Airship Industries was a British manufacturers of modern non-rigid airships (blimps) active under that name from 1980 to 1990 and controlled for part of that time by Alan Bond. The first company, Aerospace Developments, was founded in 1970, and a successor, Hybrid Air Vehicles, remains active . Airship Industries was active between 1980 and 1990.
In addition to the manufacture of non-rigid airships, several of the companies were involved in abortive proposals for many other non-rigid and rigid types. The historic airship facilities at Cardington, Bedfordshire (formerly the Royal Airship Works and RAF Cardington), were used as a base for the firm's test flying and an assembly site for some of its airships.
Aerospace Developments, 1970–79
Beginnings and the Shell International Gas project Aerospace Developments (AD) was founded in 1970 by John Wood and Roger Munk (Jeffrey Roger Munk 1947–2010). Its first major project was the design of a very large – long with of gas capacityBy comparison, the pre-war Zeppelin Hindenburg was long and had a capacity of – rigid airship for Shell International Gas.Mowforth 2007, pp. 101–02.
The Shell project had been in progress since well before the formation of AD; Munk stated in 1975 that the idea had emerged "about seven years ago." Shell planned to use the airship to transport natural gas in gaseous form, eliminating the costly equipment associated with shipping liquefied natural gas by sea and, in particular, the need for large amounts of fixed plant in politically unstable countries. Barnes WallisWallis had worked on the British R100 design in the late-1920s had been involved in the airship project in its early stages but withdrew due to problems with his design for a very large non-rigid.Munk, pp. 4–5.
The natural gas would have functioned as the primary lifting gas on the loaded voyage, with a small amount of helium, plus hot air from the airship's (gas-fuelled) engines, supporting it on the empty return leg. The ship's structure would have been "of a semi-monocoque type of stressed metal/skin honeycomb sandwich construction."Munk, pp. 6–10.
The project was "terminated before a detailed study of the concept could be crystallised."Mowforth 2007, p. 102. AD's work "showed that the concept was impracticable" but "[brought] Aerospace Developments into contact with the latest materials and ideas."
Smaller airships and the Aerovision contract According to a paper delivered by Munk to a Royal Aeronautical Society symposium in 1975, dealing primarily with the Shell project, AD was at this time "pursuing the development potential" for "non-rigid, advanced technology airships in the half to ten ton payload range" for "general freight, surveying and airborne jeep" applications. These airships were to embody many of the innovative features eventually seen in the AD500 and Skyship 500/600, including vectored thrust and the use of modern materials such as Kevlar. Negotiations were stated to be in process with the governments of Peru, Ecuador and Nigeria concerning sales of such airships.Munk, p. 1.
In May 1976 article, it was reported that Multi-Modal Transport Analysis (an associate firm to AD: the one covering marketing, the other technical matters – in total "a dozen people working full-time" on the project), had signed contracts with the Venezuelan company Aerovision for the construction and delivery in 1977 of an initial airship, with a further 21 ("of similar design to the first ship, but...vary in payload and therefore size") to be delivered over ten years. The first airships would be assembled and tested in Britain, with a gradual transference of production to Venezuela. A family of five airship types was proposed:
Type A: payload Type B: payload Type C: payload Type D: payload Type E: payload
The first airship (later to be designated the AD500) was to be of Type B. Night-time advertising flights would recoup the ship's cost, allowing it to be used by day in experiments supplying isolated communities in Venezuela's interior
The AD500 The rollout of the first ship was delayed, mainly by certification problems (certification required the Civil Aviation Authority to write a set of airworthiness requirements for airships, something that took six months) but also by factors including a change of envelope supplier and revision of the engine and propeller design. The AD500, as it was by then known, first flew from Cardington on 3 February 1979.
The AD500 was "a new-generation airship making use of advanced materials and technology." It was long and contained of helium. Materials used in the ship included thin single-ply polyester, coated with titanium dioxide-doped polyurethane, for the envelope; Kevlar for the cables suspending the gondola from the top of the envelope; a Kevlar nosecone moulded in the same manner as glass-reinforced plastic; and a gondola moulded by Vickers–Slingsby from Kevlar-reinforced plastic. Other innovations featured in the AD500 included simplified controls and thrust vectoring — an old airship idea revived — via inboard-mounted Porsche engines driving vectoring ducted fans.
Unfortunately, on 8 March 1979, the month-old AD500 was seriously damaged when the nosecone failed while the ship was moored in high winds. Aerovision subsequently withdrew its financial support, and AD was liquidated on 8 June.
Airship Developments, 1979–80 Following the loss of the AD500 prototype, the Aerospace Developments design team was reconstituted in September 1979 under the name Airship Developments Limited.R M Rimel "Renaissance" Skyship! p9 During its short period under this name, the firm projected five non-rigid airship designs (several of which echoed the earlier AD proposals):Mowforth 1991, p. 47. AD15: a remotely piloted surveillance vehicle with a gas capacity of AD100: a "runabout blimp" with of gas AD500: a rebuilt version of the prototype AD600: an enlarged AD500 with a gas capacity of (i.e. around 10% less than the eventual Skyship 600) AD5000: an extremely large (by non-rigid standards) craft with of gas and a payload of over , foreshadowing the later Sentinel 5000/YEZ-2A programme
Airship Industries, 1980–90
Thermo-Skyships takeover In May 1980, Airship Developments was acquired by Thermo-Skyships Ltd., a firm that had been working on lenticular airship designs (dubbed "flying saucers") that would have used heating of the lifting gas to control buoyancy. The resulting firm was known as Airship Industries Ltd.(AI).Mowforth 2007, p.83. During the approximately two-and-a-half years the Thermo-Skyships team spent at AI, it proposed several abortive designs, for non-lenticular rigid airships.
Skyship 500
The AD500 was succeeded by the Skyship 500 model. The first flight of a Skyship 500 proper (i.e. excluding the AD500) took place from Cardington on 28 September 1981. The ship incorporated "many detail improvements" relative to the AD500, including a new envelope material, improved actuators, and an overall weight saving of around .
Five more 500s were subsequently built — one at Cardington, two in Toronto, one in Tokyo, and one in the United States. The ships were mainly used in advertising and filming. Other uses of the craft included sightseeing flights over London, a trial shuttle service between Paris's Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports and trials with NASA and the United States Air Force, United States Navy and United States Coast Guard. Four 500s were later upgraded to 500HL standards by mating the 500 gondola to a 600 envelope in order to increase lift for heavy payloads or hot and high applications. Two more 500 gondolas were begun but never completed.Mowforth 2007, pp.83–84.
Proposed rigid airships—R40/R130 and R150 The former Thermo-Skyships design team proposed two rigid designs during their time with AI. In July 1980, AI announced "ambitious plans" to begin construction of a freight-carrying rigid, designated the Skyship R40, in early 1982. The airship (which appears also to have been referred to as the R130), was to be long, contain of gas and have a hull form resembling that of the 1920s British rigid R100, with four Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engines. It would have been capable of carrying payloads of up to .Mowforth 1991, p, 74. Redcoat Air Cargo proposed acquiring four R40s by 1984 and "opt[ing] out permanently from conventional aircraft."
A second design, the R150, followed. The R150 was to have been long, with of gas and a payload of , and propelled by four Garrett AiResearch turboprops, with an additional Allison turboshaft providing air to nose- and tail-mounted thrusters for purposes of low-speed control. The use of natural gas, or a combination of natural gas and LPG, as fuel was considered. Unlike the R40/R130, which was to have had a traditional rigid structure, the R150 was intended to be a metal-clad airship, with a thin metal shell stabilised by an internal pressure of around .Mowforth 1991, p. 76.
FedEx was reportedly "negotiating the possible purchase" of a training airship" in early 1981, with the possibility of an order for R150 cargo airships to follow, and Redcoat—through which FedEx had approached AI— switched its order to the R150, ordering four airships with options on another ten. FedEx was motivated by fuel-efficiency concerns and considered airships suitable for lower-priority 48-hour package deliveries.
However, FedEx shelved its airship plans in late 1981 and Redcoat went into voluntary liquidation in mid-1982 due to cash flow problems. When AI's rigid division was subsequently split off, the R150 design was inherited by Wren Skyships and Wren went on to propose new metal-clads of varying sizes.
Demerger of Wren Skyships In late 1982, Wren formed Wren Skyships as a "breakaway" of the rigid airship design division from Airship Industries. The former Thermo-Skyships was demerged from Airship Industries, becoming Wren Skyships (after founder Major Malcolm Wren) and relocating to Jurby airfield on the Isle of Man. The firm continued metal-clad development and began work on a non-rigid design, the Advanced Non-Rigid (ANR).
American Skyship Industries American Skyship Industries, Inc. (ASI) was established as the U.S. manufacturing arm of Wren Skyships, ostensibly for the production of Metal-clad airships. ASI was founded by partners, Russell Scoville II, and Major Malcolm W. Wren RE. in 1981. No manufacturing facility, nor any airship, was ever built.
The City of Youngstown sold Lansdowne Airport to American Skyship Industries, Inc. for US$1 – the sale being contingent on construction of manufacturing facilities on the site. The airport was named after the noted American Navy rigid airship pioneer, Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Lansdowne. This sale of Lansdowne airport was met with some local opposition, concerns ranging from airship safety to a large hangar obstructing the view or being an eyesore.
By the summer of 1983, efforts to obtain federal and state funding had stalled. In June of that year, federal officials informed American Skyship Industries Inc. that additional proof of private financing was required before $4.2 million in federal loans and grants could be released.Today... ; Saturday, 21 June 2008; vindy.com Internal disagreements and failure to raise the required private financing lead to Scoville's departure from the company he had co-founded. Afterward, the company was briefly managed by Michael McL. Foster-Turner. The company's offices were finally shuttered in the fall of 1984.
Advanced Airship Corporation (AAC) Wren Skyships became the Advanced Airship Corporation (AAC) in 1988. Construction of the prototype ANR was commenced, but envelope problems delayed its completion, and AAC went into liquidation during the early 1990s recession.Netherclift, p. 142.
Skyship 600