Solar blimp to fly from NYC to Paris

Posted by anthonykuo , Jul, 2009 @ 10:13 am

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… solar-powered blimp?

A Spanish company called Turtle Airships is working on plans to build a luxurious solar-powered blimp which can take passengers from New York to Paris. [CleanTechnica]

The first blimp prototype will be propelled in two nontraditional ways. The outside of the ship will be covered with Cadmium-Indium-Germanium (CIG) photovoltaic cells, picked for their their light weight. The cells should generate enough power to move the blimp at around 40 mph in average conditions, or at around 70 horsepower. Meanwhile, a diesel drivetrain will generate the rest of the power, and ideally the designers will look to an adapted hybrid electric model for that. And because blimps fly at low altitudes, they don’t have to deal with problems that plague diesel engines at elevations over 30,000 ft.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the blimp is not its solar cells, but its ability to land on water. But in the age of jet airlines that go over 500 mph, doesn’t sending a blimp over the Atlantic at 40 mph sound a little impractical? Maybe if it were a cruiseblimp with plenty of entertainment…

And while it sounds like a very green way to cross the Atlantic, one has to wonder whether the sustained use of a diesel engine over 50 or so hours produces more or less emissions than does a jet engine over 6 hours.

Tags: blimp, green, new york, paris, solar power, transatlantic