New generation of giant airships set for takeoff

21st century airships emit up to 90 pc less carbon than conventional aircraft and can stay in the air for days.

A Flying Whales airship will be able to stay in the air for days.

Giant airships should soon be seen over French skies again after the building of a factory to make a fleet of air freighters was approved.

Flying Whales, a French company that joined the race for green transport in 2012, has teamed up with regional government to start building airships, 154m long and 43m high, at Laruscade, near Bordeaux, southwest France.

According to the plan, backed by the Nouvelle Aquitaine government and state agencies, the first of 150 dirigibles is expected to fly in 2023.

Like rival projects in Britain, America and China, Flying Whales sees a big future for dirigibles that were abandoned after disasters before the Second World War.

The new generation have a big advantage over conventional aircraft – they emit up to 90 per cent less carbon, do not gulp fuel and can stay in the air for days. Lifted by inert helium, the Flying Whale is designed to hoist a load of 60 tonnes from remote terrain, replacing heavy helicopters and trucks and the need for roads. “The machine is going to load and unload its belly cargo bay while hovering above a port or forest. There will be no trace on the ground,” Sebastien Bougon, the company founder, said. “Our dirigibles will consume 50 times less [fuel] than aircraft per tonne carried … and they can become completely electric.”

Mr Bougon, who has finance from the National Forests Office and has raised euros 200 million of a targeted euros 450 million, said that his forecasts were realistic. “There have been a lot of blimp projects and there have been many failures,” he said. “We have a solid base. The wood market alone justifies our investments.” The “whales”, driven by seven electric propulsors fed by a generator, are designed to carry outsizes cargo, such as pylons, wind turbines and even houses, slung underneath. The company is aiming for commercial certification in 2025.

It has no plans to carry passengers, unlike one rival, the British Airlander 10, made by Hybrid Air Vehicles. The craft is being developed at Cardington, Bedfordshire, home of the R series of airships that ended with the deadly crash of the R101 in France in 1930 on its maiden overseas flight.

The Airlander, a hybrid that gains some of its lift in flight from a winglike shape, suffered mishaps in 2016 and 2017 but expects to begin testing the new version soon, with deliveries from 2024. The company is targeting green tourism and military use for its craft.

Two rival projects are under way in the United States, one in Russia and one in Canada. Zeppelins continue to fly for advertising, surveillance and small-scale tourist services.

The Times