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Wakaranai writes:
"BBC News has a video report that a UK company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, is developing helium-filled hybrid airships for passengers and cargo.
The first prototype was 91 m long, and was built for the US Army. However, the military project was scrapped due to budget cuts, and the airship was returned to the UK. A larger vehicle is on the drawing board.
One of the companies shareholders is... err.. Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden!"
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 03 2014, @07:07PM
"I find it a bit hard to understand how they manage such poor fuel efficiency."
The smaller the engine the lower the efficiency. I imagine the little weed whacker engines on the blimp are not terribly efficient compared to the giant 747 engines.
Also the 747 flys extremely high altitude, lower air resistance.
Finally I imagine there's a huge fudge factor to account for wind, and its going to be brutally expensive pushing that blimp into headwinds.