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.

We have confirmation. Zeppelins over London this year

Coincidence or perfectly planned PR we don't know but it was exactly one year ago when we released an Article called Zeppelin over London in 2008 and today we got the confirmation that the Zeppelin will actually come to London this year. The Times online just released the following article: Zeppelins to make tourist flights over London. The article confirms everything that we had been reporting on last April. As stated in our article Airshipventures on the rise Rory Laing, a former contestant of The Apprentice is the promoter of the tours. So check out the current Times Online article for all the information.

Public Lecture on LTA in North Somerset Council, UK

Charles Luffman form LTA Solutions who is a regular contributer to the blog is holding a public lecture on "Lighter-than-air (LTA) Aircraft Technology" at the The Campus Library in Weston-super-Mare,UK on Tuesday 8 April 2008 at: 19:00 (7 pm). You can see the full invitation below. Also follow this link for driving directions through Google Maps. Let us know if you want to attend and we will make sure that you are kept up to date on any changes that might occur.

The Invitation to the Public Lecture:
Lighter-than-air (LTA) Aircraft Technology

Read this doc on Scribd: Lighter-than-air (LTA) Aircraft Technology
Lighter-than-air (LTA) Aircraft Technology Charles R Luffman, Aeronautical Engineer, Specialist in LTA Structures, LTA Solutions Limited. LTA technology, largely overlooked these days, covers those giant aircraft that primarily use aerostatic lift (buoyancy) to remain airborne instead of aerodynamic lift, as used by aeroplanes and helicopters. The vehicle types involved include: • • • • Airships and Dirigible Balloon Systems – Rigid, Semi-rigid and Non-rigid (Blimps) Free balloons Tethered aerostats (Barrage Balloons, Joy Ride systems, Mobile Platforms, High Reach) Hybrids – Liftin

The Varialift Airship - a progress update

The Varialift Airship is a new concept for an Airship with a variable lift system, developed and invented by Alan Handley. The variable lift, will make ground handling of this airship a lot easier. We first reported about Varialift back in April 2007 with the Varialift Website announcement and a look at his Varialift patent application today we get the chance to give you a little update as to what has been going on. Mr Handley was so kind and shared this press release with us.

Varialift Airships

The development of the varialift principle has taken a new step forward in recent weeks with the start of construction of two varialift units for proof of concept and test purposes.

The units would form part of a number of units running the length of the airship that will have variable lift capability plus load trimming for the aircraft.

The announcement was made at the Fourth International Symposium “Making it Happen” in Winnipeg Canada on October 31st 2007 during a presentation by Alan Handley CEO of Varialift Airships

The presentation illustrated how the units work and how by using them heavy lift up to 1000 tonnes is possible for cargo carrying over long and short haul flights.

This is the last part of a five year development program of the concept this has included not only the formulation of the aircraft and mathematical modelling but also the IP protection by international Patent Applications

The airship will be constructed entirely of aluminum and the picture below shows the very first section being manufactured.

Further information on the website www.varialift.com

Mr Handley also shared two pictures with us showing "the first top section being tested for self support (A total of 10 will be required)." Enjoy and click on the images to get a bigger version.

New Hybrid Airship Research Project - Memories of the Skykitten and the P-791

Chris Jisi from the Airship-list posted a link to a very interesting Article talking about a hybrid airship research Project at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Dr Fehmi Cirak, a lecturer in structural engineering at Cambridge, is leading the research. He specialises in computational research to develop models and algorithms for structures and fluids that, for this project, will simulate all the factors that affect the airship's dynamic behaviour.

'Our job will be computational modelling. In this and most other industries, people are moving away more and more from doing experiments and building prototypes. we basically want to accomplish the entire design process on the computer,' said Cirak.

Ok sounds interesting but nothing spectacular. The article continues with:

The project will use data gathered from a 40m-long prototype hybrid airship to improve the design of subsequent larger vehicles.

And further down comes an even more interesting piece:

'Imagine an inflated doughnut, with a large fan in the centre. It can either blow or suck air, allowing the vehicle to hover like a hovercraft or to grip to the ground after landing.' This means the airship can be pulled to the ground on landing or pushed away on take-off.

The only hybrid airships who have an aircusion landing system are the Skycat by Roger Munk which was never built only a small scale version called Skykitten was built, or the Skunk Works/Lockheed Martin P-791 prototype.
The Skykitten with a length of roughly 15m as far as I know could not have been the prototype they are talking about so it must be the Skunkworks P-791 which provided the data.
We will investigate this further, if you know more let us and the readers know leave your comments or send us an Email.
[Update:] Arnold Nayler from the Airship-List commented on the post by Chris Jisi with the following:

Of interest is who is financing the research? Did you note that the research is in conjunction with Tensys, who worked with ATG on SkyCat and then Lockheed Martin on the P 791 ? I am pretty certain that the funding is not from the UK so maybe it is Lockheed Martin that is behind what must be an expensive piece of work.

A quick look at the Website of Tensys shows even more evidence that there is something going on and that this is more an evolution of what has been done before. Obviously coming back to the first quote of the article, after having helped to build two prototypes, the Skykitten and the P-791 they are now looking into developing the concept furter with the help of computer simulation.

Zeppelin Tourism

The Zeppelin, continues to be one of our top news sources, it seems that there is a never ending stream of news around and about the Zeppelin NT. Today we would like to present a little update that we had just received from Zeppelintours.

John and Ute Christopher of Airship Initiatives tell us that their Zeppelin Tours to Friedrichshafen are going very well. Perhaps the most interesting request so far was from a man in Japan who wanted to take his cat on the flight. (And no, Zeppelin wouldn't permit it.)

They have several accompanied group tours scheduled over the next few months (see below) and as you will see they now offer the option of a three-night stay in Friedrichshafen. There is more new information on the updated website www.zeppelintours.com including a full calendar and prices. Plus lots of new photos and so on.

Forthcoming tours:
These include a 60 minute Zeppelin NT flight of course, and all the extras.

8-10 August - Gold Tour with 2 nights in Friedrichshafen
4-7 September - Platinum Tour with 3 nights in Friedrichshafen

In addition they can arrange flights/tours for individuals, and Zeppelin have confirmed that flights will continue at Friedrichshafen until mid-November.

"Hopefully by 2008 we will also be able to offer flights in Friedrichshafen, San Francisco and in Tokyo!" John says. "Of course the 'big plan' is to get a Zeppelin to London and we are continuing to work on this... I have had several airship flights over London in the past and it is a spectacular place to fly. For the moment you can take a virtual London flight on the website."

So take a look at the expanded and improved website, and if you want to discuss getting up in the Zepp then get in touch with John and Ute at customerservice@zeppelintours.com

Read on in our previous posts about Airship Initatives and Zeppelintours as well as about the Zeppelin, for more information.

Skycat group in adminsitration

Trevor Monk reported on thE Airship-list that the Skycatgroup is in administration. Which can also be read on their Website:

Steve Akers and Daniel Smith of Grant Thornton UK LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of SkyCat Group Limited on Monday 25 June 2007.

The Administrators are currently assessing the position of the businesses and can be contacted at:

Grant Thornton UK LLP
Grant Thornton House
Melton Street
Euston Square
London
NW1 2EP

Tel: +44 (0)870 991 2417

The Skycatgroup just recently bought assets from the Advanced Technologgies Group, which went out of business, we have reported in may about the new Skycatgroup Website, everyone was hoping that the Skycat, a new hybrid airship concept would finally be built. But the announcement of a court filing by Lockheed Martin against Roger Munk and Skycatgroup probably put a quick end to the newly started company. Of course this is speculation, we have no contact with the Skycat group or Roger Munk and thus don't know more. I believe the Skycat is still not dead. But it doesn't seem to fly soon. If you have more infos for us, send them to us or add comments to this post. As soon as we know more, we will be posting here on the blog.

Skycat is back once again

Some might remember the Advanced Technologgies Group (ATG) the seemed to have gone out of business for quite a while. But they are back or let's say the people behind their products are back with a new site a new company, new funding and new products. First the company, it's SGL the SkyCat Group Limited, which bought the assets of ATG. Their company name has the landmark project in it which is the SkyCat, which should make it's maiden voyage with a world tour in 2008 according to World SkyCat Ltd. But they also have an old successful ATG product in their lineup the well known AT-10 developed by Roger Munk in the 80's and 90's. But this is not everything, brand new in the lineup there is the AT-10 plus which is the stretched version of the AT-10 able to carry up to 12 passengers which brings it up to par with the Zeppelin NT and the Skyship 600. We are trying to get into contact with them as soon as possible to get more updates but this should be it for today. It's great to see the SkyCat back again on the scene.
For more information about the AT-10 check out the Airship Heritage Trust.
More info on the SkyCat can be found at Aerospace-Technology.

Zeppelin over London in 2008

John Christopher of Airshipinitiatives just released the following news that I would also like to republish:

We can confirm that plans for a Zeppelin NT to operate over London during 2008 are being finalised.

At present the 3-4 week stay for the Zeppelin (probably 003 if 004 is not ready in time) is still under negotiation and remains subject to permissions being granted by the various authorities. This includes Health and Safety who are expected to reach a decision next week on the airship operating from the open ground at Blackheath (incidentally a former airfield).

A final go-ahead for the 2008 visit is expected by the Autumn.

This is great news for Airship fans in the UK, I personally look forward to some great pictures of the Zeppelin and the Big Ben, and other sights in London. Signup Forms will be avaialable shortly at Airshipinitiatives as soon as we have more information about that we will report it.

Varialift Airships

Tonight we are announcing the launch of a new website, for a new airship company called Varialift, it's a rigid-airship concept, for a freight airship, that doesn't need a large ground crew to handle cause it has, as the name suggests variable lift. On the ground it is heavier than air and with it's variable buoyancy units becomes lighter-than-air to take off. It's a great concept and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Check out the new Website http://www.varialift.com/. Of course we will keep you updated, on the going ons with this project. Please also give Mister A. Handley a feedback on his website.