The concept’s designer, Reindy Allendra, imagines the aircraft being constructed from material similar to the giant Airbus A380’s GLARE composite: Glass-Reinforced fibre Metal Laminate made of thin layers of metal and glass fibre.

The WB-1010 would supplement its fuel use with the ability to harvest wind energy into electricity. An extractable robotic stand would also be used during the craft’s vertical landings.

Totally pie in the sky stuff, but very cool. Zoom in on the pic above for specifics. I wonder if United will actually have in-flight Wi-Fi on more than 13 planes 85 years from now? [Reindy Allendra via Yanko Design]

Dubbed the Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), the craft will be based on Lockheed Martin’s P-791 experimental hybrid airship, which you can see in the video below. The smaller P-791 was 38 metres long, but flew six tests in 2006. It’s known as a hybrid because only 80% of its lift comes from buoyancy; the other 20% comes from three downward thrusters on each side.

As for the LEMV: a 12-metre long, 4.6-metre wide area behind the only sometimes-manned cockpit will carry intelligence systems, like radar and wide-area motion sensors, that will beam information back to commanders on the ground.

Totally makes me think of Aeon Flux or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Crazy. [Aviation Week via The Register]

The Sanswire-TAO STS-111 is a 34-metre long, 3.3-metre tall multi-segmented, non-rigid airship. [Sanswire via Flight Global]

The helium airship, named for the Greek god of the wind, is only in the concept stage for now. But it looks like something out of Dinotopia, and the goofy vertical design is surprisingly cool.

[Treehugger]

Details on the flight itself are scarce, but we do know that 75-metre long airship will be under the command of the world’s only female Zeppelin pilot and it will take off somewhere in the Bay area. The band Abney Park will also be on board and rumour has it that might even take a few requests. Currently, there are 8 spots left on the historic flight, and tickets are selling for $US785. It’s a hefty sum, but remember that price pays for the whole seat—but I am sure that you will only need the edge. Ticket info is available in the following link. [Abney Park and Airship Ventures via Boing Boing]

Most experts say that the dirigibles will likely remain a niche vessel. The flying machines can only reach top speeds of around 160 kph, fly in fair to good weather, and hold a maximum capacity of several dozen passengers. Not to mention, each one is still about the size of a football field. But at least now, thanks to improvements in materials and safety standards, passengers won’t have to worry about being trapped in another Hindenburg. [New York Times]

The new Zeppelin NT—yes, capital Z because it’s made by the Zeppelin company—is about 20% larger than a blimp, but it’s still small by Zep standards, with just room for 12 passengers and a crew. It’s “semi-rigid,” meaning that it’s got an internal framework but not a totally solid hull like the Zeppelins of old. It’s also got a single gas chamber, rather than multiple cells. They also achieve lift with helium, which may make your voice sound funny, but won’t go “boom” to the horror of radio announcers everywhere.

NTs have been in action since the 1990s, all over Europe and Japan. Fun fact: When a Japanese firm bought one in 2004, they wanted to re-enact a historic (pre-Axis) flight of the Graf Zeppelin, from Germany to Japan, but Russia said “Ix nay.” [The Standard via Slashdot; More great pics from official Zeppelin site]