At Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, the Lighter Than Air (LTA) study proposes a new approach to a technology that experienced its rise and fall a century ago: airships. While airships have long been superseded by aircraft, LTA, founded in 2015 by CEO Alan Weston, believes that through a combination of new materials, better construction methods and technological advances, airships are ready – not to take back the sky, of course. — but find a new niche.

Although airships never completely disappeared—the Goodyear airships familiar to sports enthusiasts are proof of this—by 1937, the year of the Hindenburg disaster, the industry was already in decline. By the end of World War II, airships could not compete with the speeds offered by aircraft and required larger crews. Today, those airships that still exist serve primarily for advertising and sightseeing.

However, LTA’s Pathfinder 1 carries more dreams than hovering over a sports stadium. The company considers it natural to use airships in humanitarian and rescue missions. According to Carl Taussig, chief technical officer of the LTA, the airships can stay in the air for long periods of time if the ground conditions are not ideal, have a long range and carry a significant payload.

The Pathfinder’s cigar-shaped shell is just over 120 meters long and 20 meters in diameter. Although it outshines Goodyear’s current 75m Wingfoot One, it is still half the length of the Hindenburg. The LTA expects Pathfinder 1 to carry around 4 tons of cargo, in addition to crew, ballast water and fuel. The airship will have a top speed of 65 knots, or about 120 kilometers per hour – on par with the Hindenburg – with a constant cruising speed of 35 to 40 knots (65 to 75 km/h).

Some 21st century airship technologies

Building an airship that can fly no faster than the Hindenburg might not sound like much of an achievement. But Pathfinder 1 contains many new technologies that the LTA believes will be key to resurrecting the airship.

First, airships used to be built around riveted aluminum beams, which provided the highest strength-to-weight ratio available at the time. Instead, the LTA will use carbon fiber tubing attached to titanium hubs. As a result, the main structure of the Pathfinder 1 will be stronger and lighter.

The exterior coating of the Pathfinder 1 is also a step up from previous generations. The skins of airships such as the Graf Zeppelin of the 1930s were made of doped cotton fabric. Applying Datura to the fabric increased its strength and elasticity. But the canvas remains the canvas. Instead, LTA built its exteriors from a three-layer laminate of synthetic materials. The outermost layer is DuPont Tedlar, which is polyvinyl fluoride. The middle layer is a loose weave of flame retardant aramid fibers. The inner layer is polyester. “This is very similar to what is used in many racing sailboats,” says Taussig. “We needed to modify this material to make it flame retardant and slightly change its structural characteristics.”

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But according to Taussig, neither materials science nor manufacturing advances will be considered the main reason for the long-awaited success of the LTA – instead, it is the introduction of electronics. “Pathfinder is all electric,” he says. “All actuation, all movement, all actual power is generated by electricity. This is a fully electric aircraft with remote control, which was not possible 80 years ago.” Pathfinder 1 has 12 electric motors for propulsion, as well as four tail fins with rudders controlled by a flight-by-wire control system. (During the first test flights, the airship will be equipped with two piston aircraft engines).

Pathfinder 1 introduced another piece of equipment that didn’t exist 80 years ago: lidar. Mounted on top of each of Pathfinder 1’s helium cells is a vehicular lidar. “Lidar can give us a point cloud showing the entire inner casing of this gas chamber,” says Taussig, which can then be used to accurately determine the volume of the gas chamber. In flight, airship pilots can use this information, as well as data on helium purity, pressure, and temperature, to better maintain the correct angle of the ship and avoid additional stress on the internal structure during flight.

Although the LTA initially focused on humanitarian applications, there are other areas in which airships may one day excel. “The airship is kind of a ‘tweener’ between sea and air travel,” says Taussig. Being fully electric, the Pathfinder 1 is also more environmentally friendly than traditional air or ocean shipping.

With Pathfinder 1 completed in late 2022, the LTA plans to conduct a series of ground tests of each of the airship’s systems in the first half of 2023. unhindered flight testing over South Bay in San Francisco later that year.

The company will also build the approximately 180-meter Pathfinder 3 airship at its Akron Airdock facility in Ohio. The Pathfinder 3 won’t be flight-ready in 2023, but its development shows that the LTA’s pursuit of an airship renaissance is more than just chit-chat.