High-tech cargo airship being built in California

There was a company at Cardington working on building a massive cargo carrying airship, I haven't heard any more for years. I know the US military were interested in it.
 
BritinAfrica said:
There was a company at Cardington working on building a massive cargo carrying airship, I haven't heard any more for years. I know the US military were interested in it.
Click to expand...

I is called the SKYCAT and I am not sure they have finished it yet although it was meant to be flying in 2006...

Advanced Technologies Group SkyCat, United Kingdom

The SkyCat hybrid air vehicles, supplied by Advanced Technologies Group, based in Cardington, Bedfordshire, UK, combine lighter-than-air airship technology and air-cushioned hovercraft technology. The vehicle will be built in three variants, the Skycat 20, 200 and 1000 with payload capacities from 20,000kg to 1,000,000kg. The first SkyCat will be the SkyCat 20 for which the first flight is anticipated in 2006.
In July 2005, the Advanced Technologies Group Ltd went into administration under Part II of the Insolvency Act 1986. The future of the development programme of the SkyCat is thus uncertain.
The air cushion landing system allows the vehicle to land on flat land, grass, swamp, snow or on water, giving the vehicle fully amphibious capability. The landing system also allows the airship to land without the normal lighter-than-air airship ground crew and ground landing infrastructure.
The SkyCat can be configured as a passenger airship, an ultra heavy cargo ship and as an airborne surveillance platform. Military applications include tactical and strategic air lift, a command, control, computers and information platform, mine countermeasures, airborne early warning and anti-surface warfare.

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/skycat/
 
I believe it was the air cushion landing system which interested the US military in the first place. SkyCat had a demo with a model airship to show visiting US military brass the concept.

I haven't heard anything of SkyCat or their airship design for a number years. Maybe the whole thing went belly up.
 
I know they were still operating in October 2010 but there is very little information or progress reports available so it all sounds a bit fly by night.
 
I heard about a whole lot of concerns over safety with the use of large commercial airships in the cargo transport industry.

But considering that launching a multi million dollar satellite into orbit is not without it's fair share of risks and we have been doing that for years I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Also even shipping at sea is not without risk, from pirates, to storms swamping loaded vessels of very large size such as the Derbyshire Tragedy you can't really fool proof any bit of technology.

One thing is for sure it's a lot cheaper than cranking up the ole' Boeing or Airbus to carry a fraction of the load over the ocean.
 
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