The Airship Z-Prize

A long time has passed since Americans witnessed the flight of a zeppelin; an airship that uses an inner superstructure for support inside of an ‘envelope’. A rare chance exists in Oregon for enthusiasts to actually ride aboard a zeppelin, in fact it is the largest such craft in the entire world.

Most people have seen the Goodyear Blimp and similar airships, but nobody in the United States has seen a zeppelin since a fiery night in 1937 when the German zeppelin ‘The Hindenburg’ exploded in flames in front of a crowd of horrified people.

Recent research has proven that a flammable coating applied to the outside of the Hindenburg caused it to burst into flames; it wasn’t sabotaged and the actual design of the airship had nothing to do with the disaster. ‘Return of the Zeppelin’ – a Video Essay

From The Economist: “A CURIOUS cabal gathered recently in a converted warehouse in San Francisco for a private conference. Among them were some of the world’s leading experts in fields ranging from astrophysics and nanotechnology to health and energy. Also attending were entrepreneurs and captains of industry, including Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, and Ratan Tata, the head of India’s Tata Group. They were brought together to dream up more challenges for the X Prize Foundation, a charitable group which rewards innovation with cash. On July 29th a new challenge was announced: a $1.4m prize for anyone who can come up with a faster way to clean oil spills from the ocean.” Innovation prizes: And the winner is…

The zero emissions solar powered blimp Nephelios is preparing for a crossing of the English Channel this summer and the two videos in this post are of some initial flights of the blimp Nephelios as it prepares for this epic and important flight. The original flight was scheduled for the Summer of 2009 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Louis Bleriot’s historic crossing of the Channel in an airplane. Solar powered blimp Nephelios prepares for Channel crossing

The Northwest Corridor Development Corporation’s 2009 Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) is being held in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. This year’s event will be staged from the evening of Monday, October 5 through the morning of Wednesday, October 7, 2009. All Conference proceedings and related events will take place at the Prince George Civic Centre, 808 Civic Plaza, Prince George, BC. Airship Z-Prize to Present at NCDC “One Mind, One Heart, One Corridor”

From ABC WTVG Toledo: “A new company that will build giant airships is getting off the ground here and it could mean hundreds of jobs!The company is called Ohio Airships and it’s built a prototype of what’s called a Dynalifter aircraft. Right now employees are working on the prototype at Toledo Express Airport. The full scale models will be capable of hauling incredible amounts of cargo.” (more…)

Arctic logistics has historically been a case of doing the best we can with what we have. Consistent delivery success has limitations and transportation costs in the Arctic are extremely expensive. Requirement to store large quantities of goods for a whole season also requires larger warehouses and bigger fuel storage tanks. Opportunities for resource development languish due to the costs of access and exploitation. A new generation of cargo airships would have a revolutionary impact on northern transportation and logistics. View the details and agenda for this year’s event Oct. 7th to 9th and register!

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTI), a developer of state of the art flexible thin-film solar modules, announced today that SkySentry, a high altitude vehicle developer headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, received their first flexible CIGS PV array for an upcoming aerostat test in Sandusky, Ohio, scheduled for mid-September, 2009. The aerostat is part of Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s High Altitude, Long-Endurance Testbed. (more…)

Airship Ventures Zeppelin Eureka — which at 246 feet in length is the world’s largest airship — will return to Long Beach Airport on Sept. 2 for a week of commercial sightseeing flights, and we’re giving away a pair of free tickets. The tickets will go to the person who best answers the following question: “If you could fly over anything you wanted to in the world in Eureka, what would it be?” (more…)

A German-American venture says it is now days from the maiden flight of its 111-foot long, tadpole-esque “segmented” drone airship. The STS-111 “Stratellite”, produced by Sanswire of Florida and TAO Technologies GmbH of Stuttgart, has now been assembled at the firm’s German test centre. According to a Sanswire-TAO announcement issued yesterday, “the first flight of the full scale STS-111 is expected to take place at the end of August”. The test video below shows a smaller prototype Unmanned German sperm dirigible ‘to fly within days’

From DefenseNews: “The U.S. Defense Department’s ISR Task Force will huddle early next month with industry officials about forming a consortium to speed development of high-flying, long-duration unmanned airships to gather battlefield intelligence.” (more…)