CALGARY — A private Calgary company and the world's biggest aircraft maker plan to build a "blimp on steriods" - an airship filled with helium and powered by big rotors that can be used to haul heavy equipment to remote areas where there are no roads, including northern Canada.Calgary's SkyHook International Inc. announced Tuesday it is teaming up with Chicago-based Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) to build the so-called Jess Heavy Lifter, or JHL-40, which will haul steel, huge trucks and other equipment in remote areas where ground transportation may not be an option.
The SkyHook JHL-40 heavy-lift rotorcraft looks like a blimp with four helicopter-like rotors underneath and will be able to lift a 40-tonne load slung from its belly and carry it 300 kilometres without refuelling.
That's a big advantage in the Arctic, where the costs of developing oil and gas projects and diamond and base metal mines have soared because of the need to build roads or provide expensive airplane access to remote communities.
Boeing and SkyHook hope to have the first JHL-40 in service by 2012.
An artist's rendidtion of the new Skyhook aircraft is illustrated in this Boeing handout photo shown above.
"That's a big advantage in the Arctic, where the costs of developing oil and gas projects... have soared because of the need to build roads or provide expensive airplane access..."
ReplyDeleteWe need one, Arthur. The energy crisis could trigger an economic collapse, if we don't produce more domestic oil & alternatives soon.