Weston says LTA is working closely with the FAA to ensure that anything the company builds has a safe and sensible path to full certification. “I can count the number of companies in the lighter-than-air space on my hands, and we all have a lot to lose if anybody has a serious problem,” he said. The first 50 flights of Pathfinder 1 covered by the FAA certificate will allow flights no higher than 1,500 feet, and will use two pilots rather than the single pilot the airship was designed to need. Safety is top of Weston’s mind as he works to reintroduce rigid airships to the skies of North America - and ultimately the world. And there’s not much in the way of traffic on the surface, so that’s a big plus as well.” “First of all, when you come off Moffett Field, the air is smoother over the Bay than it is anywhere else. “The advantages of going over the water are multiple,” said Weston. These will be followed by simple maneuvers around Moffett Field, before a series of flights out and over the Bay. Those tests will initially happen just a few feet off the ground, with the airship tethered to a mobile tripod mast. Image Credits: LTA ResearchĪt the start of September, the FAA issued a special airworthiness certificate for the Pathfinder 1 allowing test flights in and around Moffett Field and the nearby Palo Alto airport, and over the southern part of the San Francisco Bay. LTA Research’s Pathfinder 1 airship prototype at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California. “However, dynamic on-ship flight tests provide the best data on the health and efficiency of the airship.” Test, test, test again “We have sophisticated methodology that allows us to replicate real-world conditions using static test stands,” said Jillian Hilenski, senior mechanical engineer at LTA. The first lesson its engineers hope to learn is how Pathfinder 1’s approximately one million cubic feet of helium and weather resistant polymer skin will respond to the warming effect of Californian sunshine. The whole operation occurred under the cover of darkness, not because LTA has something to hide but because the airship’s flight test program begins with the first rays of the morning sun. This morning, the airship floated silently from its WW2-era hangar at NASA’s Moffett Field at walking pace, steered by ropes held by dozens of the company’s engineers, technicians and ground crew. They can propel the Pathfinder 1 at up to 65 knots (75 mph), although its initial flights will be at much lower speeds. Twelve electric motors powered by diesel generators and batteries enable vertical take-off and landing. A rigid framework of 10,000 carbon-fiber reinforced tubes and 3,000 titanium hubs form a protective skeleton around the gas cells, surrounded by a lightweight synthetic Tedlar skin. LTA’s airship uses stable helium rather than flammable hydrogen as a lifting gas, held in 13 giant rip-stop nylon cells and monitored by lidar laser systems. “The innovations and the technologies that we’re about to demonstrate have the potential to lay the foundation for a new industry.” The biggest aircraft in almost a century “I’m excited about the potential of not building just one airship, but laying the foundation for many airships to be built,” said Weston. The company eventually hopes to produce a family of airships to provide disaster relief where roads and airports are damaged, as well as zero-carbon passenger transportation.įor the next year however, the gigantic airship looks set to become a Silicon Valley landmark as its novel materials and systems are methodically put through their paces within shouting distance of companies like Google, Meta and Amazon. And we’re going to do that.”Ī series of increasingly ambitious flight tests lie ahead, before Pathfinder 1 is moved to Akron, Ohio, where LTA Research is planning an even larger airship, the Pathfinder 3. “Now we must show that this can reliably fly in real-world conditions. “It’s been 10 years of blood, sweat and tears,” LTA CEO Alan Weston told TechCrunch on the eve of the unveiling. The airship - its snow-white steampunk profile visible from the busy 101 highway - has taken drone technology such as fly-by-wire controls, electric motors and lidar sensing, and supersized them to something longer than three Boeing 737s, potentially able to carry tons of cargo over many hundreds of miles. As dawn breaks over Silicon Valley, the world is getting its first look at Pathfinder 1, a prototype electric airship that its maker LTA Research hopes will kickstart a new era in climate-friendly air travel, and accelerate the humanitarian work of its funder, Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
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