Blimps are slow, fare poorly in wind, and are a pain to launch and land. But they can lift a ton and don’t burn much gas. So Ohio entrepreneurs Robert Rist and Brian Martin decided to crossbreed a blimp with a fixed-wing airplane, pairing the former’s lightweight characteristics with the latter’s stability and handling. The result is Dynalifter, a $500,000, 117-foot-long prototype vessel that works the runway like a jet, yet requires a fraction of the fuel to operate. "Rather than spending a quarter of a billion dollars on a new airplane," Martin says, "you can build an airship to perform the same function for much less."
Although similar craft have been proposed for use in everything from luxury travel to large military deployments, Ohio Airship’s Dynalifter will likely be the first to take off. Test flights are scheduled for this spring in Alliance, Ohio. If all goes as planned, Rist and Martin intend to start what they’re calling a "roadless trucking" service, eventually building a 990-foot-long hauler. Oh, the efficiency!
- Timothy Sprinkle
credit Nathan Kirkman
Dyna-mite! Ohio Airship’s prototype Dyanalifter.
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