Experts See Red Flags in Amazon’s Patent for Floating Warehouses

Amazon’s patent for floating warehouses suspended beneath giant blimps at 45,000 feet–and deploying drones from that altitude to deliver your packages–was approved last December. But before we discuss aviation rules and restrictions for deliveries by drones, how does Amazon plan to keep the airship, with its giant warehouse, afloat in the thin air?

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Solar Ship Challenges Lockheed Martin to a Race Across Northern Canada and Africa

Solar Ship challenges Lockheed Martin to a race between its solar powered Wolverine aircraft and Lockheed Martin’s hybrid airship. Who will win? We will find out, only if Lockheed accepts the challenge. It will be a friendly race to raise awareness about airships and to show what this technology can do to overcome the barriers of moving cargo to and from remote areas.

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Airlander 10 lands on cockpit on second test flight. Screen shot by author from SciNews video

Largest Aircraft Crash Lands—Slowly and Gently

Just one week after its historic first test flight, the hybrid airship Airlander 10 is in the news again, for crash landing on its second test flight. After a 100-minute flight, the 302-foot long aircraft slowly nosedived, landing on its cockpit in Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire, England.

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Helium-filled Airship, the Largest Aircraft, Makes Historic First Flight

The world’s largest and futuristic aircraft, as tall as a nine-story building and almost the length and breadth of a football field, rose slowly but majestically over the Cardington airfield in central England at 7:40 p.m. on 17th August 2016. Filled with the safe and non-flammable gas helium, the impressive blimp-shaped airship, flew within a six-mile area…

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Return of the Airship

In few fiery seconds, the era of the passenger airship had come to an end when the Hindenburg burst into flames at Lakehurst, , New Jersey on 6th May 1937. Now, 80 years later, with the advancement in lighter-than-air technology, materials, aerodynamics, and safe and non-reactive helium gas, the airship has returned in a big way.
The world’s largest and futuristic aircraft, the Airlander 10, is a hybrid between an airplane, helicopter, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Sixty percent of its lift comes from helium and 40% from the aerodynamic design, hence it’s called the Hybrid Airship.

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Lockheed Martin Signs Contract to Sell 12 Airships at $480 Million

Lockheed Martin landed a contract, on 30th March 2016, to sell 12 Hybrid Airships at $480 million to U.K.-based Straightline Aviation (SLA). Measuring 300 feet long and almost 80 feet high, the football stadium-sized, bullet-proof airship is filled with helium, which is a nonflammable gas. It can carry 47,000 pounds of cargo and up to 19 passengers to remote and inaccessible areas. The airship can travel over 1,400 nautical miles at cruise speeds of 60-80 knots. It can also hover over open water while cargo is being moved in and out.

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