RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Last race and final results

And here it is the final Race of the 2009 RC Airship Regatta. The airship Iris build and flown by Johannes Eißing the organizer and initiator of the RC Airship Regatta.
Iris - Race 7 - Regatta March 2009

With 81,33 s Iris placed 4th after the blazing fast D11 the loud Adele and the proven Centriolo. After the official race Adele was flown two more times and the flights were also included in the ranking, it clearly shows that the pilots skills also play an important role in the race. Here now the complete ranking after all races.

Airship	Pilot	Lap 1	Lap 2	Lap3	Sum	Rank
D11	Carsten Seltz	16,79	12,98	13,90	43,66	1
Adele	Tim Schaller	22,29	26,34	24,69	73,32	2
Centriolo	Dominik Baumüller	25,63	22,14	25,58	73,36	3
Iris	Johannes Eißing	29,36	25,14	26,83	81,33	4
Adele	Carsten Seltz	27,29	33,20	31,37	91,86	5
Flugwerft Flitzer	Peter Hanickel	37,24	33,46	32,73	103,43	6
Adele	Martin Wähmer	29,80	76,70	45,50	152,00	7
Makrobe	Dominik Baumüller	71,34	38,41	65,68	175,42	8
Roter Graf	Frederik Gester	148,54	103,44	92,85	344,83	9

Here the video of Martin Wähmers race with Adele
Adele - Race 8 - Regatta March 2009

Also we wanted to show you the different sizes of the airships. All dimensions are in meters (1 meter = 3.2808399 feet)

Airship	Length	Width	Height	Block Volume	Scale	Penalty
D11	1,73	0,31	0,32	0,172	0,556	0,745
Adele	1,94	0,60	0,55	0,640	0,862	0,928
Centriolo	2,50	0,62	0,83	1,287	1,088	1,043
Iris	2,00	0,40	0,40	0,320	0,684	0,827
Flugwerft Flitzer	2,62	0,61	0,53	0,847	0,946	0,973
Makrobe	1,50	0,40	0,32	0,192	0,577	0,760
Rote Graf	3,87	1,04	1,10	4,427	1,642	1,281

And here are all the races in one Playlist

To learn more about future races and to get involved yourself, please head over to the RC Airship Regatta Yahoo Group and become a part of the community. Maybe you want to host your own race somewhere in North Amercia or Asia, where ever in the world you are join the RC Airship Regatta Yahoo Group.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Race Number 6

Race 6 is featuring another already familiar airship that is flown again by Dominik Baumüller who already flew Makrobe. This time he flies Centriolo an airship also already seen during last years competition. If you want to see last years flight look here.

Centriolo - Race 6 - Regatta March 2009


Since the airships have all different sizes the actual times of the airships are multiplied with a penalty-factor, this factor is larger the larger the ship is. The reasoning behind this is with a larger ship you have more payload and can attach larger and faster motors, this is not always the case that larger ships are faster but this formula tries to make the race a bit more fair.
With an actual time of 70,34 s and a calculated time of 73,36 s places Centriolo third after Adele even though Centriolo was in fact faster but also larger which shows the effect of the factor.

Ranking after race 6:

1. D11 - 43,66 s
2. Adele - 73,32 s
3. Centriolo - 73,36 s
4. Flugwerft Flitzer - 103,43 s
5. Makrobe - 152,00 s
6. Roter Graf - 344,83 s

Tomorrow we will be presenting the last of the 7 airships making it's race and we will be presenting the complete results table. There were 2 additional races with Adele that will be included in the final results.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Race Number 5

Trying to catch up a little I am posting race 5 and 6 on the same day. This is race 5 the airship is called D11 flown by Carsten Seltz.

D11 - Race 5 - Regatta March 2009


With a time of 43,66 s D11 delivered an impressive performance and was calculated 30 seconds faster than the larger Adele with 73,32 s.

Ranking after race 5:

1. D11 - 43,66 s
2. Adele - 73,32 s
3. Flugwerft Flitzer - 103,43 s
4. Makrobe - 152,00 s
5. Roter Graf - 344,83 s

Check back later today for race number 6.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Race Number 4

Even though the spammers are annoying me by spamming the mailing list it doesn't stop me from posting yet another Race of the 2009 RC Airship Regatta.
Presenting by far the largest airship in this years Regatta the Red Count (Roter Graf) with almost 4 meter length flown by Frederik Gester.

Roter Graf - Race 4 - Regatta March 2009


The time of the Red Count was not the quickest with 344,83 s this was mainly due to the fact of engine and control problems that were not fixable before the race. Because of that this airship places last in the current ranking.

1. Adele - 73,32 s
2. Flugwerft Flitzer - 103,43 s
3. Makrobe - 152,00 s
4. Roter Graf - 344,83 s

There are three more races left and I promise they will shake up the ranking a bit so stay tuned and check back tomorrow.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Race Number 3

Continuing the RC Airship Regatta coverage we bring you the third race today. The airship is called Adele flown by Tim Schaller. Make sure to have sound on because this airship has a very distinctive sound.

Adele - Race 3 - Regatta March 2009


Adeles time was a speedy 73,32 s moving to the top position after the race.

Ranking after Race 3

1. Adele - 73,32 s
2. Flugwerft Flitzer - 103,43 s
3. Makrobe - 152,00 s

Check back tomorrow to see if the next contestant can beat Adeles time.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Race Number 2

Today we bring you race two of the 2009 RC Airship Regatta it is Makrobe flown by Dominik Baumüller. If you remember the 2008 RC Airship Regatta in Munich there was a similar ship called Mikrobe also built and flown by Dominik Baumüller, the 2009 ship is called Makrobe because it is bigger than last years Mikrobe. Enjoy the race!

Makrobe - Race 2 - Regatta March 2009


Makrobe came in with a calculated time of 152,00 s compared to the Race 1 of Flugwerft Flitzer which came in at 103,43 s the ranking is now as follows

1. Flugwerft Flitzer
2. Makrobe

So stay tuned for the next race tomorrow.

Have a look at the RC Airship Regatta Yahoo Group, if you want to learn more about the airships and how you can build your own airship, too.

RC Airship Regatta 2009 - Videos and Results

A few weeks ago during the DGLR Workshop XI in Friedrichshafen was another RC Airship Regatta. Starting today we will bring you each race in it's own post over the next few days and then ending with the results and a play list with the airships in the result order. The first race was by the airship called "Flugwerft Flitzer" flown by Peter Hanickel, enjoy.
Flugwerft Flitzer - Race 1 - Regatta March 2009

Currently the RC-Airship Regatta is a mainly German event but it would be great if people from around the world would start hosting races too. Join the RC-Airship Regatta Yahoo Group if you are interested. The next chance to see the airships will be in Torino, Italy at the World Air Games 2009. The Event is from the 6th to the 14th of June and the airships will fly at the Indoor Aeromusicals during intermission.

Remote Controlled Blimps - suddenly see more

A few days back we talked about a Company called Altitude-Attitude and their remote controlled camera blimp. Besides using them for filming events they can also be used to reach places where the normal human eye wouldn't get to so easily for example to inspect an old buildings structure. Everywhere were you would need a scaffold to inspect something or where places are hard to reach a blimp can help giving you eyes in the sky and you suddenly see more that you did before. check out this video of the Altitude Attitude blimp flying in a church.

altitude-attitude.com Expertise technique

Blimps can be used indoor as well as outdoor. The Swiss company MiniZepp has a number of outdoor RC-Blimps capable of flying effortlessly to 150 m high. Check out this video of a flight with an HD Camera mounted underneath the blimp.

minizepp minizepp 7m electric powered rc blimp
Uploaded by minizepp

But lighter-than-air systems don't only have to be used with traditional cameras MiniZepp demonstrated the usage of an infrared camera for aerial thermography on a tethered balloon, completely silent without noise or pollution, quickly setup and ready to use.

infra red aerial thermography with tethered balloon
Uploaded by minizepp

The market for small airships being used for aerial imaging and advertising is growing but this is not the only market. AirshipSurveillance has been very successful in the security and defense market. So let's look forward to the future right now it seems very bright for any kind of airships.

One last thing, is a quick follow-up. I have updated the post "Believe in Tomorrow Children's Foundation - Blimp Video" some might have noticed that the first video didn't work, this happened because the video was taken down for re-editing and is now back up. So if you missed it before check it out now.

Let's have some Altitude-Attitude

© Altitude-Attitude

You have probably seen those big camera cranes that are used in movie and TV productions to provide aerial shots. Some are up to 100ft high but what if you want to go 150 ft? Well you either need a bigger crane or you need to fly. Traditional means of flying are planes and helicopters. If you want to shoot at one location a plane is not the right option since it can not hover, a helicopter can. Using a helicopter though has the big disadvantage of a lot of noise, vibrations and the enormous wind the rotor generates downwards, so low altitude and low vibration video shoots aren't possible by using any kind of traditional aircraft. But an airship can solve exactly this problem. It is almost silent, with little to no vibrations, can hover over one spot without costing energy since it is lighter than air and doesn't generate downward wind that might disturb the scene that should be shot. So video airships are a great alternative for aerial filming and photography. The Metlife Blimp for example is filming the PGA Golf tour and provides fantastic footage. Check out this clip from the PGA Tour to get an impression. But such a big Airship can only be used outside and might actually be to big if you just want to shoot a small scene, especially at low altitude. Which leaves room for small remote controlled blimps and airships that are equipped with a camera. One company that offers these services is Altitude-Attitude, a Belgian company focusing on aerial photo and video production. They have already done quite a few projects with their camera equipped blimp. Besides having more freedom of movement in the three dimensional space a small airship also doesn't need to be set up extensively like a crane. It can arrive on site, maybe has to be filled with helium and can start flying. By using a wireless video transmitter the airship can even deliver live aerial video. Check out these YouTube Videos to see the blimp in action or go to the Altitude-Attitude Website and check out their galleries.

altitude-attitude.com Belgacom christmas party Théâtre de la


altitude-attitude.com clip demo dirigeable


altitude-attitude.com video blimp in Macau

What do you think about remote controlled video airships. Should they be used more often? We believe there is a market for those airships, allowing directors new creative and innovative ways of filming from perspectives that are simply not possible with a crane. Leave a comment on the blog share your thoughts in the Forum or on the Mailinglist. Subscribe to the blog and spread the word, tell your friends about airships and Airshipworld, let's create something great.

Airship Surveillance - development continues

Airship Surveillance is continuing to make the news, since our last post on march 26th they have released two additional press releases. The first one called "Airship Surveillance Opens Its Doors for Client Inspection" and the second one called "Airship Surveillance Advances Test Flight Program". The first release really just talks about prospective Clients visiting the company. The latest press release about the test flight program is quite interesting and talks about new tests with ducted fans for precision handling. This can be seen in the latest video Airship Surveillance released on YouTube. The video does not seem unusal at first but notice the thrusters on the nose of the airship.

R&D1 Bow Thruster Tests

This is the key part of the press release:

The latest series of tests focused on the airship's flight handling characteristics. Using a combination of ducted fans coupled with improved aerodynamic surfaces, R&D1 demonstrated precise handling in a crosswind environment. These very positive results have enabled the Company to make significant progress in its goal to deliver the first production model airship (L2) by late spring 2008.

"The test flight program is focused on the development of several key, enabling technologies and the incorporation of these technologies into the airship's flight control system, ground control station, and autopilot. The speedy advance of the program means we are on schedule with key elements of the program and actually ahead of schedule overall," stated Sandy Mangold of Airship Surveillance. He continued, "Programming of the base control system is essentially complete and we are now preparing to concentrate on refining the autopilot system. This system will permit autonomous flight, once we have established operations within restricted airspace. Truly, these are exciting times."

It's great to see Airship Surveillance making constant progress and we wish them well so that they have continued success with their development.

The Airship League

Have you ever thought: "Wouldn't it be cool if more people would be interested in Airships?" If you answered "Yes" then you are like me, if you answered "No" then I guess we have to convince you that it would be cool if more people would be interested. But as a matter of fact Airships are in the minds of people, be it in books or movies. If there is an event, hundreds even thousands of people are coming to an event like the airship parade. But what is keeping airships out of the mainstream. It's that fact that many people do not know what is possible with airships, many think they are gone for good because of the Hindenburg and all that jazz.
But what if there where an organization that would try to a) make airships exciting and b) educate more people about the possibilities and technologies behind airships. And that's where tonights headline starts making sense. The Idea is to create an "Airship League" an open and free (as in beer) organization that helps organizing races and contests around airships, that also hosts educational material about how to construct a remote controlled blimp what to look out for. The Airship League could showcase good successful designs, help educating and connecting children, students, universities, companies and the general public. This is of course some how far fetched and visionary but the idea is to aim high and then see what is realistic. So to gather Ideas we created a page in our Wiki called The Airship League it would be great to get the ideas and the brainstorming going. Please sign up for the Airshipworld Wiki if you haven't done so, yet. We believe that such an organization might help the industry as a whole and get more people interested in airships. Please feel free to add to the Article in the Wiki, add new pages link to existing projects. We believe that just by combining our efforts and joining forces, we can change a lot without having to invest much more than our time that we spend on our own efforts already.

YouTube airship video for the break

Since we have been very busy the last 4 days we didn't really have time to catch up with the current news, this week we will try to catch up, and then trying to empty our queue of older "news" items that might not be so new anymore but still worth mentioning. To report about something different then the Airship parade our reader Allan Janus made our life easy today by pointing out two videos on YouTube that we haven't mentioned yet. The first Video is a video of a little RC-Blimp built by Benjamin Lawless. The video is called: The Lawless Airship

This video reminded me of our coverage of the RC-Airship regatta back in July and Daniel Geerys Hyperblimp. I think it would be cool to have something like a world league of rc-airship races, competing in different classes and styles of races. If you have an idea, or would like to get some people together for a race, post in the comments or send us an email, maybe we can work something out and help organizing such an event. If you want to you can add a page to the Airshipworld Wiki about RC airship races.
The Second Video is a video of the Met Life Blimp flying over Coney Island in 1996

If you want to know more, read our post about the Metlife Blimp with links to their website and detailed informations about the blimp program.

Links:

• 5th Airship parade
• RC-Airship regatta
• Hyperblimp by Daniel Geery
• Airshipworld Wiki
• MetLife blimp making pitstop before crossing Lake Michigan

RC Airship Regatta - official results

So just a quick follow-up article to our previous post about the rc airship regatta 2007. The official results are out here is the list of the airships and their pilots:

1. Iris - Johannes Eißing
2. Centriolo - Dominik Baumüller
3. Dubbel Bubbel 2 (TU München) - Christian Rößler
4. Homer - Phillip Neuhaus
5. Hinkelstein (TU Berlin) - Martin Zobel
6. Kirby (Stuttgart) - Wolfgang Heydlauff
7. Microbe (Beyond Gravity) - Dominik Baumüller
8. LarsPing (TU Berlin) - Martin Zobel
9. Dubbel Bubbel - Gerhard Hattinger
10. EAP-Blimp C20 - EMPA-Erich

To get a even more detailed list with times and sizes, and statistics you can go to the files Section of the rc_airship_regatta Yahoo group under München 2007 you will find the Results labeled "Auswertung_Airship-Race2007_Muenchen.pdf". You can only access these Files if you are a member of the Group, but membership is free so join the group, and tell them that we sent you. Also in the group you can find some additional photos from the event in the Photo Albums under Muenchen DGLR2007.

RC Airship Regatta Munich coverage

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

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

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

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

Hyperblimp an UFO over Salt Lake City

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

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