Varialift Airship
Airships were once considered the future of flight – and now they’re being touted again as a greener method of transport.
A solar-powered airship being built by UK-based firm Varialift Airships could eventually be used as a low-emissions way to freight cargo internationally. On a trans-Atlantic flight between the UK and US, the airship would use 8 percent of the fuel of a conventional jet aeroplane, says Varialift CEO Alan Handley.
Airships – lighter-than-air vehicles which rely on gas to lift them into flight – were common until the 1940s, …