Turtle Airships Designs Solar-Powered Luxury Blimp

Turtle Airships, an aeronautics company based out of Spain, is developing a solar powered blimp which could take passengers from New York to Paris.

The company plans for the blimp to run on lightweight photovoltaic solar cells, have the ability to land on air or water, and retain the utmost in luxury for its passengers.

The blimp will be designed using Cadmium-Indium-Germanium (CIG) photovoltaic cells, which are known for their lightweight properties which will produce enough power to move the blimp at a comfortable speed of 40 MPH.  The remainder of the energy needed will be generated by a diesel fueled engine, which designers ideally will try to outfit with a hybrid electric capability.

Currently the company is waiting much needed funding in order to get the project off the ground.  However, Turtle Airships is continuing to fashion a prototype hoping that it will catch the eye of financers.

“Our goal in flying this remote control model is to get some video of it onto the Web and hopefully attract some financing that will enable us to move on from there to a genuine, manned, demonstration model of a Turtle Airship,” said a spokesperson for the company.

Although the aircraft has all the features of a blimp, Turtle Airships does not refer to it as such:

“It is a rigid shelled, amphibious, solar powered, all weather, FAST aircraft that is lifted by helium, but it is not a blimp.”

Special thanks to cleantechnica.com for the above quotes, for more information please view the article on their website.