Blimps

News

US Military’s New Spy-Blimp Struggling To Find Enough Helium

12:00AM September 23, 2011 | Brent Rose

Yes, the world’s helium supply is slowly running out, and as sad as it will be to see thousands of tear-stained cheeks of balloonless birthday boys and girls, the military is already feeling the sting. More »

Geek Out

The $US40 Million Delivery Blimp

12:30PM August 31, 2011 | Andrew Tarantola

The Ice Road Truckers may soon have themselves some competition if Canadian specialty aviation company, Discovery Air, has its way. They want to deliver supplies to the Great White North’s most remote locales via dirigible by 2014. More »

News

Watch Yesterday’s Tragic Goodyear Blimp Crash

4:00AM June 14, 2011 | apisuper

The pilot of a Goodyear blimp died in Germany on Sunday when his airship, due to be retired in 2013, caught fire landing. Before dying, the heroic pilot saved three passengers by ordering them to jump. [Jalopnik]

News

After 100 Years, Goodyear Ditches Blimps For Zeppelins

11:20PM May 5, 2011 | Matt Hardigree

After building blimps for almost 100 years, Goodyear’s teaming up with Ze Germans and canning their three blips for a fleet of Teutonic zeppelins set to go into operation in 2013. The zeppelins will be longer, fly faster, and hold more people. None of which will help make it anything but a more novel way of providing a stadium shot before football and baseball telecasts go to commercial. More »

Geek Out

Afghanistan’s Dirigibile War Takes Flight

2:00AM April 4, 2011 | Jack Loftus

The U.S. military is serious about balloons over Afghanistan. Not the party kind, mind you—we are not deploying clowns to the front—but the kind that bristle with reconnaissance gear. The spying kind. More »

Computing

All-Seeing Blimp Could Be Afghanistan’s Biggest Brain

11:20AM January 19, 2011 | Noah Shachtman - Wired

Later this year, there’ll be a new and extremely powerful supercomputer in Afghanistan. It’ll be floating 20,000 feet (6000m) above the warzone, aboard a giant spy blimp that watches and listens to everything for miles around. More »

Cars

The Future Of Cargo Transport Is A Slow Aussie UFO

5:00AM October 4, 2010 | Jack Loftus

The future of heavy cargo transportation looked positively eco-friendly and blimp-like earlier this year, so it’s really no surprise that Australia’s Skylifter cargo blimp is making the internet rounds this weekend. More »

What Would A Green London Look Like?

10:00PM August 6, 2010 | Kat Hannaford

You can pretty much insert your local area’s landmarks in the following amazing images from photographer Andy Spain, because it’s an issue that obviously affects us all. More »

Cars

Global Blimp Network Will Deliver Our Goods By 2020

6:40PM July 1, 2010 | Gary Cutlack

If you’re still sad-faced about never getting a go in Concorde we have yet more bad news – air travel is getting slower again. This time we’re warping back to 1930s flight speeds, thanks to a new wave of cargo blimps. More »

Cars

Bullet 580 Blimp Is The World’s Largest Airship – Which You Can Hire

9:38PM May 20, 2010 | Kat Hannaford

Costing $US8 million, the Bullet 580 is the world’s largest blimp, measuring 71m long and 6m in diameter. Able to be flown remotely or with a crew, you could rent it – for over $US300,000 a month. More »