NWT/NUNAVUT
For many, the term airship is associated with Goodyear tires and the Hindenberg disaster, but the oft-mocked mode of transportation could make a comeback as the solution to infrastructure woes in Canada's North.

University of Manitoba professor and president of Bouyant Aircraft Systems International Barry Prentice, stands beside an airship prototype his team has been conducting experiments on in Winnipeg. - photo courtesy of Barry Prentice

The mechanics of the airship have not changed much since first being used more than one century ago. A power-driven vehicle kept buoyant by helium or hydrogen gas, the airship has the ability to move through the air using its own power and carry large loads exceeding 100 tonnes over a significant distance.

Used primarily during the First World War, airships quickly lost favour following the invention of jet engine aircraft and a number of high-profile accidents, including the Hindenburg explosion of 1937.

Now 80 years later, the technology is being revisited as pressure mounts to extract mineral resources with less funding. Because they require very little in terms of landing accommodation and use minimal energy, the airship is being lauded as an alternative form of transportation to remote regions.

University of Manitoba professor and Buoyant Aircraft Systems International president Barry Prentice says many of the issues plaguing the North stem from poor transportation and as winter roads continue to degenerate and shifting permafrost damages existing infrastructure, these will only be exacerbated. He said airships would negate the need for the construction and maintenance of pricey all-weather roads and provide access to mineral deposits that are currently cut off.

"When you look at the ice roads, we've already lost half the season we used to have," he said. "I can't see them being around in 10 to 15 years if this climate change continues and nobody seems to be getting prepared for it."

He said poor health and poverty can also be traced back to transportation issues in the North and airships could lower food costs.

"Politicians will spend a billion dollars on education in the North, but that's not going to help anybody in terms of their housing or cost of food," he said. "It's pretty hard to digest mathematics when your stomach is rumbling."

Cost of purchasing and operating an airship is up to three times less than traditional aircraft with a maximum load capacity of 250 tonnes surpassing that of a 747 jet, travel speeds of 145 kilometres per hour and zero carbon emissions.

However, Prentice says currently legislation - or lack of - is impeding the initiative's progress, adding his staff were required to obtain hot air balloon licences to fly the ships, despite a jarring dissimilarity between the two vehicles.

"A hot air balloon has no engine, it just goes where the wind takes you with a big burner and propane," he said. "An airship has no burner or propane, it has engines and ... a whole landing procedure - in a hot air balloon, every landing is a crash landing."

An age-old ban on hydrogen use in airships is also stalling the technology, along with global depletion of helium, said Prentice. Without one or the other, it's unlikely to get off the ground.

"We have this prohibition on hydrogen, based on a decision 93 years ago in a foreign country ... we picked that up and put it in our regulations in Canada without any thought or testing," he said. "We could develop an industry based on helium but ... it's a dead end. There was supposedly 100 years of helium left in the world and that's great but what do we do in year 101?"

Transport Canada spokesperson Natasha Gauthier told Nunavut News/North in an e-mail regulation of airships falls under the general framework for all aircraft in Canada. She said the federal government is monitoring the industry's evolution as global companies begin to patent the technology.

"Airships are viewed as providing unique capabilities in the transport of heavy and oversize payloads, particularly in remote areas lacking the infrastructure to support road, rail and other air xservices," she said.

Prentice said commercial airships could potentially be in use within two to three years with government support and certification. Currently, his team is testing the viability of different models in cold weather conditions and said the rigid aluminum shell Zeppelin model seems to be the best option. Nevertheless without government support he is unsure when we might see the fabled blimps floating across the sky.

"The problem is you've never had a politician step to the mic and say, 'I like airships," he said. "If you don't like the airship idea, what's your suggestion? If you don't have a suggestion then why aren't we trying this?"

A brief history of the airship

1852 - French engineer Henri Giffard flies the first steam-powered airship six miles per hour for 17 miles.

1895 - German count Ferdinand von Zeppelin develops the rigid airship.

1925 - Goodyear launches its Pilgrim airship - the first in its fleet of helium-filled blimps.

1937 - The world's largest Zeppelin, the Hindenburg, bursts into flames during a transatlantic flight to New Jersey, U.S., killing 36 people.

2012 - The United States Army develops a hybrid airship able to provide non-stop surveillance for 21 days.

2013 - ZLT Zeppelin and Goodyear partner to develop a fleet of faster, quieter ships.

Today - American company Worldwide Aeros is developing a 500-foot-long airship capable of carrying 66 tonnes of cargo.

Source: Popular Mechanics