One morning in 1954, I wandered out into a huge shadow creeping across our neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Puzzled by the strange darkness, I looked up expecting to see a rogue cloud blocking out the sun. Instead, an enormous airship was floating quietly across the mid-morning sky. I gazed in awe as it slowly slid into view several hundred feet above our little two-storey house.
I eventually discovered this giant of the sky was a piece of aviation history: the ZPG-2, the largest non-rigid air vehicle in the world. It was in fact the last such ship produced for the United States Navy. The 350-foot long craft was visiting Nova Scotia 62 years ago on a military “endurance test” to reinforce its role in anti-submarine warfare. The flight originated from the U.S. Naval Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. It then flew to Nova Scotia, east to Bermuda and south to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.And most importantly, it flew over our house at 25 Wellington Street.
I have never forgotten that 1950s aviation moment, an experience that fuelled my lifelong fascination with airships. Every time I boarded a modern-day airliner, my mind went back to that aviation event of my early youth. It ranks up there with flying over Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley aboard a Canadian Armed Forces Argus, a huge fixed-wing anti-submarine airplane. Interestingly enough, the Argus was probably one of those aircraft that contributed to the demise of such sub-hunting airships.
A Canadian airship visionary
Much later in my life, I met Dr. Barry Prentice, a professor at the University of Manitoba, a transportation economist and a co-founder of Buoyant Aircraft Systems International based in Winnipeg, Canada. It’s a company that plans to grow Canada’s first buoyant aircraft research facility and develop its manufacturing capabilities. Dr. Prentice believes airships will eventually move freight around the globe. They will also service remote, isolated communities such as those in Manitoba where close to 30,000 people live. Each year, a complex system of ice roads must be built over frozen lakes and muskeg. It’s a system so long it would stretch from Winnipeg to Vancouver. Building permanent all-season roads would solve the problem but the cost would be prohibitive.
As our climate changes, annual ice road construction will no longer be possible. And while fixed wing aircraft can address some needs, only relatively small aircraft with limited cargo capacity can be used on short gravel runways common in these remote communities. In Dr. Prentice’s words, “How do you even have an economy when you don’t have good transportation?” He believes heavy lifting cargo airships can change that picture, an idea he continues to pitch to governments in Canada.
There are other reasons too why airships might be a boon in the north. The reality is that mineral orebodies aren’t generally discovered near city skyscrapers or beside roads. The same applies to hydro power. Most projects get built on powerfully flowing rivers in the heart of the wilderness. They are all, however, important components of the nation’s economic development. And if heavy lifting airships can reduce transportation costs, they just might give an edge to positive development decisions.
A British airship initiative
I was hooked on airships as a youngster. After meeting Dr. Prentice in Manitoba about 10 years ago, I became a believer that a new generation of such craft would rise again into the sky. I knew work was progressing but I had no idea at such a rapid pace.That’s why I was pleased to learn an aerospace company in Cardington, England is one of a dozen firms across the world developing the sort of airships envisioned by Dr. Prentice.
The ship currently in the spotlight at Britain’s Hybrid Airlift Vehicles is the Airlander 10 – a 300-foot-long craft combining the best features of airplane, airship and helicopter technology. It can carry 10 tonnes of cargo as well as passengers. It emits minimal pollution and doesn’t need runways for takeoffs and landings. The company also has a much larger ship in the works – the Airlander 50. This airship can carry up to 65 tonnes of cargo and as many as 200 passengers. At almost 400 feet long, it will cast an even bigger shadow than that U.S. Navy airship of my youth six decades ago.
Andy Barton, the company’s Director of Business Development acknowledges that Canada is “a key launch market” for his firm and is anxious to work with Transport Canada, Canadian operators and airship “end users.” He recognizes Canada is the second largest country in the world and yet 70 per cent of its land mass is not serviced by roads. And while we are skint on roads, his company know that Canada is ripe with natural resources, usually far away from road accessibility.
Ahead of the curve
So what does Dr. Prentice think about current day airship developments? At the outset, he knows that airship technology works; it was proven many years ago. In fact, Zeppelins crossed the Atlantic Ocean 80 years ago some 125 times. And yet most people today only think of blimps that they see on television flying over professional golf tournaments and football matches. These craft, while serving a useful purpose, are no more than floating billboards rather than heavy lifting cargo vehicles.
There’s good reason airships are not top of mind. We simply don’t see them in the skies as we do airplanes. But before the Second World War, Dr. Prentice says airships were “neck and neck” with airplanes. “At that time it wasn’t clear which was going to be more dominant. But after the war ended, we got jet airplanes and they literally wiped everything from the skies. They also took trains off the tracks for passengers and got rid of ocean liners too. Jet engines dominated everything because they are so fast and much cheaper, but they are also very big polluters.” And in the future, he predicts the use of airplanes is going to get even more expensive.
The new airships are much cheaper to operate than airplanes. They burn only about a quarter of the fuel. They don’t need long runways and are built with environmentally friendly designs. They also offer potential for carrying huge loads that airships in the past could not handle. And as they are built bigger, their ability to carry even greater loads increases. The 300-foot-long Airlander 10 is undergoing testing here in England – and the company’s Andy Barton is on the same page as Dr. Prentice when recognizing the potential for airships in Canada. He has been to our north and is well aware of the transportation issues there. He understands ice roads, high transportation costs, the country’s sprawling geography – and how airships might benefit the north.
Over the years, most people have forgotten about airships. We all want to get to our destinations quickly and aircraft serve that need quite effectively. They do, however, have limitations that airships might overcome. The challenge has been to make airship technology economical in solving modern-day transportation problems. My sense is that we are just about to begin a new era of airship transportation. And when one of these giants of the skies fly over my grandchildren’s house, I hope they too will be in awe like I was so many years ago. If I spot the Airlander in test mode here in England, it will bring back boyhood memories from 1954. I will also think of Dr. Prentice who has been “ahead of the curve” in Canada in advancing airship development.
Dan McSweeney, a Halifax native, first worked as a reporter at the old Halifax Herald, then got a taste of public relations work at Canadian National Railway in Moncton, before coming to Thompson in 1980 to work for Inco. He retired back home to Bridgewater on Nova Scotia’s south shore in June 2007 after 27½ years with Inco here. He blogs at mcsweeneysdiversion.wordpress.com.
