Lockheed Martin has invested company money into creating a new class of large lighter-than-air cargo-lifters. And now a new British company, a spin-off from Richard Branson's Virgin empire, has given them their first commercial order, for 12 of them.
Apparently these things are intended to carry heavy cargoes into hard-to-reach areas, for example mining or oil-drilling equipment into remote parts of Alaska, Northern Canada or Siberia that have no roads or airstrips. There's a secondary passenger configuration too, that will probably be used to take work-crews into those isolated locations.
They will be filled with helium (not hydrogen) and will have such low internal pressure that they can continue flying with holes in them. They don't have wheels, but landing pads instead, which enables them to land on things like arctic sea ice. Vehicles can be driven in and out using ramps.
Everyone is hoping this succeeds, since it would be very cool to see these things moving majestically through the sky (their cruising speed is about 100 mph).
Apparently these things are intended to carry heavy cargoes into hard-to-reach areas, for example mining or oil-drilling equipment into remote parts of Alaska, Northern Canada or Siberia that have no roads or airstrips. There's a secondary passenger configuration too, that will probably be used to take work-crews into those isolated locations.
They will be filled with helium (not hydrogen) and will have such low internal pressure that they can continue flying with holes in them. They don't have wheels, but landing pads instead, which enables them to land on things like arctic sea ice. Vehicles can be driven in and out using ramps.
Everyone is hoping this succeeds, since it would be very cool to see these things moving majestically through the sky (their cruising speed is about 100 mph).