Airships Time Has Come

While nuclear power generation of steam processing for the Tar Sands is in the news off and on again, one of the other wonderful wacky ideas the Lougheed government in Alberta considered in the late 1970's and early 1980's was the use of Airships for heavy lift operations in the Tar sands.

The plans included airships with extra lift for carrying HD equipment, the extra lift provided by attached helicopters.

It turns out to be not so wacky and idea. Airships are an excellent energy efficient and sustainable form of transportation. The dangers posed in the past have been overcome.

But the Hindenberg incident doomed them to the pages of science fiction, from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to Michael Moorcock, for the last sixty years.

The Hindenburg Revisited

Everyone knows that the Hindenburg burned and crashed because it was full of hydrogen. According to Addison Bain, everyone is wrong.

But no longer a report on sustainable transportation in the arctic published last year suggests that Airships need to be seriously considered for Northern development. Furhermore airship development for the north is being taken seriously as a form of sustainable energy efficient transportation see the links below to conferences and studies.

A Zepplin first transversed the Arctic in 1931 in a successful mission. Italy and and Russia also experimented with ariships in the Arctic prior to WWII.

The 1931 Polar Flight of the Airship Graf Zeppelin

An Historical Perspective

With todays technology and designs lighter than air aircraft need to be considered for doing the heavy lifting that other petroleum based forms of transportation can't because of costs.

The International Pipeline and Offshore Contractors Association (IPLOCA) is giving serious consideration to this idea that was once bounced around the Lougheed cabinet. Ah those were the days when the Alberta Advantage was our imagination and enthusiasm for the future.



Examines the political, commercial and personal stories that lie behind airship flights within the Arctic Circle. This book goes far beyond a description of the flights themselves, however fascinating and adventuresome they may have been in their own right. From the first lighter-than-air ascent in the Arctic in 1799 to the flight of the 'Graf Zeppelin' in 1931, it examines some of the early plans and endeavours. 10 maps. Diagrams. 177 b/w illustrations/photos. 312 pages. Hardback

Big balloons prescribed as cheap cure for what ails Nunavut

It’s all up in the air

Prof pitches scheme to test airships in Arctic

Airship industry seeks wider acceptance

21st Century Airships - The future of flight

Airships to the Arctic

University of Manitoba 2003 Airships to the Arctic Symposium II

Airships to the Arctic III

The Mobilus Initiative: Creating A New Component of the US Aerospace Industry Centered Upon Transport Airships

Cargo Airships: Applications in Manitoba and the Arctic

A CASE FOR AIRSHIPS IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC
Exploration, movement of heavy
bulky equipment, basic research, environmental
and resource management, and sovereignty
issues require transportation that
is cost effective (reduces the high cost of
caching fuel), can move slowly over the
landscape (oceanographic measurements,
geological and geophysical surveys, global
change surveys and wildlife census), has
minimal environmental impact, is highly
visible, and uses a vehicle that can move
easily over rough ice, water and land.
Given the scenarios outlined above it
is clear that other transportation options
need to be considered. One of these is the use
of airships. There are many skeptics concerning
use of airships but most people
agree that airships are light on infrastructure
(the airships are the infrastructure),
require little maintenance, and use comparatively
little fuel. Some of the uneasiness
with airships comes from the perception
that they are unsafe, primarily based on the
image of the burning Hindenburg and the
use of hydrogen.
This article presents a historical perspective
on arctic exploration using airships,
some past and current technologies relating
to airships, and a brief review of comparative
cost of operations. We also discuss the
potential benefits of airships to environmental
research and natural resource management
in the Arctic, and evaluate northern
weather patterns as they relate to airship
operations, as this is a consistent concern of
those who question their use under the
“harsh” arctic conditions.



The Mackenzie Valley Highway: Should it be Completed? If so, How Should It Be Funded

The first part of this paper will examine whether the Mackenzie Valley Highway project
is economically justified. Estimates of construction and annual maintenance costs are available.
In assessing the benefits from quicker and cheaper transport, account will be taken of an
alternative highway route, the Dempster Highway. Consideration will also be given to anemerging technology, airships, which in the near-to-medium future may become a viable alternative for the transport of consumer goods and commercial freight to Northern communities and development sites.

Full Proposals for IPY 2007-2008 Activities
Click for printer friendly version Proposed IPY Activity Details

1.0 PROPOSER INFORMATION

(Activity ID No: 324)

1.1 Title of Activity
The use of airships to study aquatic (marine and freshwater) and terrestrial ecosystems, visually and through the collection of samples across large sections of the Arctic

The key objectives are to test 1) airships as an alternate scientific vehicle, with a low environmental impact, by developing a series of ecological transects across the Canadian Arctic, 2) airships as a mobile transport infrastructure for short term flights such as caching scientific supplies, dropping off and picking up research crews in isolated areas, accessing hunting areas and testing scientific equipment (geophysical and oceanography). Furthermore greenhouse emissions will be documented and data will be collected on weather and air/water/soil/tree samples collected along the transects. Airships will also be used at sea ice break-up and during the spring hunt in the vicinity of Iqaluit. Of particular interest will be an assessment of the impacts, if any, on the movement of mammals and birds and the ability to improve census methods and 3) determine if airships could have a role in mitigating some of the effects of a warming Arctic.
The airship will originate from Yellowknife and key activity areas will be around Inuvik and Iqaluit. The Inuvik Research Centre and Nunavut Research Institute (Iqaluit) are major research partners in the proposal. ETAA plans several ecological transects from Yellowknife to Inuvik, Yellowknife to Iqaluit via Rankin Inlet. A transect is planned along the north slope of Alaska to Barrow and back across the Beaufort Sea in conjunction with the Canadian coast guard vessel (Nahidik). Additional activities will occur in the vicinity of Inuvik (transects over the Mackenzie River delta) and Iqaluit (test equipment, move supplies and move hunters during the spring hunt at the ice edge). The period of operation will be about 6 months over 2 years with most activity during the summer months. Arctic weather has often been considered a limitation for airship operation in the Arctic. A recent evaluation of weather patterns in the Canadian Arctic indicates that airships could operate much of the year in the Canadian Arctic because weather does not appear to be limiting.

The Transportation Context
Airships could form an integral part of sustainable passenger and freight transport.
The majority of new concepts for medium and large airships rely on rigid structures for
providing a maximum payload capacity, safety and efficiency. Airships cruise at a low
altitude (1000 - 2000m) which helps avoid interference with other modes. They require
little ground infrastructure and could link to other transport modes.
“Air crane” concept
The Dutch CargoLifter AG “CL160” is an example of a large semi-rigid freight
airship for point-to-point delivery of heavy and bulky loads – “air crane” concept. With
a payload capacity of 160 tons and a range of 10,000km this offers an option for
transport of bulky goods which might otherwise require bridges to be temporarily
removed or loads to be disassembled and reassembled. The first full scale prototype is
to fly in summer 2001. Larger airships targeting unique market segments like bulky and
heavy freight transport will require innovative solutions addressing logistic aspects of
this concept. There are other developments in Russia and the US.

Lovin' Hydrogen
Maverick energy guru Amory Lovins says a profitable, pollution-free hydrogen economy is just over the horizon. It's merely a matter of taming the most powerful gas on the planet
DISCOVER Vol. 22 No. 11 (November 2001)

The Hydrogen Economy
By Jeremy Rifkin
After Oil, Clean Energy From a Fuel-Cell-Driven Global Hydrogen Web

The Home Page for Lighter-Than-Air Craft

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
tar-sands, Lougheed, Alberta, Manitoba, Arctic, Canada, Zepplin, Blimp, LTA, airships, Hindenberg, hydrogen, helium, transportation, susatainability, airtransport, lighterthanair, Moorcock, HGWells

How solar-powered airships could make air travel climate-friendly

Research team identifies optimal flight routes for solar-powered airships

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG

Flying is the most damaging mode of transportation for our climate. At least, up until now. But work is already underway to investigate technical alternatives to conventional aircraft. For example, airships with highly efficient solar cells and extremely light batteries on board. Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), together with Prof. Dr. Agnes Jocher from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the FAU student Tim Riffelmacher, has investigated which route a solar airship would have to take in order to fly from London to New York as quickly and as climate-friendly as possible.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy.

“If we rely on solar-powered airships, we can make aviation more climate-friendly relatively quickly and economically,” says Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum. The computer science professor at FAU specializes in numerical simulation with high-performance computers and has published the paper “Design and route optimization for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting” together with FAU student Tim Riffelmacher and Professor Jocher from TUM.

Climate-friendly and cost-effective air travel

“Our calculations show that solar airships could significantly reduce both transport costs and the CO2 emissions of air travel,” explains Professor Pflaum. In the course of his research, the scientist has become a true fan of solar-powered air travel and eagerly lists its many benefits: “Solar airships are absolutely climate-friendly because they are equipped with extremely light and highly efficient thin-film solar cells that recharge over again during the flight. As a result, no combustion-related emissions are generated while the airship is flying.”

Energy from the power grid is only needed to recharge the battery before the airship is launched and the charging process has very low CO2 emissions. “A maximum of five percent of the amount of carbon dioxide generated in conventional air transport is emitted,” he says and refers to the figures: Compared with long-haul freight flights, less than one percent is generated, by medium-haul flights almost 1.4 percent and for person transport approximately five percent.

“Unfortunately, this solar airship does not exist at the moment, but in California a company is investing heavily in developing a large, fully rigid airship for the first time in 90 years, which offers a lot of space and is well protected in wind and weather,” says Professor Pflaum enthusiastically.

The technology can be implemented quickly, but has been quite neglected in recent decades. “Of course, the tragedy of the airship LZ 129, better known as ‘Hindenburg‘ has influenced this lack of progress,” the professor acknowledges. “With a length of 245 meters and a diameter of 41.2 meters, LZ 129 was one of the largest aircraft ever built and a real sensation on its maiden voyage in March 1936. But just a year later, it caught fire when it landed in the USA and was completely destroyed.” This meant the end of airships for a long time, but now they are being rethought with solar cells on board and work is underway on a “real game changer”.

With these new models, no one needs to be afraid of a fire, as the airships are neither filled with combustible hydrogen nor with any other fuel.

The researchers believe that cost aspects also speak in favor of solar airships, because the energy consumption costs of solar-powered airships are, according to their current calculations, significantly lower than those of conventional aircraft.

Two to three days for a flight across the Atlantic

Are solar airships a real technical alternative to conventional aircraft? “It looks promising,” Professor Pflaum and Professor Jocher agree. “We only have to lower our expectations for flight time, because an airship flies much slower than an airplane.”

Several FAU students simulated and calculated in their Bachelor’s and Master’s theses how fast an airship with solar cells on board would really be and which route it would have to take in order to optimally exploit wind and weather and sun positions. Most recently, Tim Riffelmacher dealt with the “Charging optimization of the battery in a solar airship with simulated annealing” in his Bachelor’s thesis.

He, too, is very enthusiastic about the solar-powered airships and took a closer look at battery use during day and night in his simulations. “The battery is charged before the flight and then has to last for long distances,” explains the young researcher. “This is easier said than done, because at night there is no sun and the solar cells do not produce electricity.“ But optimizing the charging process makes a lot of things possible.

In their work, Riffelmacher and the other students were able to show that national, continental and even intercontinental flights with a satisfactory flight duration are possible. “According to our calculations, a flight across the Atlantic from New York to London takes about two days and one night,” Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum summarizes the results. “In the opposite direction from London to New York we calculated a flight time of three days and two nights.”

Such travel times are acceptable for most cargo flights and he also sees an opportunity for passenger transport: “After all, traveling in an airship is much more comfortable than in a conventional aircraft. There is space for a dining room and a lounge and for stylish double rooms for passengers.”

---

JOURNAL

International Journal of Sustainable Energy

DOI

10.1080/14786451.2023.2189488 

ARTICLE TITLE

Design and route optimisation for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting

CANADA 
The Age of the Airship May Be Dawning Again

Dirigibles ruled the skies once. Can they make a comeback?

BY JUSTIN LING FEBRUARY 29, 2020

FOREIGN POLICY ILLUSTRATION/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/GETTY IMAGES/OCEANSKY

You might think that the tragic end of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 marked a clear end to the airship era. The famous footage of the German airship plunging in flames became the overwhelming image of a seemingly doomed technology.

You would be wrong.

For decades, the Goodyear fleet of blimps have been the only working airships most people had a chance of seeing in real life. But a handful of companies are looking to bring back the spectacular dirigibles.

The government of Quebec will be pitching 30 million Canadian dollars (23 million in U.S. dollars) to Flying Whales, a French company, to start building its massive zeppelins. The company has only been around since 2012, and it hasn’t gotten any of its airships off the ground—yet. The plan has been derided by opposition parties, not as a flying whale but as a white elephant.

But cargo airships may actually make a tremendous amount of sense. They are relatively cheap, they can carry enormous amounts of material, and they emit significantly less greenhouse gas than other modes of transportation.

The compelling arguments for dirigible travel put these airships in a class of technology, with nuclear power and lunar colonization, that is experiencing an unexpected modern renaissance.

Flying Whales’ LCA60T model, according to the company, will be able to carry up to 60 metric tons of goods, travel up to 62 miles per hour, and serve remote areas with ease. If all goes according to plan, the company hopes to get the first airship off the ground in 2022.

There’s still a healthy dose of skepticism around the company’s lofty promises. Its main backers, prior to Quebec’s financial endorsement, have been the French National Forest Agency and the Chinese government.

Flying Whales’ website is enigmatic, and the section of the site explaining the airships’ structure isn’t particularly helpful—the description of its structure reads “what else… – Hi George :)” while if you’re looking for details on their “safe lifting gas” it reads, somewhat snarkily, “helium obviously.”

It’s that last point that might make the whole idea completely untenable: There might just not be enough helium left.

The R-100 airship, circa 1920. THEODOR HORYDCZAK/U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
A slow, steady return

While the most famous airship may be the Hindenburg, it was hardly the first—nor was it the last.

For a time in the first half of the 20th century, airships were fashionable, practical, and futuristic. But their calamitous track record ultimately soured the public.

Less remembered, perhaps because its downing was never immortalized on an album cover, was the English airship R101. The dirigible was dubbed the “socialist airship,” as it was designed and built by the United Kingdom’s state aviation department. The R101 was constructed as part of a state-sponsored competition, pitting government engineers against private-sector workers. The “capitalist airship,” the R100, was designed and constructed by a scrappy engineering team on a remote airbase in Yorkshire.

The opulent socialist airship was rushed to flight, even amid a variety of problems. It took off, en route to British India, just as its capitalist competitor set off for Canada. The government airship sagged and crashed into the French countryside just a day into its voyage, killing 48 of the 54 onboard—including the aviation minister—while the private airship conducted a celebrated tour of Montreal and Toronto before heading back to London. (“Everybody’s talking about the R100,” goes the chorus of a song from the iconic francophone Canadian folk singer La Bolduc.)

Most airships of the day took off using the highly flammable hydrogen—thanks mostly to an American monopoly on helium, its nonflammable alternative. Washington had banned the export of the gas, in part over fears of the military uses of the airships, which had been used in the world’s first air raids on London during World War I.

The helium-buoyant American ships weren’t always safe, either. The USS Akron carried out several successful flights across the continent, but it was ultimately pushed down by strong winds in 1933 and crashed into the Atlantic, killing 73 people on board and two rescuers.

As U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt remarked after the Akron went down, “ships can be replaced, but the Nation can ill afford to lose such men.” Eventually, governments stopped replacing the ships.

The USS Akron over New York City in the early 1930s. U.S. NAVY/INTERIM ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGESBut it was the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, made famous by the newsreel footage of the zeppelin bursting into a ball of flames as it tried to dock at the Lakehurst air base in New Jersey, that really scuttled the industry. The United States’ decision to lift its helium ban after the crash did little to revive faith in airships. The U.S. Navy used its small fleet for anti-submarine warfare and reconnaissance in World War II, but the airship industry was effectively dead.

It would stage a comeback, in a limited way, some decades later, when Goodyear opted for nonrigid airships—blimps—for its advertising campaigns. Airship Industries came around in the 1980s, promising a return of the dirigible. Its ships, like Goodyear’s ships, had no rigid structure inside, meaning they could carry only limited cargo and no more than 14 passengers. The airships of earlier in the century had immense metal structures inside, allowing them to carry more. These new nonrigid ships were made famous by Bond villains, Pink Floyd, and, later, by Ron Paul supporters.

Fame aside, the blimps had little use for commercial air travel or cargo transport. The niche purpose of the blimps meant Airship Industries was hemorrhaging money, and it shut down by the end of the decade.

As with many other commercially nonviable products, airships later found a home in the U.S. military. There was a hope that the dirigibles, which are capable of taking off and staying aloft for prolonged periods of time, would be ideal for persistent aerial surveillance.

The contractor Northrop Grumman was awarded a $517 million contract to build a surveillance airship in 2010, and it managed to build a successful prototype in 2012. The contract was axed a year later. Raytheon was awarded nearly $3 billion for its model, which tethered the airship to a mooring and allowed for constant surveillance of a wide area for a month at a time.

One of Raytheon’s spy blimps was tested in Maryland, where it hung eerily in the sky above suburban homes. In 2015, it broke loose from its mooring and drifted haplessly through Pennsylvania, trailed by fighter jets, before crashing in a field. Raytheon’s hopes of building more surveillance dirigibles crashed with it.

A similar program in Afghanistan, which became notorious among Kabul residents, saw even worse results. The tethers that kept the Big Brother balloons in place were notorious for snaring helicopter blades—one incident killed five American and British service members.

An aerial visualization of the Ocean Sky airship. KIRT X THOMSEN


A commercial appeal?

The market for military airships and commercial blimps remained limited thanks to past failures, though not dead entirely.

The cruise company OceanSky is forging ahead with plans to send a passenger airship to the Arctic, using a ship originally designed under the U.S. military’s surveillance program, with a planned voyage in 2023.

Many are banking that the real future of airships, however, is in cargo.

In the vast expanses of the Canadian north, there has long been a need for reliable transportation. Many communities are only accessible by road when winter rolls around and the ground and lakes are solid enough to drive on, if they are accessible by road at all. That means basic goods need to be stockpiled when the weather is cold or flown in by cargo plane—never mind supplies to build long-term infrastructure. Many of these remote communities are reliant on gas generators and are facing shortages of reliable housing stock.

The airships also promise to be a boon for economic development, if they work.

In 2016, a junior mining company in Quebec inked an agreement with U.K.-based Straightline Aviation to use a design being developed by Lockheed Martin to haul rare earth minerals from a remote open-pit mine—the road that was initially planned would have cut across a caribou migration path. That plan went belly-up when the minerals company went bankrupt, although Straightline is forging ahead with plans to offer commercial and tourism flights.

The interior of the Ocean Sky airship. HYBRID AIR VEHICLES LTD AND DESIGN Q

Stranded resources and communities are a policy concern in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Russia, and elsewhere. Flights are expensive and carbon dioxide-intensive, and they require airport infrastructure. Shipping is more viable as Arctic ice melts, but that often requires deep-water ports and can have damaging impacts on marine life. It’s part of why people keep coming back to airships.

That’s the niche Quebec Premier François Legault is hoping Flying Whale can fill in the province’s remote north.

It’s why the French forestry sector is interested in the ships as well. The promise of lifting lumber from far-off places earned the company praise from French President Emmanuel Macron as one of the “industries of the future.”

The opportunity is also caveated with an array of risks and problems. There is no guarantee that the airships will even fly in the frigid north—Le Journal de Quebec reported that the airships will need a significant amount of water, which may be hard to come by amid Arctic temperatures.

Quebec seems unphased.

“If we don’t take risks, we go nowhere,” Legault told reporters earlier in February. Quebec’s investment earned it a 25 percent stake in the project, which in turn brought derision from opposition politicians—one questioned whether the government was inhaling helium when it made the decision.

The money puts Quebec on par with China in the project—Beijing put in $4.9 million for its 24.9 percent stake, through the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China General and the Ministry of Science and Technology. China has plenty of Arctic ambitions itself—and vast distances to cover in its underpopulated west.

The Hindenburg disaster in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937. FINE ART IMAGES/HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES


A lack of lift

There’s one massive drawback for the airship industry: The world is almost out of helium.

In recent years, helium prices have skyrocketed as supply has dwindled. Far from just being used in party balloons and blimps, the gas is necessary for MRI scanners and rocket engines. Stockpiles of helium often escape, and are wasted, during other extractive projects. While there have been shortages before, helium is a nonrenewable resource and can take an enormously long time to generate—estimates suggest the earth’s supply could be gone this century.

If the world runs out of helium, it’s not clear that there’s a good alternative. The dangers of hydrogen are well established, and the gas behind the Hindenburg disaster is unlikely to make an air travel comeback.

Hypothetically, there could be an airship lifted by a vacuum—that is, by material that can contain nothing at all inside but withstand the atmospheric pressure from the outside. It is, at this point, science fiction, although NASA has posited that some kind of vacuum airship could eventually be used to explore the surface of Mars.

Airship companies seem satisfied with helium for the time being. OceanSky cruises has a reassuring FAQ on its website, telling those looking to join them on an airship trip to the North Pole that 600 of their cruise ships “would account for just 1% of annual helium consumption” and that each ship “stays filled with the same helium as from its inception, less a tiny annual leakage.”

If these airships can take off despite carrying a century of failed projects, a lack of its necessary resource, and economic justifications that still seem more wishful thinking than reality—it might just be the return of the zeppelin.


Justin Ling is a journalist based in Toronto.

FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE

Aeronautical Innovations

Conference:

2022 Aviation Innovation

Airship conference: Oct 20, 2022

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 increasing in frequency. Carbon emissions must be cut before the Arctic Ocean loses all its ice leading to a "Runaway Greenhouse Effect." Innovation is needed. Airplanes have the most difficulty adapting to a low carbon future because they require so much energy

No one disputes that jet engine emissions are large contributors to climate change. The aviation industry is working hard to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Electrically-powered airplanes are being tested with batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, but significant change in the carbon footprint of fixed-wing aviation is unlikely to be achieved for many years.

A sound economic case exists for continued jet passenger travel, because face-to-face meetings on a global scale are necessary. No similar justification exists for cargo jets, which is the most polluting form of freight transport. Air freight shippers can drastically reduce their carbon footprint by embracing a new aviation age of the electrically-powered airship.

Airships use less energy per tonne-kilometer because they are buoyant and require fuel only for propulsion. Hydrogen can be used as fuel because giant airships have room to store large fuel tanks, without compromising space for freight. Hydrogen fuel cell powered electric airships could meet the transport needs of air cargo shippers and help them meet their commit to green supply chains.


Northern Canada is an ideal place for electric airship cargo operations to begin. Climate change is making the ice roads unreliable. Even existing infrastructure is threatened as the permafrost melts below them.

Electric airships could transport truckload size loads across the wild terrain at about the same price. And unlike roads, have zero environmental impact on the wildlife below. This sparsely populated area would also be acceptable for the introduction of remotely piloted airships.

Year-round cargo airship service would bring prosperity to the Northern economy. Food insecurity, bad housing and poverty could be banished from the indigenous communities. The mining industry would be able to gain economic access to rich mineral deposits. Wind turbine blades could be moved to remote wind farms to power mines, Arctic homes and businesses. The Northern economy would become more resilience, richer and attractive to investment.

Innovations in transportation are transformational. Airships will unlock currently isolated regions from crippling logistical inconvenience to competitive access to economic opportunity. Canada can position itself as a pioneer in what promises to become a huge global industry. Already, FLYING WHALES, a French airship company, has opened an their office in Montreal, Quebec. Homegrown, Buoyant Aircraft Systems International (BASI) has airship research and development offices in Manitoba and Ontario. More airship companies are looking as coming to Canada, soon.

Airship projects are underway in Brazil, Israel, France, China, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada. Like Rip Van Winkle, after sleeping for many decades, the airship industry has awoken, teeming with new design ideas and opportunities. The 2022 Aviation Innovations Conference brings together representatives from all segments of the aerospace and aviation supply chains.

You should participate in these packed days because you are a stakeholder in this critical industry, either as an airship developer, an aviation parts manufacturer, fixed base operator, logistics provider, First Nations leader, government policymaker/regulator, academic, consultant, investor, student, or as an environmentalist.


Why wait?

Time is running out of hand. Governments have agreed to a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035, but climate change does not wait. Floods, droughts and severe storms are becoming more frequent, while the Arctic Ocean is losing its ice. Innovation is needed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and aviation is the most difficult mode of transportation to adapt. Fortunately, electric airships can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of air freight, if the world has the wisdom to invest to bring airship technology to maturity.

No one disputes that jet engine emissions are a major contributor to climate change. The aviation industry is working hard to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Electrically powered aircraft are being tested with hydrogen batteries and fuel cells, but it is unlikely that a significant change in the carbon footprint of fixed-wing aviation will be achieved for many years. Aerostatic flight, on the other hand, offers a simple and well-understood path to greener flights.

While there is a strong economic case for continued passenger air transport, which makes face-to-face meetings possible on a global scale, there is no similar justification for cargo aircraft. Air cargo could be transported by electric airships to meet shippers' needs, with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Electric airships consume less energy per tonne-kilometre because they float and only need fuel for propulsion, and they are so large that hydrogen tanks can be stored easily, without compromising space for passengers or cargo.

Northern Canada is an ideal place to begin cargo operations by electric airship. Northern latitudes are experiencing unreliable ice routes and melting permafrost. Electric airships could carry large loads over this wild terrain at a lower cost than airplanes and without any impact on the environment. This sparsely populated area would also be acceptable for the introduction of remotely controlled airships.

Year-round airship service would transform the northern economy and improve its resilience. Food insecurity, poor housing conditions and poverty could be banished from indigenous communities. The mining industry could have economic access to rich mineral deposits and wind energy. Wind turbine blades could be moved to remote wind farms to power Arctic mines, homes and businesses. In short, the northern economy would become more sustainable and wealthier. And Canada would position itself as a pioneer in what promises to become a huge global industry, as airships transform tourism, intercontinental transportation, forestry and other industries, and liberate many parts of the world, from islands and poor landlocked countries in Africa to Siberia, Patagonia and the Amazon. crippling logistical inconveniences.

Airship projects are underway in Brazil, Russia/Israel, France/China, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Like Rip Van Winkle, after sleeping for several decades, the airship industry woke up, full of new design ideas and opportunities. The 2022 Aviation Innovations Conference brings together representatives from all segments of the aerospace and aviation supply chains. You should participate in these busy days because you are a stakeholder in this critical industry, whether as an airship manufacturer, stationary base operator, logistics provider, First Nations leader, government policy-maker/regulator, academic, consultant, investor, student, or environmentalist.

Helium-filled airships to carry passengers as soon as 2026 in $600 million deal with British Airways' sister airline

awallace@insider.com (Abby Wallace) - 


© HAVThe Airlander on a test flight in England in 2019. HAV

A sister airline of British Airways struck a deal to buy 10 helium airships.

Air Nostrum signed the deal with a British company called Hybrid Air Vehicles.

The helium-filled airships could be transporting passengers in Spain as soon as 2026, the firm said.

Passengers in Spain could soon be boarding airships instead of jets for short-haul flights.

Air Nostrum, an airline owned by the same company as British Airways, ordered 10 helium airships to be used for regional travel.

It is the first order for the Airlander airships that will be made by Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British company part-backed by Iron Maiden frontman and qualified commercial pilot Bruce Dickinson.

Production of the 100-seat Airlander 10, which can spend up to five days aloft, is due to start in northern England later this year.

The airships could start flying passengers on routes such as Barcelona to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca as soon as 2026.

The deal is estimated to be worth more than $600 million, The Telegraph newspaper reported, citing internal sources.

The Airlander 10 has a helium-filled hull and uses combustion engines that burn jet fuel, but the company said it planned to switch to electric engines to reduce carbon emissions by 2030.

Trips on the airships would be considerably slower than on passenger jets, but be much greener.

Air Nostrum's president, Carlos Bertomeu, said the deal was struck on the basis that the airships would "drastically reduce emissions."

Planes have been slower to become electrified than cars. One of the reasons is that the technology to create powerful batteries needed to get planes airborne is not as developed.

A prototype of the Airlander has flown on six test flights, but it crashed in 2016 on its second outing and two people were hurt when it broke free from its moorings the following year.

However, its design has been approved by European regulators.

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for AIRSHIP 

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Hydrogen Airships Promise Zero Emissions at Quarter the Price of Plane Cargo

They could be "critical in the fight against climate change."

By Chris Young

Dec 15, 2021

H2 Clipper


A California-based startup called H2 Clipper wants to resurrect the hydrogen-filled airship as a form of mass transport. The key difference is that it won't be transporting people, it will be transporting cargo, a press statement reveals.

The company aims to kickstart a green global cargo network by leveraging the world's renewed willingness to try alternative forms of transport following the IPCC's dire climate change report for 2021.

H2 Clipper claims its cargo airships can carry 8-10 times the payload of the best cargo plane over 6,000 miles (9,656 km), and it can do so at a quarter of the price. They will have a payload capacity of approximately 340,000 lb (150,000 kg) sitting in up to 265,000 cubic feet (7,530 cubic meters) of cargo space.

As for speed, the H2 Clipper would travel at a cruising speed of 175 mph (282 km/h), meaning it would move close to ten times faster than a cargo ship — though it would obviously lag behind a cargo plane in that department. The main advantage over today's cargo planes is that the H2 Clipper produces zero carbon emissions.
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Removing the need for large ground infrastructure

H2 Clipper's airships will run on hydrogen gas through a fuel cell with all-electric propulsion systems. As NewAtlas points out, their range of over 6,000 miles (~9,650 km) means that they can connect any two points on the globe with only one refuel stop.

As for transport costs, H2 Clipper says prices will range between $0.177 to $0.247 a ton per mile for distances between 1,000-6,000 miles (~1,610-9,650 km). That's a quarter of the price of aircraft cargo transportation, according to the company. While that is more expensive than cargo shipping, the shipping industry will likely be levied with heavy carbon taxes in the coming years as governments aim to cut down emissions.

H2 Clipper's concept hydrogen airships have a range of over 6,000 miles.

 Source: H2 Clipper

H2 Clipper's airships may also be able to cut out a certain portion of the logistics required for shipping and aircraft due to its vertical take off and landing (VTOL) configuration. Earlier this year, a Russian firm called Aerosmena also revealed plans to develop large cargo airships that would remove the requirement for large ground infrastructure. The real question may be, can firms like H2 Clipper and Aerosmena change the perception of hydrogen airships fueled by the Hindenburg disaster and earn flight certification in the coming years. According to H2 Clipper at least, its form of "100 percent emissions-free delivery of goods" will be "critical in the fight against climate change."

Almost 85 years on from the Hindenburg disaster and the future of hydrogen is… airships?

Start-up claims the cheapest and cleanest way to transport H2 over long distances will be hydrogen-powered zeppelins

A rendering of the H2 Clipper airship. Photo: H2 Clipper

The dramatic explosion of the Hindenburg hydrogen airship in New Jersey in 1937 may have tainted public opinion about the safety of H2 for decades, but that has not prevented a US start-up from forging ahead with plans for a new generation of hydrogen-powered zeppelins.

Hydrogen: hype, hope and the hard truths around its role in the energy transition
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California-based H2 Clipper has been selected for inclusion in French software developer Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Lab accelerator programme, which the start-up says will “advance its mission of developing and commercializing a global fleet of 100% green airships that transform the hydrogen and air transport industry”.

Unlike the ill-fated Hindenburg, the H2 Clipper airship will not transport passengers, but only pure hydrogen. So H2 will be the fuel, the lifting gas and the cargo.

“H2 Clipper’s 21st-century airship is designed for transporting pure hydrogen from where it is least costly to produce to markets where clean energy is most needed, and for enabling a 100% carbon-free method of transporting freight and other cargo 7-10 times faster than by ship, truck, or rail, and at a 70% savings over traditional air transport,” the company said in a statement.

“As more hydrogen projects are announced globally, there’s a growing appreciation among leading analysts that one of the biggest challenges will be how to efficiently transport, distribute, and store hydrogen.”

H2 Clipper aims to build a prototype in 2024 and a full-sized version in 2027, which would use fuel cells and electric engines to travel at speeds of more than 175 miles per hour (280km/h), travelling distances of 6,000-plus miles (9,656+ km) in a single non-stop journey while transporting up to 150 tonnes of hydrogen.

Dassault says companies including H2 Clipper were selected for its accelerator programme by “demonstrating significant technological breakthroughs with the greatest potential to positively impact and transform society in alignment with one or more [UN] Sustainable Development Goals”.

“The aerospace and aviation revolution is being driven by breakthroughs in the use of renewable fuels such as hydrogen, as well as advanced material science and engineering,” said Frédéric Vacher, head of innovation at Dassault Systèmes. “We are pleased to support H2 Clipper to accelerate maturing these disruptive technologies to serve humankind.”

Could hydrogen airships return as fast, cheap, green cargo transports?

By Loz Blain

December 14, 2021

Is it time to resurrect hydrogen airships – not to carry passengers, but as fast, cheap and convenient cargo carriers?
H2 Clipper

California startup H2 Clipper wants to bring back hydrogen-filled airships, claiming they can unlock completely green intercontinental cargo operations carrying 8-10 times the payload of any cargo plane over 6,000 miles, at a quarter of the price.

The H2 Clipper would carry payloads up to and beyond 340,000 lb (150,000 kg), says the company, and would offer up to 265,000 cubic feet (7,530 cubic metres) of cargo space. It wouldn't travel as fast as a plane, cruising at about 175 mph (282 km/h), but it would move boxes some 7-10 times faster than a boat (China to the US in 36 hours, for example) and with zero emissions.

Its lift gas would be hydrogen – providing some 8 percent more lift per volume than helium at something around 1/67th the price. Its propulsion would be fully electric, running on liquid hydrogen put through a fuel cell. H2 Clipper says it'd operate efficiently for missions ranging from under 500 miles (804 km) to "well over 6,000 miles (9,656 km)." That would link any two points on the globe with a single fuel top-up. In the current renders, the company shows the top of this huge aircraft covered in photovoltaic cells, which could theoretically enable it to generate its own hydrogen, if it were to carry a water source and an electrolyzer.

With the right provisions put in place, it could take goods right from a factory to a distribution center without needing additional ground transport stages to and from airports, thanks to its vertical takeoff and landing capabilities.



Hydrogen's taking off as a clean aviation fuel. Will it return for use as a lift gas?
H2 Clipper

H2 Clipper says the economics will be attractive as well, estimating costs between US$0.177 to $0.247 per ton-mile for distances between 1,000-6000 miles. It says this is a quarter of the price of today's air transport. Certainly, it'll still be more expensive than sending things on a container ship, but it does potentially cut out additional logistics challenges at either end – and the shipping sector's emissions issues could well see it slapped with carbon taxes as the race to zero carbon by 2050 develops globally.

On the surface, it all looks to work pretty neatly. Of course, there's a large elephant in the room here, or at least a huge manatee: hydrogen, along with any other flammable substance, is currently prohibited as a lift gas in the United States and Europe, due to some high-profile dirigible disasters in the early 1900s, burned into the public consciousness by newsreels of the Hindenburg conflagration in 1937 that killed 35 of the 97 people on board.


But it's possible that all is not as it seems in this regard – and indeed there are several groups beginning to call foul on what they see is an unfair perception and legal treatment of hydrogen airships that could be holding back a valuable technology.

The H2Clipper would cruise at about 10,000 feet, lifted and propelled by green hydrogen
H2 Clipper

The argument is well put in this recent piece by Eli Dourado, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. We'll bullet-point it here for you:

Hydrogen was initially banned as a lift gas in US military aircraft in 1922, after a rather theatrical exploding-balloon demonstration before Congress by a representative from the Bureau of Mines, which had found itself sitting on large helium reserves. In his 1969 book about the early days of the helium industry, Mines employee Clifford Stebel admits that the hydrogen should not have exploded in this scenario, and hints that he tampered with it: "Later, with a twinkle in his eye, Moore accused me of adding some air to the red balloon to create an explosive mixture—something I never admitted."
The aviation business as a whole was in an embryonic phase in the early 1900s, and most modes of flight had less-than-stellar safety records, which have subsequently been addressed with rigorous standards and new technologies. Hydrogen airships should be afforded the same opportunity.
Banning flammable substances from use generating aerostatic lift, but allowing them for use generating forward thrust, is absurd. Flammable fuel leaks have caused numerous aviation disasters without these substances being banned wholesale.
The current FAA prohibition on hydrogen lift gas is only a guidance, and nearly every aircraft that goes through certification does so after negotiating a series of waivers and special conditions.

The full piece makes interesting reading. H2 Clipper, for its part, chips in to point out that extensive testing in the automotive industry has proven that hydrogen tanks can be shot with 50-caliber rifles, and hydrogen escaping into the air can be ignited with naked flames without causing explosions.

"With modern engineering standards," writes Dourado, "there is no doubt that hydrogen could be made a safe lifting gas." But, he points out, the only way to find out for sure would be to develop and certify a next-generation hydrogen airship, and this would require millions in investment, against the possible risk that the program might be shut down by regulations.

Range figures of 6,000 miles and beyond would deliver reasonably quick intercontinental shipping with zero emissions
H2 Clipper


It's a tough ask for investors, although a new class of investor might have the stomach to throw down. Green hydrogen projects are taking off at an extraordinary rate as countries and companies alike wrestle with the hurdles and opportunities of decarbonization. The investors behind these have plenty of skin in the game already, and an incentive not just to develop potential markets for their hydrogen, but to rehabilitate its image.

H2 Clipper's hydrogen cargo airships might be just the ticket. They present minimal risk to human life – they'll initially be piloted, but could eventually become completely autonomous. They present a useful middle ground in the transport logistics puzzle – cheaper than planes, faster than ships, virtually unlimited range and excellent operational flexibility. And there's currently no alternative if you want to cover serious distances without creating carbon dioxide emissions.

These airships could be immediately useful to the hydrogen industry, too; H2 Clipper says that if you're looking to export liquid hydrogen internationally, as many countries are hoping to do in bulk, its airships will beat rail, trucks, ships and even pipelines on price over distances greater than 1,000 miles – while delivering the H2 quickly to just about anywhere on Earth.

H2 Clipper Founder and CEO Rinaldo Brutoco presented at the 2nd International Hydrogen in Aviation Conference, held in Glasgow this September, saying that the company would commence drawings for a sub-scale prototype in 2022, hoping to fly it in 2024. Stretch goals include getting a dirigible into operation by 2026, and having 100 of them out there hauling cargo by the early 2030s.

It's a fascinating idea with some obvious hurdles to overcome. We'll be keeping an eye on the company's progress!

Source: H2 Clipper

Could Zeppelins Be The Answer To Hydrogen Transportation?

by Linnea Ahlgren
December 15, 2021

One of the main challenges for the future of hydrogen as a fuel source for air travel is infrastructure. Be that for hydrogen-electric or propulsion architecture relying on liquid H2, the puzzle of transporting the gas safely to airports to fuel aircraft (another matter) needs to be solved. One company believes it is on the way – with a good old-fashioned dirigible. However, the inventors of the H2 Clipper say it is nothing like the airships of old.

Will hydrogen-powered airships be the solution to hydrogen transportation?

 Photo: H2 Clipper

Linking production and application

The H2 Clipper is an airship designed to transport pure hydrogen from where it is cheapest to produce to markets where it is needed to support green power projects. The dirigible itself will also be powered by green hydrogen to offer a carbon-free form of transportation and produce zero CO2 emissions.

The company behind the airship says that it will enable shipments of hydrogen and other cargo that will be seven to ten times faster than other modes of transport at a price that will be 70% lower than that of conventional airfreight.

It also attests that the H2 Clipper is uniquely suited to addressing the needs of an emerging hydrogen economy, providing a cost-efficient and dynamically scaleable approach to transporting the gas as demand grows over the following decades. It has trademarked it the ‘Pipeline in the Sky’.

“…(It) is able to scale up through making additional daily trips until the recurring volume of hydrogen being transported justifies investing in the fixed cost of a pipeline or establishing a dedicated supertanker route, at which time the H2 Clipper can simply shift its services to another emerging production site and/or destination,” the people behind the ’21st-century airship’ say.

The H2 Clipper will travel much faster than older airships. 

Photo: Getty Images

In the sky by 2027 with the help of Dassault

The H2 Clipper will use hydrogen fuel cells coupled with electric engines to enable it to fly distances of over 6,000 miles at a speed of 175 miles per hour. It will have a lift capacity of 150 metric tons and a cargo area of 7,500 cubic meters. A detailed design and a prototype are scheduled for 2024. The target for having a fully-fledged airship in the sky has been set for 2027.

To support it in this endeavor, the H2 Clipper company has been selected for inclusion in the Dassault Systémes 3DExperience Lab innovation program. The program focuses on companies that envision a better and more sustainable way of life in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Projects include whale-safe fishing, detecting neurological pathologies through brain-wave devices, geoponic farming, and mobile charging devices for electric vehicles.

“The aerospace and aviation revolution is being driven by breakthroughs in the use of renewable fuels such as hydrogen, as well as advanced material science and engineering. We are pleased to support H2 Clipper to accelerate maturing these disruptive technologies to serve humankind,” said Frédéric Vacher, Head of Innovation at Dassault Systèmes.

Hydrogen-powered zeppelins have to contend with one of the most potent negative public images in history. Photo: Getty Images

The public image legacy to overcome

Of course, airships and hydrogen have history. Say ‘zeppelin,’ and most people’s minds immediately conjure up images of the Hindenburg spectacularly going down in a sea of flames. The 1937 disaster essentially marked an end to the hydrogen-powered passenger-transporting dirigible era. Its powerful imagery aftermath will be a major obstacle to overcome in convincing the public that flying on hydrogen is safe. Perhaps a few years of high-speed zeppelins moving to and fro will contribute to shifting the general perception.


Linnea Ahlgren
Lead Sustainability Journalist - With a Masters in International Relations, Linnea has combined her love for current affairs with her passion for travel to become a key member of the Simple Flying team. With eight years’ experience in publishing and citations in publications such as CNN, Linnea brings a deep understanding of politics and future aviation tech to her stories. Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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