Largest airship since Hindenburg begins test flights, other ventures progress toward commercialization
By Alan Farnham|December 2024
The Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technical Committee stimulates development of knowledge related to airships and aerostats for use in a host of applications from transportation to surveillance.
In October, California-based LTA Research began outdoor, untethered test flights with its Pathfinder 1 prototype. The largest aircraft in the world as well as the first rigid airship to be built in 85 years, Pathfinder 1 is comprised of advanced materials including carbon fiber and has diesel-electric propulsion, though plans call for later transitioning to hybrid-electric. Plans call for 25 low-level test flights over and around San Francisco Bay, for a combined 50 hours.
In August, Sceye of New Mexico announced it completed a diurnal stratospheric flight, in which its remotely piloted airship kept position over a fixed area for 24 hours, using solar power during the day and battery storage at night. The company called this a precursor to longer-duration flights with such high-altitude platform systems, or HAPS.
In June, Hybrid Air Vehicles of the U.K. announced the accrual of £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) in reservations for its Airlander 10 hybrid airships. This includes 20 craft reserved last year by Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum, an unspecified number by French ecotourism company Grands Espaces, and six by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership for transporting cargo and passengers throughout the Scottish Isles. HAV said in February that it had begun the type certification process for Airlander 10 and that the company selected Doncaster, South Yorkshire, for the site where it will employ about 1,200 people and fabricate 24 craft per year.
In May, Goodyear unveiled a new base for its European airship operations at Mülheim/Essen Airport in Germany. In April, China’s state-owned conglomerate Aviation Industry Corp. said its multipurpose civilian airship, AS700, made its first ferry flight and that 18 were on order, with deliveries scheduled before the end of the year.
In January, California-based H2 Clipper announced it received a patent for building large rigid airships by means of “swarm robotics” — a technique that the company said could radically reduce the cost and time required for constructing its planned hydrogen-powered airships.
In February, Flying Whales of France announced it will locate manufacturing facilities for its proposed 60-ton lift LCA60T hybrid cargo airship in Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
In August, Galaxy Unmanned Systems of Texas announced it had begun planning to send one of its uncrewed craft on an autonomous nonstop flight around the world in 2029. The mission is intended to demonstrate the company’s artificial intelligence technology and pay homage to the Graf Zeppelin’s 1929 circumnavigation, the first such flight by an airship. The announcement followed one by British airship operator Straightline Aviation of its own proposed nonstop circumnavigation with a piloted Z1 hybrid airship, made by AT Squared Aerospace of California.
In supply chain news, Russian scientists, writing in the August issue of the journal Fuel, announced the discovery of a process for producing hydrogen in situ by injecting steam and a catalyst into natural gas wells and then igniting the gas. The authors said this process yields a mixture of gases from which hydrogen can be extracted with 45% efficiency. In February, Canada-based Pulsar Helium announced the discovery of a helium deposit in Minnesota it called the “richest in the world” and one of the most concentrated. Market expert Phil Kornbluth predicted that helium supply and demand will remain substantially in balance for the foreseeable future.
