Airships

If you want to get high-speed internet to people in remote communities, why not beam it to them from a high-flying blimp-like aircraft? That's just one of the proposed purposes of the Sceye HAPS, which uses solar power to hover in the stratosphere.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin quietly founded LTA Research in 2015, and its massive rigid airship prototype is preparing for its first outdoor flights, with a view to speeding up disaster response and starting zero-infrastructure cargo flights.

Zero-emissions long-distance aviation is absolutely possible... Provided you're not in a hurry. Solar Airship One will take 20 days to fly all the way around the equator, some 40,000 km (~25,000 miles), in a single zero-emissions hop.

H2 Clipper says large electric airships lifted and powered by green hydrogen stand ready to transport massive cargo loads over enormous distances much faster than cargo ships, and with zero emissions. But can they overcome the obvious obstacles?

With Hybrid Air Vehicles planning to commence production later this year, a new agreement with the Air Nostrum Group has been inked for the supply of a small fleet of 100-seat Airlander 10 airships to fly on Spanish domestic routes.

Sailing the world's oceans in a yacht is all very well and good, but what if you want to cruise over the land as well as on the water? Well, that's where the AirYacht is designed to come in, as it combines an airship with a yacht.

Pierpaolo Lazzarini is no stranger to pushing the envelope when it comes to design concepts. His latest effort, the Air Yacht, is designed to travel the sea or the skies in style, buoyed by twin helium-filled airships.

California startup H2 Clipper wants to bring back hydrogen-filled airships, claiming they can unlock completely green intercontinental cargo operations carrying 8-10 times the payload of any cargo plane over 6,000 miles, at a quarter of the price.

It was just last month that Hybrid Air Vehicles announced the planned production version of its Airlander 10 airship. At the time, the company mentioned an optional electric propulsion system – more details on that system have now been released.

We've been following the story of the Airlander 10 airship since 2010, back when it was being developed for the US Army. It's now aimed at civilian use, with information on the planned production version of the aircraft having just been released.

The University of the Highlands and Islands Perth College has developed and flown what is claimed to be the first aircraft powered by variable-buoyancy propulsion. In March, the unmanned Phoenix prototype made an indoor maiden flight, when it repeatedly flew for a distance of 120 m (395 ft).

​There's still some conjecture about exactly who got to the North pole first, but you can have a say in who goes there next. Swedish company OceanSky is selling a 30-hour travel package taking folk for a luxury picnic lunch at magnetic North, in the world's largest aircraft, the Airlander 10.