I don’t know why, but I’ve found myself daydreaming of building blimps. Call me strange (you certainly wouldn’t be the first), but for some reason this strikes me as a Good Thing To Do. I am interested in building hobby-size blimps, to do things like haul amateur radio antennas into the air, and maybe as an exercise in robotics – imagine having 3d cameras on a blimp and gliding it silently over the trees! I guess it also builds on my interest in sailing, too. Flying an airship is much like sailing the skies.
North Carolina has been home to an airship base for a number of years, Weeksville NAS in Elizabeth City. It is currently owned by a company called TCOM, which builds airships there. Now I read that a local company is set to build blimps in New Bern.
So there is a lot of blimp activity going on here in the state. With the centennial of the Wright Brothers first flight coming up in December, the time may be ripe to introduce a “new” means of air travel to the world.