Return of the zeppelin!

CargoLifter hopes to use dirigibles to deliver heavy cargo to areas that lack roads, bridges, or runways.

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 6/1/1998

Faster than a ship. More capacity than a 53-foot trailer. Able to reach destinations beyond a single railroad. Look, up in the sky--it's a bird, a plane. It's ... a blimp.

A new company, CargoLifter Inc., wants to reintroduce dirigibles to the transportation market. The German company's airships will be about four times as large as the familiar blimps that hover over football stadiums, and they will transport cargo, not passengers.

CargoLifter plans to use airships to deliver heavy cargo on a point-to-point basis in areas that lack roads, bridges, or runways. The CL160, CargoLifter's first ship, will have a capacity of 160 metric tons--the equivalent of about 150 unassembled mid-sized automobiles or a fast-food restaurant, says the manufacturer.

The CL160 will measure 786 feet in length, yet it will require only 300 feet of space to load or unload. That's because the airship, with its on-board crane system, can raise and lower freight as it hovers as high as 300 feet above the ground.

CargoLifter touts what it claims are other advantages of the new zeppelin. The airship operates at a low noise level, and its exhaust can be recycled as ballast. It will use non-flammable helium, and although it will fly at altitudes of about 5,000 feet, it should be unaffected by the weather. "The ship is equipped with weather-monitoring equipment, so it can avoid severe conditions, like hurricanes," says Robert Brown, a U.S. spokesman for the company. "But it has done well in wind tests, so weather should not be a problem."

CargoLifter will manufacture the ships in Brand, Germany. Tests will begin in the year 2000, and the company expects to be fully operational by the year 2002. The company is led by Carl von Gablenz, grandson of the co-founder of Lufthansa. "Already several major international manufacturers have indicated an interest to reserve space on CargoLifter flights," he says.