hybrid enterprises
The Hybrid Airship from Lockheed Martin and Hybrid Enterprises is the product of 20 years of development. It can travel thousands of kilometers in a single journey, at speeds of up to 60 knots, the company says.
Lockheed Martin
The airship is designed to allow the delivery of large loads of cargo to otherwise inaccessible areas. It can carry a 20 ton load.
lockheed martin
Lockheed says its airship uses only one tenth of the fuel required by helicopters per ton and, like helicopters, can access remote areas around the world as it does not require an airstrip to land on.
hybrid enterprises
The design could allow mining of areas such as the frozen North of Canada, or low-infrastructure regions of Guinea.
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The ships are currently undergoing FAA certification, and could be available in 2018.
CNN
The price has not been disclosed, but each ship will likely cost over $10 million.
Courtesy Hydrid Air Vehicles
Lockheed Martin are not the only firm looking to bring back the blimp. The Airlander 10 is a hybrid airship designed by UK-based firm Hybrid Air Vehicles.
Courtesy Hybrid Air Vehicles
The lightweight airship, seen here in a concept illustration, can carry up to 10 tons and stay in the air for five days continuously.
Courtesy Hybrid Air Vehicles
Airlander 10 was originally designed for the U.S. military to use for surveillance of troops and conflict zones overseas, but a lack of funding grounded the project.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images/file
HAV brought the technology back and is underway with plans to lift off again thanks to a £3.4 million ($5.1 million) grant from the UK government, aimed at helping emerging technologies and job creation.
AEROS
Another cargo-carrying blimp in the works is the Aeroscraft from U.S.-based aviation company, Aeros.
AEROS
The Aeroscraft is designed to carry large loads of cargo over long distances to areas where there is little or no infrastructure.
AEROSCORP
Aeroscorp, which also makes advertising airships, is testing a smaller version of the Aeroscraft at the company's massive flight test hangar in Tustin, California.
Image: Raytheon
Other airships in development include Raytheon's JLENS aerostat, designed to carry out surveillance missions, hovering high in the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 30 days at a time.
General Photographic Agency/Getty Images/File
Airships were once hailed as the future of flight. Glamorous, luxurious and fast, they were one of the icons of the Art Deco era.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
They developed from the hot air balloon; the Montgolfier brothers launched the first manned balloon flight in Paris in 1783.
Fotosearch/Getty Images/File
Hydrogen-filled balloons were used for surveillance and reconnaissance during the American Civil War in the 1860s.
But the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937, put paid to the era of passenger-carrying airships.
Feng Li/Getty Images
Over the decades, they have continued to be used for advertising, and at sporting events, such as this one at the London 2012 Olympics.

Story highlights

The new Hybrid Airship is a helium-powered design capable of hauling 20 tons

The ship may allow the mining of precious minerals in remote parts of Africa

CNN  — 

Best known for floating aimlessly above sports stadiums, and for their slightly comic, bloated shape, blimps are an unlikely subject for a 21st century revival.

But after 20 years of development, Lockheed Martin and Hybrid Enterprises are poised to unleash a revolutionary new design that could unlock resources worth billions of dollars across the African continent.

01:06 - Source: CNN
Superblimp: "No roads, no problem"

The Hybrid Airship is a helium-powered craft that can cover thousands of kilometers in a single journey, with a top speed of 60 knots. The craft can take off and land without a runway, and the cavernous interior can carry loads of 20 tons.

At the recent African Mining Indaba event in Cape Town, the Airship was presented as a vital asset for mining companies across the continent. Using the tag “No roads, No problem,” promoters emphasized its ability to access remote but lucrative mineral sources.

“It will land on water, sand, a field, even ice,” said a Hybrid Enterprises spokesperson.

Industry in need of new ideas

Given the downturn in commodities prices across the continent, and the inaccessibility of key sites – Sundance’s Mbalam-Nabeba project straddles the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo and required the building of a 510-kilometer rail line - the Airship could offer relief and opportunity to the beleaguered industry.

Robert S. Stewart, head of mining firm Interop AG, has researched the ship’s potential impact on projects across the continent, including the largest – Rio Tinto’s putative $20 billion iron ore plant in Simandou, Guinea.

“The airship could save the project $7 billion by staging it in a completely different way,” he says.

Rio Tinto
Airships could facilitate mining projects such as the Simandou iron ore plant in Guinea.

Stewart believes the new design could bypass many of the most expensive and time-consuming aspects of mining.

“When you build a project in a remote area, you always have to start with a road, a railway line, and a power line before you build the smelter,” says Stewart. “With an airship you can fly straight in, without even an airport, just an area the size of two or three football fields.”

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The vast majority of “low-hanging fruit” have been extracted already, according to Stewart, who estimates that over 90% of existing mineral resources in Africa - including vast gold and diamond deposits - are in “hidden, remote locations.”

He believes the industry must innovate and adapt to these new circumstances.

The shape of the future

Mining consultant Stan Sudol, publisher of respected industry website republicofmining.com, agrees the ship could be a game changer, that will allow commodities to be fast-tracked to market.

Hybrid Enterprise
Comparison graphic from Hybrid Enterprise

“They can be used to set up initial mine site development for less cost in a faster time-frame as no local airstrip is necessary to start cargo delivery,” says Sudol.

Hybrid Enterprises hope the ships – which are currently undergoing FAA certification – will be in operation by 2018. The cost of each unit is expected to run to tens of millions of dollars, although the price has not yet been disclosed.

Neither is this the only airship preparing for launch. The Airlander 10 from Hybrid Air Vehicles, and the Stratobus from Thales, are just two of the new designs preparing to join the blimp revival.