The Thompson Chamber of Commerce, at its meeting held on Feb. 24 to discuss which resolutions to bring to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, nixed the idea of pursuing airships as freight vehicles in the North as worthy to lobby for.
The chamber had lobbied for them by resolution for the last several years before this year's abrupt about-face.
Airships are enormous cigar-shaped balloons, up to six stories high, that are touted to be a cheap, reliable transportation for people and cargo. They are lighter than air and can be steered and propelled through the air. Unlike aerodynamic vehicles like fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters, they stay aloft by filling a large cavity with lighter than air gas like helium or hydrogen. But a series of high-profile accidents, including the May 6, 1937 airborne burning of the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, have created a distrusting stigma around the aircrafts.
The idea for their wide- freight use has been around since 2002 when Barry Prentice, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba's I. H. Asper School of Business and former director of the Transport Institute started talking about them at symposiums.
Mayor Tim Johnston has in the past represented Thompson's interest in airships in the past - including attending a leaders panel a few years ago at the Airships to the Arctic IV symposium presented by the University of Manitoba and Transport Institute.
Curtis Ross, CEO of the Thompson Regional Airport authority, says he's not so much against the idea of airships as he is the idea of having them in Thompson when so much can be done to improve the already existing Thompson Regional Airport Authority and airports across the North.
"I think what we have to focus on is if we're promoting something of that perspective, it's not going to be a publically owned airship - it's going to be privately owned by private investors who are going to benefit from that," he reasons. "I think our focus - and I'm biased, because I work at the airport authority - should be looking at the interest of the Northern region and the area we represent. I would far rather see our efforts go into building a new terminal buildingwe know what we have to do, and it's an economic driver for the community."
Keith MacDonald, president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, says resolutions of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce are voted on each year at their annual general meeting and are time sensitive for one year. So, although the airship resolution "might not" be put back on the slate for voting, it doesn't mean the resolution can't be brought back by another chamber in Manitoba or even the one in Thompson in future years.
"The Thompson Chamber members believe that this year, we have more pressing resolutions to bring forth and it may be a few years before the airships resolution will gain more strength," he explains.
