While the rigid Flying Whales design allows a bigger payload to be carried, or slung beneath the airship, the elimination of the need to land also makes it safer, according to Bougon, who said the craft could easily transformed into a pilot-less drone.
Dubbed the “flying bum” because of an elliptical profile that allows it to gain lift like a conventional plane, the model suffered setbacks in 2016, when it crashed-landed after mooring lines became caught in telegraph wires, and again last year after breaking free of its mooring mast in windy conditions. came out of a failed project to develop a military blimp for surveillance work in Afghanistan.Īt 300-feet long HAV’s Airlander 10 is currently the world’s largest aircraft. that’s now being developed by Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. At the same time the model is a true blimp without a frame and is limited to carrying 20 metric tons of freight, though it too can land without the traditional mast.īoth the LMH-1 and a model designed by Northrop Grumman Corp. The defense giant is a step ahead of Flying Whales after winning an order for as many as 12 craft worth $480 million in 2016. Lockheed Martin’s LMH-1 is primarily targeting the oil and gas industry, where surface transport can be equally problematic. But Flying Whales isn’t alone in betting that technological advances and the push for greener transport mean that the blimp’s time has come. France’s ONF national forestry office and the Nouvelle Aquitaine region in the southwest of the country are also backing the project.Īttempts have been made to revive the airship before, most notably by Cargolifter AG, which failed in 2002 after seeking to develop a craft with a 160-ton payload, leaving a 19 million cubic-foot hangar now used as an amusement park. Investors include state fund Bpifrance, which injected € 25 million this month, and AVIC, China’s main producer of warplanes, transport aircraft and helicopters.
It will be powered by small diesel or electric engines but require minimal power.īougon estimates likely sales at € 5 billion over 10 years from a fleet of 150 machines built in factories in France and China.īeyond logging, markets could include the transportation of outsize parts and machinery, and companies including rail-industry giant Alstom SA and oil-services provider Technip SA have expressed an interest, according to Bougon. 747 jumbo jet and have a rigid structure with individual pockets of helium, technically making it an airship rather than a blimp, which relies solely on internal gas pressure. The Flying Whale will be twice as long as a Boeing Co.
The wood market alone justifies our investments, and we’ve got low-risk prospects beyond.” “There have been a lot of blimp projects over time and there have been many failures,” Flying Whales founder and Chief Executive Officer Sebastien Bougon said in an interview. It plans an initial public offering in 2021, when a prototype is slated for its first flight. The company has already secured about € 200 million ($246 million) in capital.