talk on our project this Saturday at 2:30 if you happen to be attending the show.) When we get back around the end of the month, we'll start taking people for rides. What a treat!

In the meantime, we expect to have a bit more press coverage. In particular, The Boston Globe will be running a story on us in their Business section and on their news website in the next few days. Several other national news outlets are working on stories as well.

Regards,
Dan Nachbar

So we will keep our eyes open for them, here is already the first story from the Boston Globe, talking about the project and it's fathers. Read the full Boston Globe article and watch the high quality Video which contains some great footage of the airship. Showing some of the inside of the envelope and the patented aluminum tubing giving Alberto it's structure to which the motor and the fins are attached.

Lockheed Martins HAA (High Altitude Airship) might not get finished

There has been an article by Reuters, today, that I at first didn't want to talk about but after Thomas A.Frank at the Airship-list was the second source to talk about this I thought it's might be worth mentioning. So to the Article, it was called "U.S. cruise missile defence said possible in 14 months" It talks about Lockheed lobbying for a program to defend against missiles. Part of this system should have been the High Altitude Airship [HAA] as a surveillance platform. The article states:

...
The company had high hopes for its $148 million High Altitude Airship program, for airships priced at just under $40 million apiece that can hover and monitor a 500-square-mile area for about two months.

But the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency cut the program's budget sharply in fiscal year 2007 and requested no funding at all for 2008. Lockheed convinced lawmakers to reinstate the 2007 funds, and there is an amendment to provide a small sum in 2008, but the program's outlook is grim at this point.

Christopher Bolkcom, defence specialist at the Congressional Research Service, said cruise missiles were difficult to track and that Lockheed's forecast about deploying a wide-area defence was "optimistic."

Bolkcom said U.S. policymakers had likely done "the mental calculus that it's too expensive, too hard, on the one hand, and the threat is not big enough to justify it, on the other."
...

It's clearly understandable why Lockheed is trying to push the project and get Governmental Funding, because there is a lot of money behind it. But as the article says, the threat against the US-Coastline is probably not big enough to fund such an expensive project. As the article states further on:

...
The U.S. military has plans to protect troops, ships and overseas bases from cruise missile attacks, but it has no plan and no budget to protect the U.S. coastline, Kueter said.
...

So it seems that Lockheed is facing the same problems many Airship Development projects are facing and this problem is missing funding. The full article can be read at Reuters.com

What are your ideas and thoughts on how to finance an airship development project, what are the costly parts in an airship construction, and where can the most money be saved. How much does the helium cost, and how do you use it best? Send us your comments either by posting it in the comments section below this post or send us an email to airshipworld@gmail.com or post on the Wiki at http://airshipworld.wetpaint.com/, if you do not have an account yet, sign up here and get yourself an account.

• You can read more about Lockheed Martin in our previous posts.

Airshipventures brings the Zeppelin to the US

Yesterday CNet released an article about Airship Ventures, we have talked about them before. The company run by Alexandra and Brian Hall is planning to get a Zeppelin NT to the US and make tourist flights as well as other missions with it in the San Fransisco Bay Area. To read the full article go to CNet.com. This announcement was made unofficially in a report given at Ester Dysons Flight School. Airship Ventures has not yet issued an official press release or made an announcement of that kind. But this is planned once talks with investors are sorted out and many of the questions raised in the article will be answered at that time. We are in very close contact with Airship Ventures and know that this is a serious business done by professionals. Talks with Zeppelin are on the way and according to Bruce Blake of the Airship-list the FAA approval of the Zeppelin NT is progressing,

a recent meeting (ZLT + FAA) in Cologne was successfully completed. Acceptance of the Type in the USA is anticipated by the end of Summer'07.

Airship Ventures also went live with their new company website, which is run in parallel to the Blog. It's definitely worth a look and gives a lot more of insight information. For those in the industry the "Careers" page is worth bookmarking. For people interested in flying with the Zeppelin the "How to buy a Ticket" site is useful. Make sure to check back here at our Blog for more updates about Airship Ventures in the following weeks. If you haven't yet subscribed to the Blog you can do this either via email, to get updates delivered right into your inbox or you can subscribe to our RSS Feed, and read it in you aggregator. If you don't have an aggregator yet, check out Bloglines for example.

1st International Airship Investors Conference - Update for May 2007

I would like to share some informations with you, about the current going ons around the 1st International Airship Investors Conference. In the last month we have gotten together and are taking up speed with the organization. After Paul, investigated South Africa as a location it turned out not to be the ideal place, because of different reasons. So we were looking for a new Location somewhere in the world where it is easy to get to and came to the conclusion to move the conference to Berlin, Germany. Germany has a great history with airships and seemed to be a good choice on first sight, but then we found out that in 2008 there is also the ILA in Berlin which is a great forum for the conference since the Berlin Air Show is one of the biggest Aviation trade fairs of the world. So the IAIC is planed to be in parallel to the Berlin Air Show ILA2008 which is in the time range of May 27th to June 1st 2008. We are still working out details but wanted to communicate this. We will also launch a special page where we will put more information about speaker, sign-up possibilities and lot's more. If you are interested in the Conference want to attend it or learn more information about it, please contact us via our email address which can be found in the upper left corner of the blog.
To further plan the conference we are meeting in Munich, Germany on June 16th parallel to the RC-Controlled Blimps Regatta at the Technische Universität München. Expect more updates after this meeting.

Navy MZ3A Airship #167811 continues operations amidst "tight" funding. [by Rick Zitarosa]

Navy MZ3A airship #167811 was up all day Saturday, providing a surprise visit to crowds on the boardwalks and "early bird" sunbathers at nearby beaches who were enjoying the first real "hot" day of Spring.

About ready to mark one full year since the first flight, the airship is undergoing mandatory Annual Maintenance Revue this week and is expected to return to the air early next week.

Meanwhile, funding for the airship to continue operating beyond June is a mounting concern. As little as the MZ3A project costs (about $5million per year for the entire operation) there is very little money to go around.

With $250million a day being spent on Iraq, every nook and cranny of the armed forces is being stripped of anything beyond bare funding. The MZ3A's role as a test, training and proof-of-concept vehicle for various promising airborne systems and operations notwithstanding, it remains to be seen whether the proponents of LTA can win continued funding.

One thing the airship has got going for it is a good operating record, the fact that it is already established inventory and the fact that from scratch the Navy people have created the only operational, fully-compliant current-military-standard LTA operation anywhere in the world with everything from tool/hardware inventory to Operational Risk Matrix appropriately documented, codified, quantified, etc.

The next few months should be interesting.

Rick

Thanks to Rick Zitarosa for this news item from the colorado Airship-list

Airshipworld Yahoo Group and new X Prize Challenge

Well I guess it has been a pretty quiet day on the Interweb when it comes to airship news. So I decided to tweak the Blog a bit to make it look a little bit more modern. Tell me if you like it or not. So I also added a Link list to the Sidebar which will contain Links that I recommend to check out. If I mention a Website of interest I will most likely put it into the Recommended links, also, when it has any long term value and is not just a news topic.
So the first link there is to the Airshipworld Yahoo Group this Yahoo Group is dedicated to the upcoming International Airship Investors' Conference in Cape Town which I blogged about before. It currently has 124 Members and is quite active. Right now this blog is not yet officially affiliated with this group but this might happen soon. I will blog about it as soon as there are news available.
There was a post in this Group today by a Guy called Grant Morgan he wrote about that the X-Prize people are looking for new prize goals and pointed out that Airships or the advantages of Airships could be made a challenge, speaking of like fuel efficient transport to remote locations. I think that this is a brilliant Idea. The Same post was made on a Blog called Current Airships which I assume is his blog, which is also available in the "Recommended Links" list on the Sidebar.
The quest for new challenges of the X-Prize is set up as a contest by Zannel.com you can read more about the idea behind the contenst in a Blogpost called "The X PRIZE's Participatory Video Contest" from the WorldChanging Website.
That's all for today, please leave feedback in the comments and if you haven't already, sign up for the Yahoo Group. An Email adres for the blog will be available shortly. All that's left to say is, till tomorrow.

Airshipworld Website and News Roundup

Well thing are progressing, so a new Website has been registered today which will be the Information hub about Airships and the upcoming First International Airship Investors Conference(IAIC) in Cape Town, South Africa, to be held from January 15th-17th 2008. The Website is not online yet so linking to it doesn't really make sense, but as soon as there is more information available I will post it here.
Since there isn't really an Airship News website out there I will try to collect some interesting Links and news about Airships, Blimps and LTA Research everyday. Today I have two interesting things, both more fiction than reality but still.

Extreme resorts: Airship hotel brings a touch of 1930s glamour to the skies
The first Item is from FX Magazine a british design Magazine, they released an article about a flying hotel which of course is going to be an airship. The article has some quite inspiring computer renderings in it, and maybe we hear about this airship called Clipper again, it's presumably designed by a guy called Seymour Powell.

The Captain Mors Page
The next newsitem for today is a small website dedicated to the German Dime-Novel series Der Luftpirat und sein Lenkbares Luftschiff. ["The Pirate of the Air and his Navigable Airship."], also known as Kapitän Mors der Luftpirat. The series was published from 1908-11 it's interesting to see the images and sketches of the airship in this novel, but it's sience-fiction even today almost 100 years later, quite unbelievable, we flew to the moon but having airships cruise the sky is still a dream.


So this is it for todays news Items any comments on the blog would be greatly appreciated. Also if you have news that hasn't been covered here, please leave a comment on the blog, in a few days I will have set up an email adress for the blog to contact me. See you again tomorrow same place, same time.