Publications

An archive of research-based publications written by members of ISOPolar about the airship industry.

Cargo Airship Strategy For Northern Canada Report

Cargo Airship Strategy For Northern Canada Report

By Canadian Arctic Innovation Association, arcticinnovation.ca This document focuses on the application of airship technology to address various infrastructure challenges encountered in Northern Canada. Its purpose is to offer readers an informative overview of airships, highlighting their rich history and operations aspects, white also considering the modern advancements in terms of materials, computers, avionics and […]

Sustainable Transportation: Airships Versus Jet Airplanes

Sustainable Transportation: Airships Versus Jet Airplanes

Reference: Prentice, Barry E. and Robert Knotts. “Sustainable Transportation: Airships Versus Jet Airplanes.” Canadian Transportation Research Forum. Proceedings Issue: 51st, Annual Meeting (2016): forthcoming SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION: AIRSHIPS VERSUS JET AIRPLANES Barry E. Prentice, University of Manitoba, and Robert Knotts, Airship Association Introduction The cloud that now surrounds the silver lining of jet airplanes is the […]

Market Potential for Transport Airships in Service to Hong Kong

Market Potential for Transport Airships in Service to Hong Kong

By: Professor Barry E. Prentice and Yui-yip Lau Abstract The airplane carriage of international trade, based on complex supply chains and competition between hub-and-spoke transport operations, has developed steadily over the past 70 years into a mature industry. All this could be subject to disruption by aerospace technology advances that are leading to the development […]

Commitment to Sustainable Transportation

Commitment to Sustainable Transportation

By: Barry E. Prentice, PhD, President, Buoyant Aircraft Systems International Introduction The transportation sector is responsible for approximately 25 percent of all Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Although strenuous efforts have been to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emission, other sectors of the economy find it easier than transport to reduce the use of carbon fuels, […]

Economics of Transport Airships for Food Distribution to Isolated Communities

About 70 percent Canada’s landmass lacks access to all-season road infrastructure. As a result, northern Canada must depend on transportation systems that are high-cost, unreliable, and with service levels that vary seasonally. The lack of low-cost, reliable freight transport service year-round imposes myriad negative impacts on the residents of these regions. For example, the cost […]

Cargo Airships Versus All-Weather Roads – A Cost Comparison

By: Barry Prentice, Nirbir Grewal, Bryce Doell and Matt Adaman This paper will be presented in Halifax, Canada on June 2013 at the upcoming CTRF conference. Introduction Resource companies experience severe logistical challenges operating in Northern Canada. Developments in remote areas face high transportation costs, difficulty moving physically large cargo, and the extreme seasonality of […]

Airship Transport of Minerals – A Vision of the Future

By: Dr. Barry E. Prentice & Dr. Edward Schiller, P.Geol. Mining development in remote areas has many challenges, but the cost of transportation has to be near the top of the list. Transportation infrastructure is expensive to build, particularly where environmental requirements, native land claims and permafrost soils are involved. The distances are long and […]

Airship Fuel Tankers for Northern Resource Development: A Requirements Analysis

Barry E. Prentice, Director, Transport Institute, University of Manitoba and Jim Thomson CA, Consultant, Mercatus Ventures Inc. Introduction Harsh Arctic conditions and the lack of transportation infrastructure frustrate northern development. Without an effective means of getting to market, rich mineral deposits that lay buried beneath the tundra will likely stay there. Ground based transportation in […]

Competing Technologies And Economic Opportunities For Northern Logistics: The Airship Solution

Barry E. Prentice, Supply Chain Management, University of Manitoba, and Stuart Russell, Braden Burry Expediting (BBE) Introduction Economic development in Northern Canada is constrained by the cost of transportation and logistics. The limited transportation options available increase the direct costs of shipping and add to the indirect costs of inventories. Concerns about climate change impacts, […]

Economics of Airships for Northern Re-supply

Barry E. Prentice, PhD, Director, Transport Institute, University of Manitoba, and Jim Thomson, CA, President, Mercatus Ventures Inc. Introduction Canadian society places a high value on the equity of access to basic services and the elimination of regional disparities. In the urban centres and more densely populated parts of rural Canada, where transportation and logistics […]

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