Boeing Tries the Blimp Biz

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article today about Boeing's new venture with Canada's SkyHook International to produce a heavylift blimp capable of moving heavyweight cargoes up to 230 miles.

What's interesting about this is that it could be a perfect asset for movement of drilling rigs and other heavy cargoes needed in remote locations.  However I immediately thought of an potentially really ironic use.

Airbus produces commercial aircraft components from assembly plants located all over Europe. These travel to the Toulouse, France final assembly plant by road, barge, and even the "Beluga" customized version of the Airbus A330.  (Check out this youtube video to see what I'm talking about.)

What if this new airship, called the JHL-40, were used to move components of the Airbus A380?  The components are huge and heavy. Any ability to transport them by air would be a major logistics cost saver.  Given that Boeing and Airbus are fierce competitors, the irony of using a Boeing platform to deliver Airbus assets to final assembly would be rich indeed.

clipped from online.wsj.com Boeing Plans Bold Airship Hauler By J. Lynn Lunsford July 9, 2008 Boeing Co. has teamed with Canada's closely held SkyHook International Inc. to combine a blimp and four helicopter rotors into a behemoth airship capable of hauling heavy drilling, mining and timber equipment into remote wilderness areas. The two companies say they hope to have the 302-foot long airship ready for commercial service by 2012, although the marriage of helicopter and lighter-than-air technologies will require them to overcome some significant hurdles that doomed an attempt at a similar contraption in the mid-1980s. The aircraft will break new ground by achieving what is known as neutral buoyancy, in which the helium-filled blimp will provide enough lift to bear the weight of the aircraft, including the engines and rotors. By doing this, all the lift generated by the rotors will be available for lifting payloads, a significant advantage over conventional helicopters that expend much of their energy getting the aircraft to fly. The plan is for the ship to carry loads as heavy as 80,000 pounds as far as 230 miles. Officials said the aircraft's ability to lift and easily transport dense or bulky items such as drilling rigs or other oil-field equipment will make it possible for oil, timber and mining companies to more quickly explore remote areas while reducing the environmental damage caused by road construction. The companies say they believe there is demand for roughly 65 of these aircraft, mainly for use in remote regions of North America. They said the aircraft has potential military-cargo uses as well, but their first goal is to get it into the commercial market.

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Comments

[Andreas]

Hey ya this Airship is quite the impressive thing. I would love to see it work. It would be a milestone for the Airship Industry.
I also wrote a Blog article about it with some background analysis. I believe it can work.
http://airshipworld.blogspot.com/2008/07/boeingskyhook-international-jhl-40.html

Regards

Andreas G
--
Editor of Airshipworld
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Visit the Airshipworld Blog at
http://airshipworld.blogspot.com
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[Joe Macri]

Eric, the Airbus piece would be ironic as would the fact that they can solve the problem for Airbus but not their own 787 (230 miles is not enough range to get any sections to Seattle from even the closest assembler in Kansas).