I can totally see a Hindenburg happening here.

I see an economical way to move people/things about. I guess if it was painted with a highly flammable substance, yeah there would be an issue, but since that problem has been recognized, looks good to me.

This thing goes only around 120mph. It would take you around 5x longer to get to your destination as it would aboard a 747. But it would probably be safer, and a lot more comfortable. Still.. a 3 hour trip becomes a 15 hour trip. They'd better have beds, real food, and internet access on board.

peoeple get on curse ships all the time. in those speed doesnt matter.
this would a great way to see mountains or costs. One of these things would be awesome!

@laneet88: I was thinking- Zorin Industries blimp meeting room from "View To A Kill" with trap doors to get rid of pesky investors that don't see eye to eye with your evil schemes.

This is good for short hops over mountainous territory, where a train would be slow and a car route circuitous. Going 120 knots in a bee-line for your destination will probably cut 75% off your car travel time. Until TSA gets their hands on you...

A blimp with a nike swoosh...... please.

5,000 square feet isn't all that big considering that the Airbus A380 has 6,000 square ft when both decks are considered. Especially if you think how slow this thing is.

[www.cnn.com]

However, if the cost of this vehicle is right (lower fuel costs), it might be worth it for flying short range.

Or they can make luxury gambling casinos (like they do with those cruise ships); fly over international waters and commence gambling.

Big Black Delta technology comes to the masses. Or I'm just a conspiracy nutjob. Take your pick.

I want a plexiglass bottom deck.

Transparent pool hanging off the bottom. Makes my bits crawl.

@ SCARAMANGA
Yea but these are private jets/blimps.
So that isnt a very good comparison.

I get the appeal, but the military angle is a little weird. I'm thinking a giant, slow, flying hollow shell is exactly what I DON'T want to be in if anyone is shooting at me.

is anyone else not able to watch the video? I click it, i get the article as usual, but no video....whats wrong with the world....

goo goo g'joob

It's pretty good looking considering the size of the thing, but I'm pretty sure it will remain a novelty. Jet airplane travel is too tried-and-tested, and it looks too much like a zeppelin to avoid the Hindenburg stereotype.

Hey ELLIUOTATAR, 120 kts is 138 mph not 120mph. I think a key point here is that in general aviation the majority of small planes out there don't cruise much faster than 120kts. In fact most single engine Cessna's cruise at 105kts (compare that to 20-30kts on cruise ships) - and it is surprising how much faster you can get places. First you have straight line travel, plus you are going faster than interstate traffic, and there are no wrecks, construction, stoplights, etc. to slow you down. As long as they have internet this would be a much more comfortable way to travel than economy on a normal jet.

Next thing you know, they will be making a swimming blimp.

@Scaramanga: Excellent point about the square footage.

Can I take one to Flosten Paradise?

At first when i saw the image the video first shows before playing, I thought the plane was on fire because the sky looked red and orange, then i watched it to make sure, and it turns out...it was just a nice orange sky....I was hoping for a explosion.

Did any of you ever read "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed"?
by John McPhee.
It's a true story all about the attempts to develop just such an aircraft! I wonder if any of the same people are involved?

I'm excited about this ship.

next month yet all they have are CGI shots? They better get cracking...

The 6° generation IPod would be introduce probably in a keynote over this Aeroscraft.´
The Presentation should go broadcast by satellite but in the middle of the ocean you get a terribly storm, we lost the connection.
Another upsetting keynote.

When will apple listen to users comments on blogs and pages like this one and for a second or two realize what we really need/want?

excuse my english, in my country we dont have itunes store so we dont speak english very well.

Ontopic: I like the aircraft the design the video could have been better, we got the idea but I wasnt impress by the visual so much to show and we have to imagine all the rest.

@drumz0rz: Exactly.

I'm not clear they've solved the problems that have kept blimps in the curiosity zone.

There was a big German effort called Cargolifter that appears to have burned through a lot of cash and not produced anything real. Shrug.

When ever I see businesses selling airships starting to get financial backing that always sets of my "market is about to crash" siren.

These could definitely replace trains and smaller cargo ships. The area taken up by a train yard could easily accommodate a couple of these things. If they could load/unload as fast as a cargo ship I think they could make some real money.

Thunderbird 2 GO!

like Drumzorz.... look like a big scam: one month and no footage of the beast for real? yep, and I am the queen of england.

hello what are you complaining about, its designed for replacing shipping containers via ship, not to mention hell i dont mind the long flight if i've got a hotel room with satellite tv and who knows maybe even room service! that'd be wicked

And when I said I was waiting for these, some people think I was nuts.... [gizmodo.com]

@Elliuotatar:
Think of the decentralizing of the USA airport HUBs and a 3 hrs flight on a 747 becomes a 6 to 7 hrs ordeal... 2 hrs to park, ticket, TSA and board + 1 hr to get out of airport / rent car / luggage, etc...

Decentralized airport = local city runway, short line and quick take off.

So your thinking is only 6 ~ 7 hrs difference.

I rather take a longer flight with good diner, movie, internet and a bed over a shorter trip flying in a sardine can any day.

Even without the Hindenburg, the Airship wouldn't have succumb to the jet era as much as ship travel has. Or at least as economic feasibility goes, still I've always wanted to travel on an Airship in Luxury. Frankly, I don't think airplanes ever quiet got there. Then again, as they said, time will tell. To me, luxury means not having to be anywhere soon, and aircraft are perhaps too quick to enjoy the journey.

Eh, would have rather. Blah.

That being said, you can't tell me that if you had a time machine you wouldn't take a flight on the Hindenburg. Even if it did go up in flames, it was quiet a ship. Biggest aircraft to ever fly.

@ramman345: I totally agree with you, and I think this could be much more cost effective than current airbuses. One doesn't have to burn fuel to achieve lift, leaving only forward drag to overcome, and at 120 knots, that wouldn't be too bad. With 5000 square feet, this could be someone's badazz skypad. How much per unit?? How much to crew? Pipe dreams, but hey, someone has to be the next Billy Jobs Thornton, right?

BY LANEET88 AT 08/07/07 08:38 PM

I can totally see a Hindenburg happening here.

Um, that was 70 years ago. You don't think they've fixed the problems since then? I suppose you believe that supersonic flight should be discontinued because of the 2000 Concorde crash? Which by the way, is probably more dangerous. That being said, unless I'm mistaken this craft would become the largest aircraft in the world when complete.

Video says this is the size of three football fields. Since when does that equal 5,000 square feet? An American Football field is almost 58,000 square feet. We are looking at three times that!!

The video states this is the size of three football fields. Since when is even one football field only 5,000 square feet? An American football field is just under 58,000 square feet! This is HUGE!!! I think the 5,000 square feet must be designated lounge space.

@bbfreak: well, as the only problem was that it was filled with superflammable hydrogen, thats an easy fix... this isnt being made by nazis, so the US government wont disallow them from getting helium to fill it with...

Top Level Specifications:
Maximum Speed 155 mph - - - 250 kmh
Cruise Speed 0-120 mph - - - 0-193 kph
Operating Altitude 0-12,000 ft - - - 0-3,657 m
Maximum Range 3,100 mi - - - 5,000 km
Overall Length 210 ft - - - 64 m
Overall Width 95.1 ft - - - 29 m
Overall Height 44.9 ft - - - 13.7 m
Floor Area 5,382 ft² - - - 500 m²

This is all from their website.

Sorry, air travel is already long enough. Who would want to fly in this huge blimp thing when they could hop on a private jet and get there 5 x faster?? And conference rooms are best left on the ground, with T1 connections and videoconferencing.

I think the point isn't about travel speed, in fact, obviously it's NOT about travel speed, but rather efficiency in terms of cargo, or possible luxury in terms of passenger travel.

I've always thought it was unfortunate that the hindenburg happened the way it did because I always thought it'd be really cool to fly low and slow over land to be able to see things as you fly by instead of just seeing clouds out of a portal sized window on a plane. Also, you'd probably be able to open windows and what not, and get fresh air.

The scene in Indiana Jones on the zepplin looked to me like it was a pretty good representation of what could be possible with a flying airship (minus the throwing people out of the windows at altitude.... "NO TICKET!").

@ShockTerminal:
Damn, you beat me to it!
Where did I put that green paint...

Sure it might have slightly less square footage of floor space. But from the video it looked like it would have a lot more cubic footage of cargo space when configured for it.

If I were retired (and rich), I'd totally love to have one of these instead of the ubiquitous RVs.

Ummm...
What happens to this thing in bad weather and/or high winds???

@laneet88: Do you know the difference between Hydrogen and Helium?
@bandit: As you go up in altitude, the cargo carrying capacity goes down. Blimps (like this, non-specialized, people carrying) become inefficient at high altitudes.
@ricksbrain: Water is heavy.
@Nauthiz: With Blimps, sqft (or cubic ft) is less important than mass. How much mass you put on a blimp is relative to volume of Helium.

This baby better be equipped with chaff or something. At 12,000 feet, a top speed of 155mph and hauling 5000 tons of precious cargo, this is a terrorists wet dream. All it will take is a single well-aimed Javelin to knock out a supply infrastructure relying on this thing...

If they actually build these (and that's a BIG if) and they are as easy to roll in and out of as the video shows. I see these becoming interstate ferries:

Drive 25-50 miles to your closest blimp-port, drive on up into the sucker, grab a window seat and a frosty beverage, and fly your family and car from your home in Nevada to grandma's house in Illinois. Gas is getting expensive and it would relieve some of the pressure on the Interstate system.

How many times have you planned out a trip and ended up spending 2 extra vacation days driving just so you would have a car at the other end?

@BANDIT:
I'm not so sure this would work for a ""short" trip like that. Seems to be too big for such a thing. Perhaps a scaled down version

@IREPO:
5,000 sq ft, but the question is how many cubic ft? 58,000 sq ft is just floor space, how many floors would this have? if its 5,000 sqft per floor, 10 floors and they've got it made. Bout the size of an office building I'd say. Not too practical either though, so it may be a mistake like you're saying.

And never might, re-reading the post under yours IREPO, it looks like they just dont know what they're talking about.

They aren't launching next month. If you read the press release they're just going to an air show to solicit comments from potential customers. I know Giz has a lot of posts, but don't you guys do any research? That took my 5 minutes.

This will never get past novelty. It's slower than a jet, and doesn't have any advantages to make up for it. People need speed and cargo will always be cheaper to send by train or ship.

If I had the money, I'd totally make this a party barge!! Just make sure the exits are secure so some drunk moron doesn't wander up to one, thinking it's the bathroom! Swimming pool, hot tub, sound system, stocked bar... Oh the fun I would have! =-D

In case nobody said it already, water weighs in at 6 pounds per gallon. There's no way this thing could lift a swimming pool. You'd have to settle for a little hot tub action.

@Brock: Not really.
Think of the logistics to get it to a train to ship coast to coast and the time it takes.

A container from China takes 12 days on the boat and 2 to 3 days to load and unload.(I'm actually right now in this predicament)

If you have a container to ship you drop it off a your local airport with a truck and it's gone.
4 to 5 days later is across the globe.

So what's faster & cheaper now?

This would be great to hold Legion of Doom meets on.

Forget passengers. This thing will put truckers out of business.

Looks like a aeronautic attempt at a flying Shamoo. Only fatter and less graceful. ML866, I dub thee The Dorca.

Think of using one as a hospital ship for disaster areas, 'quick response' logistics center also for disasters, cruising around scenic areas at a reasonably low altitude so you can see the scenery.

I could also see some Evil Genius(tm) like Sergei or Larry buying one and loading it to the gills w/hardware and programmers and take them to places where 'things need to be done'

This design would make a great island hopping cruise ship - no need for ports, just a big parking lot to set down in. Ha - Walmarts of the world here we come!

Cid and cloud wouldn't ride in that, Ultima would hit it once and it would go down. Highwind ftw!

There is a reason that the "aeroscraft" is shown with military applications. In the air, nothing can haul a payload like a blimp. Transporting tanks and heavy equipment or cargo over secured air space more efficient then using normal aircraft and much quicker then doing it on the ground. The fuel economy and weight that can be lifted will greatly out perform a 747.

I could see this being used in a lot of industrial and military operations. Hell, something like this might eliminate the need for ice road truckers.

While it won't replace normal air travel, there is definitely plenty of places this could be used.

I'd hate to hit some significant turbulence in one of these. Think about it... you're sitting in your luxury cabin sipping champaign when suddenly, the ship drops oh, say, 40 or 50 feet or so. If you hit the bed you could probably survive ... assuming you live through the beating you get from all the loose objects in the room suddenly flying about.

If you're strapped into an airplane you only notice your stomach doing flip-flops. In one of these, *you* would be doing the flip-flops!

@Scaramanga:

Yes, but can an Airbus A380 get off the ground with those two decks fully loaded?