Blimps could replace aircraft in freight transport, say scientists. "HELIUM POWERED"???????????

REDRANT: First entry. I put my comments or "rants" in red on my blogs to keep them distinct from the article. "Helium Powered" is beyond funny! Helium is "lighter than air" and provides static lift. Propellers push it along in the basic model. Greg Lang

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/30/blimps-aircraft-freight?showallcomments=true#comment-51?showCommentBox=true

Fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and other foreign luxuries could be part of a global revolution by carrying cargo around the world in airships instead of planes, one of the UK's leading scientists has predicted.

The government's former chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir David King, now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford, told a conference that massive helium balloons – or blimps – would replace aircraft as a key part of the global trade network as a way of cutting global warming emissions.

Despite languishing in sci-fi B-movies for most of the last 70 years, King said several major air and defence companies, including Boeing andLockheed Martin, were working on designs, and the US defence department had recently made a large grant to help develop the technology.

As a result, the helium-powered ships could be carrying freight – and even passengers – in as little as a decade's time, King told the

Guardian.

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