Blimp

As handy as multicopter drones are, the endlessly spinning blades are noisy, energy-intensive and potentially dangerous. So Japanese company NTT Docomo has now unveiled bouncy blimp-like drones that get around using an ultrasonic propulsion system.

​It was just last year that we heard about the Plimp, a sort of plane/blimp/helicopter hybrid drone manufactured by Egan Airships. As was hinted at then, the Seattle-based company has now officially announced that it's working on a passenger-carrying variant known as the Model J.

French researchers and the ScanPyramids project have joined forces to develop a new robot exploration platform. The current focus is on developing a two robot platform capable of looking into and mapping inaccessible areas of ancient buildings without blowing through doors and walls to do so.​

​What do you get when you cross a plane with a blimp? A Plimp. That's not a joke, it's what the thing is actually called. The unmanned aircraft has a helium-filled envelope allowing for blimp-like buoyancy, while its winged rigid body allows it to travel quick-ish like a conventional drone.​

​As more drones crowd into the airspace, we’re going to need measures to keep them from crashing into each other. Researchers are teaching drones a few simple rules to help them avoid collisions on their own.

The Air HES concept claims to yield both clean water and electricity by using a high-flying airship to harvest and condense water vapor which it then uses to spin up an electric turbine generator to create power.

Last July, we first heard about Goodyear’s plans to replace its current fleet of blimps with newer, more advanced models. The first of those airships, which was unnamed at the time, made its maiden flight this March. Now called Wingfoot One, it officially began active service last Friday.

On Friday, Goodyear unveiled its new state-of-the-art blimp at its Wingfoot Lake hangar in Suffield, Ohio. Built in partnership with the Zeppelin company, the new craft that replaces the 45-year old GZ-20 blimp fleet is not only larger and faster, it isn’t even a blimp, but a semi-rigid airship.

California-based Aeros Corporation has received FAA Airworthiness certification to begin flight testing of a new type of rigid airship called an Aeroscraft. New photographs show the giant airship outside flying under its own power, but connected by tethers to the ground.

The iconic Goodyear blimps that are a common sight in the skies over stadiums at sporting events in the US are set to become iconic Goodyear zeppelins. The company says its new airships will be longer, faster and more maneuverable than the current fleet, while being less expensive to operate.

Nanoblimp, billed as “the world’s smallest RC blimp,” uses a plain ol’ party-variety helium balloon as its gas envelope.

Aeros has created a prototype of its new breed of variable buoyancy air craft and it expects the vehicle to be finished before the end of 2012.