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Aviation blimps to replace aircaft scientist says

Published on July 7th, 2010 | by Zachary Shahan

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Blimps to Replace Aircraft for Freight Transport (at least) in Near Future, Leading Scientist Says

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July 7th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan 

blimps to replace aircaft scientist says

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“Helium-powered ships could be carrying freight – and even passengers – in as little as a decade’s time,” Juliette Jowit of the Guardian reports.

One of the world’s leading scientists, the UK’s former chief scientific adviser Professor Sir David King, told attendees at the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford recently that massive helium balloons would soon replace aircraft for much of global trade.

“Despite languishing in sci-fi B-movies for most of the last 70 years, King said several major air and defence companies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, were working on designs, and the US defence department had recently made a large grant to help develop the technology,” Jowit says.

These helium-powered machines could be carrying freight or even passengers in less than 10 years, King said.

“There are an awful lot of people we talk to who say this is going to happen, ” said King. “This is something I believe is going to happen.”

With much of our greenhouse gas emissions coming from transportation, this could make a huge dent in global warming pollution.

“A recent report on mobility by the Smith School, for example, quoted an estimate by one developer, UK-owned SkyCat, that it could carry twice the weight of strawberries from Spain to the UK of a standard cargo plane, with a 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, much of which is from avoiding the huge fuel burn a jet engine uses to take off.”

This is an exciting looking development in the world of transportation. I hope to see it ‘get off the ground’ in the near future.

Photo Credit: the_tahoo_guy via flickr

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About the Author

spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.


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  • Frank Hanlan

    I don’t want to be negative but every time I think about the possibility of using blimps for hauling freight I think about their susceptibility to damage from wind, hail, lightning, etc. and the huge facilities needed to store/protect them. I also wonder how well they could function in northern climes during the winter.

    • http://lightngreen.com Zachary Shahan

      interesting thoughts. i wonder as well now

  • Seth

    That is odd isn’t it. I thought our Helium supplies where in danger of running out. I know it is the most stable gas to use for a blimp but we do not have infinite supply of the gas.

  • Chris V

    Helium is a limited resource. By some estimates we have a 25 year supply. That’s because helium is so light that it doesn’t stay in our atmosphere. What helium we find is where salt domes formed over granite. There is a limited number of places in the world where this occurred.

    http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/07/science-policy-gone-bad-may-mean-the-end-of-earths-helium.ars

    • http://lightngreen.com Zachary Shahan

      wow, wasn’t aware of that. interesting.

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