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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
North aid could come by way of airships soon
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image
A Manitoba-built airship has been unveiled. The 25-metre MB80, also being dubbed the Sky Whale, was put on display Monday afternoon at the University of Manitoba's engineering school.
It's huge, white and it's a first for Manitoba. The question is, will the concept fly?
At 24 metres long, the first airship built in Western Canada was unveiled at the University of Manitoba Monday afternoon.
"They say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a great city to build an airship," said Dr. Barry Prentice, a professor at the Asper School of Business who has long promoted airships as a method of transporting heavy goods to rural communities that can't be reached by road.
"I have been researching and advocating for airships for over 20 years, and I have never given up trying to keep attention on this topic because I have never given up on the future of the north."
The airship was given the Oji-Cree name Giizhigo-Misameg, which translates to the 'Sky Whale'. It was built by Buoyant Aircraft Systems International and ISO Polar.
The helium-inflated craft is not a carrier that will take large volumes of freight to remote communities. It's a research airship that will be used to design the bigger freight carrier.
"We have work to do to make transport airships robust enough to fly year-round in Canadian weather," said Prentice. "We also need to perfect cargo-ballast exchange systems, docking and other activities that are no so easy at 35 below."
Prentice said the next step will be to build a 43-metre freight carrier. The research is being conducted at an airship hangar at St. Andrews Airport. There is a memorandum of understanding to partner with Red River College and the University of Manitoba to create airships that have a polar rating suitable for northern operations.
seneca.chartrand@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 20, 2011 A7
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