Skyacht Personal Blimp

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 12th 2006 at 7:06PM

A friend of mine has a fear of blimps, she cowers whenever she sees one floating low through the city. She's going to be miserable if personal blimps like the one shown above ever catch on. A company called Skyacht Aircraft has come up with personal blimps which will eventually be able to be bought for under $200,000.

The Personal Blimp uses hot air rather than helium so it is basically a hot air balloon that can be more easily steered. It can also easily deflated and stored. The prototype, the Airship Alberto, made its first flight on October 27, 2006. Since that first flight in October, the Alberto has completed the FAA's required 10 hours of Phase I flight testing. It may still be another two years before these are ready for public sale and the blimps will require some sort of pilot's license in order to fly, depending on what the FAA decides.

The website also features a strangely hypnotic video of the blimp in flight.

[via Gizmag]

Tags: aircraft, flight, hot air balloon, personal blimp, PersonalBlimp, skyacht