The Skyship 600 is a modern airship

Airship

An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

, originally designed by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 company Airship Industries

Airship Industries

Airship Industries was a British manufacturer of modern non-rigid airships active under that name from 1980 to 1990 and controlled for part of that time by Alan Bond. A predecessor company, Aerospace Developments, had been founded in 1971, and a successor, Hybrid Air Vehicles, remains active...

, and now owned and operated by Airship Management Services

Airship Management Services

Airship Management Services, Inc. builds, owns and operates Airship Industries Skyship and Sentinel type airships. AMS, run by George Spyrou, and through associated companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, provides technical and operational support to airships worldwide...

 and Skycruise Switzerland AG.

The first Skyship 600 made its maiden flight on 6 March 1984.

Similar in appearance to the Skyship 500, it is larger, being the world's largest currently operating non-rigid airship

Non-rigid airship

A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...

 ("blimp"). The envelope is made of Kevlar

Kevlar

Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

 and the gondola of composite materials. Earlier models were propelled by two Porsche

Porsche

Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....

 930 turbocharged piston engines, but some have been modified with Textron Lycoming  IO-540

Lycoming O-540

|-Specifications :-See also:-External links:...

 engines. One important feature of this series is thrust-vector control. The encased propellers can be swivelled altogether around, providing excellent maneuverability.

The control system developed by Marconi

Marconi Company

The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...

 is "fly by light" — using optical fibres to carry the control signals between gondola and the control surfaces.

Each airship has been tailor-made to meet the needs of different customers and this results in slight variations in size, performance and cabin configuration.

Airship Industries collapsed in 1990, and its assets were taken over by Westinghouse

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

' was created by Northrop Grumman's acquisition of Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in 1996. The Electronic Systems sector is a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of a wide variety of advanced defense electronics and systems. The division has 120 locations worldwide, including 72...

. The type certificates for the Skyship 500 and 600 series are now held by US company Global Skyship Industries which was acquired by Airship Management Services in 2002.

Use

Most Skyship 600s have been used for advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 purposes, like the Spirit of Dubai

Spirit of Dubai

Spirit of Dubai is one of three Skyship 600 aircraft operated by Airship Management Services of Greenwich, CT, USA. These ships are currently the world's largest currently operating non-rigid airships The airship, N605SK and was originally built by Airship Industries in Cardington, UK in November...

. In December 2007, a Skyship 600 was leased by supporters of US presidential candidate Ron Paul

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

 to fly with the banner "Who is Ron Paul? Google Ron Paul". Others have been used for surveillance

Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

 purposes, including during the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

. The Skyship's sister ship the Skyship 500 registered G-BIHN was used by the character Max Zorin

Max Zorin

Max Zorin is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. He was portrayed by Academy Award winner Christopher Walken...

 in the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...

.

How it works

Skyships are equipped with a pair of ballonets, one forward and one aft. These ballonets are air-filled compartments within an airship that compensate for the expansion and contraction of the helium, thereby maintaining a required envelope pressure. They can be filled, or partially filled, with air. Emptying of air is done through four valves under the envelope. The valves open automatically as the ship climbs, releasing air and allowing the ballonets to collapse and the helium to expand. On descent, internal trunking allows air to be driven in from the propeller ducts, and / or electric fans, and thus avoid collapse of the envelope. The ballonets can be independently filled by using shut-off dampers in the air supply trunking. One important by-product of ballonet operation is that through differential inflation a measure of pitch trim can be obtained, in much the same way as a submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 uses its water ballast for buoyancy trim.

Specifications (Skyship 600)

External links

• http://www.airship.flyer.co.uk/skyship600.htm
• http://www.blimp-n2a.com/ams.htm
• http://www.airshipoperations.com/
• Airship Management Services, Inc.
• Airship Cruises
• Skycruise Switzerland AG.