Personal Blimp
Progress Reports

If you would like to receive occasional updates on our progress by email, please click HERE.

You can rest assured that this list is used only for news of the Personal Blimp project. We treat email addresses as private information and never reveal them to others. Updates are only sent when we have something significant to talk about. So don't be surprised if you don't hear from us for several months at a time. Rome wasn't built a in a day and all that.

Started work on a "poor boy's wind tunnel" - i.e. a bracket that hooks on to a pickup truck and hold a large model out in front of the truck while driving along. (This is not an original idea. Quite a few aircraft models have been tested this way.) The plan is to use the device to collect data on the relative structural efficiency (support vs weight) of the various envelope designs that have evolved over the past few months.

The 18 foot model, 1/5th scale, is particularly interesting in that it should provide an accurate structural representation of the full sized craft. In other words, if our structural stiffness calculations are correct, whatever airspeed the 18 foot model can support, the full sized (5 times larger) craft will be also able to support.

A picture of the 18 footer is now on the images page.

Still fussing with the Patent Office about publication of our first patent. Our patent attorney says the issues are entirely limited to the Patent Office tripping over its own feet and that it is just a matter of time.

All of the 14 gores that make up the envelope are complete and have been so for some time. The snail's pace since then has been due to the fact that the first longitudinal seam to be sewn runs along the top ridge of the envelope. As it happens, this is by far the most complicated seam on the envelope because it incorporates the vent, a tail fin, and the load lines. So the design and construction of all those items as well as refining the baffle that separates the heated air from the end cones needs to be completed before this first longitudinal seam can be done.

Oh yes, and the Patent Office is still stumbling forward towards issuing the patent on the hull design. Undeterred by the suffering provided by the first application, we are preparing a second patent application covering some other very good stuff.

The top 4 longitudinal panels of the envelope have been joined. The work related to the vent continues to consume a surprising amount of time. But progress continues, if only at a grinding pace.

No big news on the patent front. But the patent office folk keep saying "real soon now."

As the pile of fabric grows it is clear that a larger sewing space/workshop will become necessary. Started work on setting up a new (7X) larger space.

The first patent continues to lurch through the USPTO maze. The "second" patent has now grown into 3 separate patent applications.

Wrapped up work on the second set of 3 patents which have now been handed off to the patent attorney.

Just so that the patent office won't be too lonely, we submitted an application for our second patent. The patent attorney continues work on the other 2 applications.

Work continues on the non-fabric elements of the 50 foot model.

Work continues on components for the first full-sized aircraft. Finished sewing vents. Work has also begun on engine and prop.

Nonetheless, we reached the point where we could reasonably load 3 people into the cabin and lift off on short tethered flights a few feet above the ground.

You can even check out some cool pictures.

November promises to be much less dramatic since Mike, the prime mechanic, is out of town for the entire month. We'll make some alterations and minor repairs (Hey, it ain't work if you don't break things once in a while.) while he's away and will be back in full swing come December (weather permitting of course.)

Alas, Winter has come early and hard to New England. There won't be much chance of further flights before Spring. It looks like we'll be spending the next few months refining the components as well as trying out some design innovations on smaller scale models.

In addition to working on various refinements to the ship, during the month of January, we're lending the sewing part of our shop to a fellow who is building his first balloon.

There is a "blog" following his progress at the XLTA website.

We really can't wait for Spring to come.

We also had several people climb onboard to simulate a full payload. Once again, the structure carried the load well. This also proved out the availability of a good margin of "free lift".

If this rain ever stops, we'll be able to make progress quickly.

The fly-by-wire system works great. The engine/prop rig develops a hearty 100 lbs of thrust and can swivel a good 80 degrees left and right.

We'd hoped to bring the ship to the big Oshkosh airshow at the end of this month. But the rain delays have pushed the schedule back so far that we won't be ready for free flight in time (and it's also hard to imagine that the FAA would permit such a new and low-time design in the world's most crowded airspace.) So, we'll be leaving the ship at home this year. However, Dan will be giving a talk about the project at one of the airshow forums on Friday July 28.

Forbes Magazine and the New York Times Magazine have let us know that they will be running stories on us in the near future. So we're prepping for the onslaught of attention that such press coverage will no doubt bring.

As expected, both Forbes Magazine and the New York Times Magazine ran very nice stories. (The only significant fly-in-the-ointment was the glaring oversight of both of these articles in failing to mention Mike Kuehlmuss who is responsible for at least half of technical innovations found in Alberto.) We also received coverage from several other publications. A selection of press coverage that's run so far can be found at on our Press page. We had quite a few interviews with reporters for stories running in future publications. So we expect a fair number of additional stories to run in the coming months.

Given the expected rainy Spring weather and scheduling conflicts, we won't be flying again until sometime in May.

In the meantime, we are still waiting for the FAA to tell us if we can take passengers using a reasonable set of requirements rather than the currently inappropriate airship rating. They've told us that they've made a decision. However, the won't tell us what the decision is. They also won't tell us when they will tell us. So ... we wait.

Given the expected rainy Spring weather and scheduling conflicts, we won't be flying again until sometime in May.

We continue to fly Alberto and make many improvements. However there are a growing number of the things we would like to do that are not practical with Alberto. So we've started planning our next aircraft. We expect to start construction of Ship #2 next month.

We also went to the big airshow at Oshkosh and gave a talk on our work.

We have also given several interviews to members of the media. So we expect more coverage to appear over the next few months.

We have also started building our second airship. The working name of this new aircraft is Hugo in homage to Hugo Eckener who was the most accomplished airship pilot in history and the driving force behind the Zeppelin company at its zenith in the 1920's and 1930's.

From a distance, Hugo will look essentially identical to Alberto. The differences will involve the construction techniques used, internal structure elements, and the use of a larger engine. Hugo will also have a snazzier cabin design (e.g. no more reused Toyota Camry seats.)

Work on Hugo proceeds more slowly than planned (always the case it seems.) Winter came hard and early to New England this year. So Hugo will not be flying until the Spring. We do hope for at least one or two test inflations of the new envelope on relatively warm Winter days.

The annual inspection of Alberto's envelope fabric yielded enough points of concern that we decided to retire it. Given the substantial abuse this envelope received as we climbed the learning curve, its retirement isn't entirely a surprise. It has served us well.

We've taken the envelope built for Hugo and given it to Alberto. Hugo will just have to wait his turn.

It is a bit disapoointing to have only one blimp rather than two at the beginning of the flying season this year. However, the technical advances incorporated into the construction of the new envelope will allow us to move forward at essentally the same rate as previously planned.

We've had an extremely frustrating Spring and early Summer. Primarily due to uncooperative weather, we didn't get to make a single flight before a series of long-planned road trips for various team members interrupted our flying season.

Even though we haven't been flying, we have been taking the ship back and forth between shop and field. In fact, we've gone through the assembly/disassembly cycle three times. In the process, we have made great strides in simplifying and speeding things up. So we can now put the ship together with far less musclepower and time. (i.e. We have vastly reduced the amount of "blimp wrestling" required.) This work will serve us well when the time comes to take Alberto on the road.

Our current travel stint ends this year at EAA's Airventure airshow in Oshkosh, WI. We will be giving two forum talks there. We will also be giving hands-on balloon building demonstrations at the Balloon Federation of America tent. Please stop by and say hello.

At this point, Alberto is back in the shop for yet more modifications. That work has been perking along in spite of the lack of flight time. We'll have lots of new features to try out once we get back to the field. So we can reasonably expect to have a flight-filled and productive season starting in August -- assuming it ever stops raining here.

It is clear that 2008 is not going to be a very productive year for us. The rains finally abated and we managed to get Alberto assembled and aloft ... exactly once. After the year's maiden flight, which focused primarily on Mike and Dan becoming reaquainted with the controls, we took some components to the shop for modification. The work in the shop took longer than expected and we didn't get back to the field for several weeks. When we returned, to our dismay we discovered that a family of mice had moved into the envelope fabric. Removing the mice wasn't a serious problem but the damage they did to the fabric was substantial.

So the ship is once again disassembled and being repaired. Winter is closing in fast here in New England. At the current rate of repair, it is unlikely that we will fly again this year.

We have focused this year on bringing in new investment. This has led us to spend most of our time hunched over spreadsheets and word processors rather than working at the shop and field. The wheels of the fundraising process are turning, albeit at a glacial pace. Given the economic environment these days, nobody is in any hurry to pull out their checkbooks.

The good news is that the major repairs on Alberto are complete. The bad new is that even if we hadn't been stuck in the office, we probably wouldn't have had much flight time anyway. The weather has been truly unpleasant this year. So we can take some back-handed solace in that.

Stay tuned.