COVERAGE: autoevolution - Tri-Lobe Airship That Looks Like a Flying Mutant Brain Teases Its Arrival Once Again

Daniel Patrascu, 7th March 2025

Airships are the stuff of dreams for any aviation buff. Defined as a powered aircraft that's not kept in the air by fixed or rotating wings, but by a body of gas, these things are massive, efficient at transporting large payloads to remote locations, and spectacular to look at. Sadly, with a few notable exceptions, they are also incredibly difficult to make.

There have been a number of airships of various kinds in operation over the years. Off the top of my head I can name the ill-fated Hindenburg, the world-famous Goodyear blimp, or the less-known Zeppelin NT.

Depending on a variety of factors, airships fall into different categories. When talking about the framework, we've got rigid, semi-rigid, or non-rigid airships, and when talking about what powers them and what keeps them in the air, they can be aerostats, aerodynes, or hybrids.

Quite a complicated world, the one of airships, especially if you consider the fact that not that many of them were made over the years - and that, despite the involvement, from time to time, of some of the biggest names in the aerospace industry.

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