The big trick with these homemade blimps is using hot air (read:fire) for lift power, like a hot air balloon, instead of helium or hydrogen. Dan Nachbar’s Skyacht is one of the more intensely engineered crafts, with steerable thrust and an intricate system of ribs that lets the engine sit in the tail itself. Brian Boland’s Lips, on the other hand, has a simpler design, and fits in the back of a car.

If I built a blimp, I would make it look like a shark, and I would sneak up on other people’s blimps, so it would look like my blimp was about to eat theirs. [Popular Mechanics]

The dude’s nearly 80 years old by the way. He’s dual-wielding mobile phones, flyin’, rappin‘ and punching out lunatics. I want to be like him when I grow up. [Up Ship Thanks Jonathan!]

Extinction level events aside, the first few moments of this Festo promotional video are pretty amazing. Those little blue-eyed Terminator penguins you see swimming around the tank are autonomous, and can navigate and interact with other robopenguins without fail. They can even swim backwards, which is impossible to do if you’re a flesh and blood penguin. I think they also eat the diver, but obviously that’s been edited out.

Festo designers also created another blimp robot, in true Festo fashion, this time shaped like a penguin (to further mock real penguins, which cannot fly).

The reactive wall seen in the video, which responds to a person’s body movement using a variety of shape shifting techniques and sound, is also pretty bloody awesome. And eerie, actually. On second thought, I think I like my walls dumb and unresponsive. [Festo via Engadget]

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]

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]