21st Century Airships - The future of flight

Hokan Colting lives in a world where you can fly in a giant baseball or globe .3 or just about anything else for that matter. Sound a little Chitty Chitty Bang Bangish? It's reality for this swedish-born inventor. Kimberly A. Kearsey met with the Newmarket man who is taking ballooning and dirigibles to new heights.

In 1937, 36 people died when the Hindenburg exploded on descent from the skies in Lakefield, N.J. The tragedy was front page news around the world, and marked the end of the hydrogen-filled airship.

Today, more than 60 years later, the gas of choice is helium; a colourless, odourless and less corrosive way to lift these lighter-than-air dirigibles into the sky.

While decades of development and advancements have made blimps considerably safer, one thing has remained the same.The traditional airship is shaped like a cigar and relies on two fins at one end to guide it into the hands of ground crews waiting to pull it to safety. Normally, that ground crew consists of 20 to 25 people.

According to Hokan Colting, owner of Newmarket's 21st Century Airships and blimp designer extraordinaire, that situation is ridiculous, expensive and unnecessary. That's why, in 1988, he started to experiment with other landing devices and eventually created an airship unique not only to Canada, but throughout the rest of the world.

After studying the old Graf Zeppelin blimps and reading as much as he could about the problems associated with older airships, Colting decided that the biggest problem was the fins. "They were expensive and they didn't work very well," he says, "so I came up with a way of steering with engines."

Although it's seen by most curious onlookers as just another blimp, Colting's newly designed airship is state-of-the-art and is expected to revolutionize the use of blimps as an advertising tool.

With traditional airships, in order for the fins to work, air has to flow over them. Once the blimp is travelling at speeds below 15 kilometres an hour, the pilot loses control much the same way a driver loses the ability to turn left or right once the car is no longer in motion.

Traditional airships usually end up gliding towards the ground and its up to the crew to hang on for dear life as they bring it to a stop. Since 1991, Colting has created six prototypes, each with considerable difficulty. "Nobody had ever done this before so we couldn't get any help. When you do something for the first time, you make a lot of mistakes," he says of the process. "It's a mixed blessing, as they say. Yes it's good to be alone, but there are also drawbacks.

After years of study and lots of changes, Colting is now in the process of certifying his airship and is hoping to see it manufactured in as little as a year. And the good news is that it will only cost you $1.7 million to buy.

It may surprise some people to find out that blimps are not cheap. Once they explore the details of what goes into its development and creation, however, it's not at all surprising that people will pay to get their name on a flying billboard.

Colting's research indicates, some companies pay as much as $350,000 per month to lease a blimp. Goodyear's annual blimp budget is well over $11 million. According to representatives from its marketing department, the advertising value of the airship is estimated at more than 10 times its operating costs.

"These blimps have been around for quite a few years," says Colting, referring not only to Goodyear, but Budweiser, Fuji and MetLife blimps. "People in companies are not stupid. If something isn't working, they'll get rid of it."

The difference between Colting_s airships and the traditional ones that most people notice floating above the city goes beyond landing capabilities. The gondola that hangs from the bottom of a traditional blimp's envelope has been eliminated and replaced with a small seating area inside the blimp itself. Colting, the pilot of all six of the prototypes he's developed, is seated with one other passenger in a bottom section of the airship that looks, from afar, as though it is part of the blimp's design.

The gondola no longer necessary, designers are free to create blimps in any shape their imaginations can come up with.

During the 1995 Major League Baseball World Series in Atlanta, Georgia, Colting flew an airship shaped like a giant baseball over the stadium and was surrounded by television helicopters eager to report on his new age design. He was inundated with calls from companies wanting to advertise during the Olympics later that same year and a deadline for payment was set that provided him with seven months to build the blimps.

A California based company missed that deadline and presented Colting with a cheque only two months before the Olympics were scheduled to begin. A giant globe, 56 feet in diameter (estimated to be as tall as a five or six storey building) was created with the help of eight Toronto artists. They were responsible for spray painting each continent on the enormous airship while it was stored in an Air Canada hanger at Pearson International Airport. Despite their most valiant efforts, the blimp could not meet all of the safety requirements in such a short period of time, however, and never made it to the skies over Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics.

"If they had given us the time we had asked for, we could have done it without a problem," Colting says. "This is an aircraft and you can't just put it together quickly. You have to do it properly and test it well. If you don't follow the rules you endanger yourself and others."

Set out by Transport Canada, the requirements and restrictions are very clear. They are there to protect people and they provide developers with a rigid template.

Spectra, a space age fabric that contains fibres 10 times as strong as steel of the same weight, is used as the outside layer of the blimp's envelope. Teblar is a shiny film applied to the surface to protect it from chemicals and ultra-violet radiation. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, and the outside envelope of every blimp must be tested every two to three years. A piece of the airship's fabric must be cut away and is expected to pass a strength test. If it does not, a new envelope is required.

Clearly, owning a blimp is not inexpensive or without worry. Spectra, for instance, is costly and hard to acquire. It's the same material used in bullet proof vests and parts of the space shuttle. To put things into perspective, the material used for a hot air balloon (known as Ripstop) costs $5.00 per metre. It's strong and safe in the skies. Spectra contains unique properties and while it is simple to cut, it is next to impossible to tear.

According to Colting, an airship's outer envelope should last eight to 10 years at which point a new one is needed. The inner envelope, which contains the helium, remains intact longer because it is not exposed to as many harmful elements.

Scientifically speaking, when you replace one cubic metre of air with helium, you get one kilogram of lift. As a blimp rises, the helium expands and forces the air out. Colting compares it to placing a boat in the water. The boat displaces the water in order to float.

Each of Colting's six prototypes requires 1,100 to 1,200 cubic metres of helium in order to rise. And that takes into consideration the weight of both envelopes, the engines, the machinery and the two people on board.

The helium is secured in the airship's second envelope so the engine is used as a lowering device. Unlike ground crews required for traditional airships, Colting only needs two people to assist in landing.

Inflating an airship and preparing it for flight is a complicated process and one that Colting doesn't do on a regular basis. It takes three days just to fill the blimp with the right mixture of air and helium - an activity that needs to take place in as large a space as possible and with constant supervision.

The company expects to inflate its next airship mid-way through the winter months so that it can test the new engines and propellers that have been developed recently.

Colting would like to build a new and innovative facility in Newmarket next year. He hopes that it will not only house the company's research facility, but will also provide enough open space to inflate an airship. The plans call for rapid expansion and he's confident there is no reason why his many dreams cannot be recognized within the next 10 years.

Originally from Sweden, Colting came to Canada in 1981. He became intrigued in the '70s after seeing a balloon and recognizing its potential. After a half hour lesson from the man who sold him his first balloon, Colting was up in the air.

"I don't recommend it," he says of his self taught hobby. "That was just a lot of luck, because that's definitely not how you learn to fly."

Having fulfilled his military service, Colting was working as an airplane mechanic before he decided to get into ballooning professionally. He may have known a bit about nuts and bolts, but he knew nothing about airships.

He finally received his license in 1974. When he moved to Canada seven years later, he became the most experienced balloon pilot in the country.

Today, if anyone wants to get their license, Colting is the one who trains them. Educating others is something he plans to do a lot of in the coming years. If people are to buy his product, they'll need experienced pilots to man their airships. If there aren't any pilots, Colting won't sell any blimps.

"Airships are like cars," he says modestly while discussing the innovative nature of his state of the art creation. "You have a sports car, a four door family sedan, vans and pickups. They all fit different functions for your needs. Cigar shaped airships fill one niche and we're filling another."

Despite his modesty, people are likely to take notice of Colting come next round of Olympic games. As long as you keep your head up, you won't miss a thing. Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

Newmarket Perspectives, January 1999

UP, UP AND AWAY

By Kimberley A. Kearsey