Luffships Buoyant Aircraft Ltd (LBA) stems from LTA Solutions Ltd (LTA-S, incorporated 2003) to help the beleaguered airship industry become successful with new ways to go, now integrated in LBA as a lead organisation for buoyant aircraft (aerostats and airships) technology transformation.
LTA-S began as a design services practice after CargoLifter (CL) closed (end July 2002) from seeing that expertise was needed to provide a lead for the introduction of new types with better characteristics to mitigate traditional issues and make possible versions suitable for aerial-crane duties point-to-point as well as others for high altitude needs.
What people failed to realise at the turn of the century was that it wasn’t just an upgrade exercise of former airship technology, simply introducing modern materials and systems, as designs after 1960 perpetuated numerous handling and maintenance issues, which should have been solved before (hindering industry growth). Also, that airships before 1960 weren’t designed for aerial-crane or stratospheric duties, needing purpose-driven ways designed from first principles to serve these duties instead of adaptive ways trying to use existing arrangements that don’t ideally suit the purpose.
Even so, late 20th Century designs helped provide experience, knowledge and understanding essential for industry recovery. LBA today is supported by experienced principal team players from that era who know the foibles and issues to solve together with new ways to follow.
What people wanted at the turn of the century were airships able to work as aerial cranes as-well-as air transporters for seriously heavy outsized payloads point-to-point anywhere. However, it all went wrong from the presumption that traditional unidirectional (UD) airships arranged with multiple thrusters were suitable for such point-to-point work, where station and heading must be held reliably for the payload pick-up and put-down (pick&put) actions desired – difficult for UD types in variable weather, which ground based cranes and helicopters normally do operate under.
Regrettably, the issues were not understood well enough by new businesses trying to establish such airships and still is the case, where there are few specialists for them with long-term cradle to grave big airship expertise in their management team. However, there were numerous historians (often with entrenched opinions) and enthusiasts (many beguiled by past achievements) who, in some cases, invested large sums on huge UD types imprudently.
While CL failed, by enabling the CL75 AirCrane project (pictured left) it showed the world that there was another way to follow, stemming more simply from omni-directional (OD) balloons. As illustrated by the LS-L20 proposal right, this is the way that LBA is pursuing for aerial-crane point-to-point purposes, needing a progressive way to develop properly. It’s an odd situation because balloon and tethered aerostat businesses enjoy greater success
The Airship Industry
Because of the way airships began as UD types with resulting issues from weather, LTA gas, foibles and costs that nonbuoyant aircraft don’t suffer, they are grossly underused today. For the airship industry to become successful in the 21st Century an approach from the bottom up in simpler, quicker, cheaper ways without so much dependency on huge hangars and ground infrastructure to manage/protect them is needed. It also needs types designed for operation and maintenance more efficiently without overt nursemaid tactics and operated from small grassed sites with a minimum of crew in weather that nonbuoyant aircraft generally do manage year-round. It’s not just a matter of robustness; rather, it’s a matter of capability.
What LBA is doing differently is leveraging simpler balloon methods that work, which is what 21st Century Airships in Canada did in the late 20th Century.
Airship businesses therefore need to instil better technical nous, know-how and attitude befitting the aircraft industry (to which buoyant types belong) to restore confidence in what has been a failing sector, evidenced by the very low number of airships flying today – just a handful. This unlikely will be achieved without team building, affordable projects to learn from and easier ways to follow with willingness to change.
New Airships
New airships and associated products must be affordable and cost effective in operation. They also must be safe and able to undertake their duties on a regular year round basis. Due to their great size and relative fragility, developers and operators thus must pay closer attention to weather issues and find ways that work effectively, which LBA is doing.
With modern weather forecasting and monitoring systems plus intelligent operation of new types configured to cope in difficult conditions, airships then should succeed.
By enabling operators to prosper, the industry also should find an easier route towards further bigger developments. These are LBA’s aspirations for OD airships as an easier and better way!
