Rebecca Cairns, CNN The smooth, white underbelly of the airborne whale sails across the sky, casting a shadow across the forest below. Other than its enormous size, though, this “whale” has very little to do with its animal namesake. It’s an airship, and French aeronautics company Flying Whales hopes its hybrid-electric, helium-lift vessel will change […]
Airships have yet to reemerge as commercial transport, despite their numerous ecological, humanitarian, security, and business applications. A barrier for some business models is the regulation of lifting gasses. Regulations in many countries require airships to use helium to generate vertical movement, or lift. As supplies diminish, helium gas has become dramatically more expensive. When […]
The first two posts in this series have described airship markets in general, and intercontinental shipping, emphasizing the scale of the opportunity. With that in view, we have two key messages for potential investors in airship ventures. The first is that high returns will come not from building airships per se, but from staking claims […]
Post 1 in this series highlighted evidence that the world is on the verge of a giant airship renaissance. It stressed the wide range of market applications that make this an exciting investment opportunity. Here we drill down on intercontinental shipping where the potential demand is dramatic. An earlier post, “Airships in Intercontinental Shipping: The […]
This commentary by Barry Prentice examines the viability of cargo airships to address the northern transportation puzzle. By Barry Prentice ~ macdonaldlaurier.ca “If cargo airships are such a good idea for the North, why aren’t the skies filled with them?” This question was posed to me by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute a few months ago. It […]
Green Aviation Future: Electric Airships Wednesday October 19 to Friday October 21, 2022 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Register online at: https://www.aviationinnovations.info/ Conference Hotel Booking at: https://www.aviationinnovations.info/hotel-travel-info Time is slipping away. Governments have agreed to a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035, but climate change is not waiting. Floods, droughts, heat waves and violent storms are […]
A University of Manitoba professor has worked for more than 20 years trying to prove the viability of lighter-than-air vehicles as cargo-delivering workhorses in Northern Manitoba and other regions where there are remote communities with limited transportation options. Ian Graham ~ Thompson Citizen / Nickel Belt News A local cold-weather testing booster and a long-time […]
After decades of disappointment, the freight and passenger airship industry may finally be approaching takeoff. At the time of writing, here is the latest news. Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), in Great Britain, has a buyer for its Airlander 10 hybrid airship. The Spanish airline Air Nostrum wants to buy ten of them. HAV built a prototype […]
Québec investit 55 millions de dollars dans un projet audacieux de transport de machinerie lourde dans le Grand Nord québécois. ANDRÉ DUBUC ~ LA PRESSE Par l’intermédiaire d’Investissement Québec (IQ), la province injecte 25 millions d’euros dans le capital-actions de Flying Whales et 15 millions d’euros dans celui de sa filiale Les dirigeables Flying Whales […]
Por DIARIO DE ZARAGOZA – Zaragoza El presidente de Aragón, Javier Lambán, y el presidente de Sceye, Mikkel Vestergaard, han anunciado la instalación en el aeropuerto de Teruel del primer estratopuerto de España y de los primeros de Europa, desde el que operarán aeronaves estratosféricas, aquellas que actúan a unos 20 kilómetros de la Tierra, […]
