World Sky Race 2010: The Return of the Air Ship
Posted by Jason A. Hendricks on June 16, 2008 |
World Sky Race 2010 is being hailed as the biggest race of all time, as well as ushering in the new age of lighter-than-air flight (again). The race will feature blimps, dirigibles, and zeppelins floating around the world in an effort to circumnavigate the globe and be crowned “World Sky Champion.”
Zeppelins haven’t seen the light of day since 1937 when the Hindenburg went down in a fit of flames. Safety, at the time, was sub-par and these massive airships lost favor due to the evolution of flight and jet travel. The recent push towards ‘green’ technologies and eco-friendly fuel alternatives has led a few individuals to take a second look at the history of lighter-than-air travel, and try to bring it back full circle.
World Sky Race 2010 will fly across four continents and over 130 different World Heritage sites in 16 separate races to crown one champion. Think a meaner, cleaner Nascar, without noise, and 20,000 Ft. off the ground. The winner of this race can also lay claim to the world’s fastest lighter-than-air world circumnavigation, stats were never kept of previous attempts, so you will get the first opportunity to set the mark.
I mentioned “you” because entries are still being taken for this event. If you happen to have a spare $3-4 million laying around then, yes, you could have a wonderful shot at world fame, a world record, and being a part of aviation history in the making.
Anyone know Sir Richard Branson’s phone number? If he would spot me the entry fee, I would be more than happy to ride along…
That sounds kind of cool. I’m not sure I would go up in a zeppelin, but I bet it is an experience.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
The new machines should be better built. Back in the original hayday of the Zepplins, they were actually made out of cow stomachs–thought that was a bit of an odd choice, but I guess they ended up finding that out on their own..lol
June 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
It’s an obvious fraud. No airships exist at the moment anything like capable of flying the proposed route, and no facilities for airships are available on most of the route.
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Hey Alfred,
If you don’t believe in this, you can easily find out information about a new airship service that has been launched recently in San Francisco. The airships are actually being housed in the original airship buildings used in the 1930’s. Many of these buildings still exist. There are actually 13 such buildings in San Fran, alone.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 am
So what, Adventurist? I know all about the excellent San Francisco airship tourism service. That’s got nothing to do with it; my previous remark stands unimpaired. True, there are airship facilities in San Francisco; but there are none along most of the route proposed by the ridiculously implausible “World Sky Race”. Moreover no airship in current existence is anything like capable of crossing the Pacific Ocean. To develop a new type of aircraft - including airship - and get it certified costs a fortune and takes many years. That’s why the “World Sky Race” is an obvous scam. And to say that it will take place in 2010 is an insult to the intelligence.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:56 am
… And the Airship Association of Great Britain, a highly respected organization in the field, agrees with me. See the comment upon their webpage
http://www.airship-association.org/news.html
Alfred the Skeptic
November 13th, 2008 at 11:00 am
First off, thanks for sharing your insight. I have looked into this further and now am siding on your part. This does look quite questionable, especially since the major organizing bodies are also claiming it’s a fraud. When I posted this piece back in June, I had done so after being contacting by someone in the World Sky Race organization. It looked like a cool concept and I really never gave it any more thought. Now, it looks like I stand to be corrected on making a post about this. I may have to do a new update and alert some of my other readers to the discrepencies being perpetrated. Thanks, Alfred.
Jason A. Hendricks
The Adventurist
November 13th, 2008 at 11:38 am
When I first got interested in lighter-than-air (LTA) flight in the early 80’s, my mentor warned me that the field attracts “fakes and flakes” like errrr… barn waste attracts flies. He was unfortunately right. Mostly it’s flakes: people who rediscover and reinvent the airship and imagine impossible schemes in the sincere belief that they are feasible. But occasionally somebody cynically exploits the public’s nostalgia, love of novelty, and now “greenmindedness” to put over a fraud. When I first heard of this one I dismissed it: it was so obviously unfeasible that it wasn’t worth the trouble to refute. Unfortunately, it looks like the promoter has got UNESCO (among other entities that should know better) in his pocket, which means that he might succeed in taking many well-meaning but naive people to the cleaners after all. It’s high time to emphasize a few simple facts:
Imprimis, there are no airships in existence that are even remotely capable of making the Pacific crossing; the largest ever built would have had trouble doing it! Secundus, new designs cannot be stamped out with a cookie cutter; it’s hard enough to finance new ships with a clear utilitarian purpose and profitable prospects - imagine the reaction of a financing source to a giant airship project built for a publicity stunt. Sorry, folks! Tertius, even if the project were scaled back so that some existing ships could undertake it, no airship owner that I know of would risk his ship in this kind of activity, and his insurance carrier would drop him if he did.
And all this by 2010? Give me a break. Somebody needs to start asking this promoter some tough questions, and insisting on cogent answers. Keep your checkbooks in your pockets, and don’t let your governments give any of your cash to this scammer.
Marc de Piolenc
Assn. of Balloon and Airship Constructors
November 15th, 2008 at 7:03 am